Teaching Kids About Money

Hi, I'm Rob West. Sharing the Gospel is the most important thing you can do for your kids, but perhaps the second most is teaching them how to handle money wisely. I'll talk about that with Art Rayner 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 journey. Well, our guest today is Art Rayner.

He's the author of several books on personal finance, including a few on teaching kids about money. Now, Art was on with us just a few weeks ago, and there was so much we didn't get to. We needed him to do an encore performance. Art, great to have you back with us. Rob, it is always an honor to be on the show. I love, love what you guys do. Thank you for your ministry. Well, we're grateful for you as well, Art. And earlier, as you know, we talked about your three volume series, The Secret Slide Money Club, which has very entertaining and educational stories for younger kids, teaching them how to handle money from a biblical perspective. By the way, we are still offering that to listeners through the end of August for a gift of $25 or more at moneywise.org.

We'd love to put it in your hands. But Art, we want to continue that discussion today. And perhaps starting with this foundational question, just why is it so important to teach kids financial stewardship? Well, if they're going to take care of us during our retirement years, I mean, they better be well off and financially healthy, right? Self-preservation, huh?

That's absolutely, yeah, right. There certainly is the practical. We want our kids to be financially healthy. We want our kids to avoid debt. We want them to have their emergency fund, have enough for savings. We want them to make good financial decisions because we know the stress that comes along with poor financial decision-making.

And so we certainly want them to be financially healthy. So there's that practical element to it, but there's also the spiritual piece to it. Money management reflects heart management.

And you all know this well. I mean, in Matthew 621, it says, for where your treasure is, there your heart will be also, right? Your heart follows your treasure. And that's an important teaching. So as we are talking to our kids about finances, we're not just helping them get financially healthy, though that certainly is part of it, but we're helping them follow God's design for their money and for themselves and helping them prioritize the gospel above all. And so we're really working with their hearts when we're talking about money.

Yeah, and this is such a big idea, Art. It's that we want our kids to leave our home as future adults, understanding not only financial literacy, which you talk about, we talk about balancing checkbooks and the danger of debt and the power of compound interest, but also really God's heart and perspective on money, which is throughout the Council of Scripture. If we leave that piece out, they're not ready to approach money from that lens. And that changes everything, doesn't it?

Yeah, without question. If they are not able to understand and look at finances through a biblical worldview, their finances are going to be impacted, for sure. But also their heart is going to be impacted, and they're going to fall into these common traps that so many, so many experience. So we want them to avoid those traps.

Yeah. We're going to get into the nuts and bolts of what this looks like today, Art, in just this minute we have before the first break. Tell us when this process should begin.

How early do you start? Well, I don't recommend starting to introduce your two-year-old to the finer points of the Roth IRA or the traditional IRA. That's not the time. Even the Rainer kids? I have made many mistakes, so learn from my mistakes. They don't get it at that age.

Okay. But here's the thing. Don't underestimate what your kid can learn and retain at a young age.

Don't ever underestimate that. So you can start at a very young age, even three, four years old, teaching them these are some basic principles about what the Bible says about money. You know, we sing to them the ABCs. We sing Jesus Loves Me. And through those songs, we're teaching them some very important principles. And you can do the same, not necessarily in song, but you can teach them some basic money principles, even when they are incredibly young.

Yeah. Tomorrow, Art Rainer's child tells us how to calculate the U.S. gross domestic product. Don't miss it. Hey, when we come back, a lot more on this topic.

How do you teach your kids about money and God's heart right out of his word? Art Rainer with us today. Stick around. We'll be right back. Delighted to have you with us today on Money Wise Live.

I'm Rob West, your host. Joining us today, author and teacher Art Rainer, also contributor at MoneyWise.org. And today we're talking about money and kids. How do we train our kids so they can leave our homes ready to handle money? Not only the financial literacy component of money, but also understanding what God's word says, that he's the owner, that they're a steward, that money is a tool. And really understanding, as Art said, that money issues, well, their heart issues. How do we communicate and impart all of that to our kids as they're under our roof?

Well, we're going to talk about that today. And Art, I want to begin with the nuts and bolts of this. I know you've recommended the three jar approach, give, save, spend.

Is that the approach starting at the youngest ages or something else? Yeah, so I certainly love those three jars. And we use those in our house. We have gone through the physical jars, where they're putting physical cash into the give jar, the save jar, the live jar. We've also transitioned our two older boys onto green light.

Now they still have a give, save, live account, if you're familiar with green light. But we still are using that pattern, the pattern that we find in Scripture, that we are to give generously. That's our priority. Then we are to save wisely. And then we are to live appropriately or spend appropriately. Now it's important to remember when you're teaching kids, really anything, that you must keep it simple.

And you have to be highly repetitive. Of course, parents understand that highly repetitive component here. But that's how you teach kids anything, including money. And we start in our household with the fact that God owns everything. That's one thing that we repeat over and over and over again. And if they say, and this is my toy, occasionally we'll throw in there, hey, this is God's toy.

Remember that? Or if, hey, this is, this is, if I say this is my car, they'll sometimes chime in and say, no, this is God, this is God's car, dad. And they'll correct me. I'm like, yeah, yeah, I get it. I get it. But certainly God owns everything. And we are the manager to take care of what he gives us. And then yes, we do use those give, save, and live, whether it's a jar or a digital account, we teach our kids to follow that pattern. And by doing that, by helping them understand that particular pattern, we can be highly, highly repetitive. And it sets them up for the future. I mean, the reality is, as adults, if we can get that right, we've accomplished something.

Darrell Bock Well, that's so true. And that's really the foundation. Then you can start building upon that as they get older, with some of these more complex ideas.

All right, let's get this one out of the way. How do we approach the allowance? What does that look like in the Rainer household? David Tingman We definitely have chores. Our boys participate in the upkeep of our of our home.

We think that that is important. And they are paid for the chores that they that they do. And we, we do that because we want them one to understand the value of work.

I mean, this is also part of God's design, that work was a pre-fall idea. Proverbs 12-27 says, The lazy do not roast any game, but the diligent feed on the riches of the hunt. We are designed for where God wants us to work. It is a wise thing to work and to be and to be compensated for our work. And so we want them to understand the value of work and also understand that this is part of God's design for them. They're not just supposed to sit back and receive and receive and receive without putting in any type of effort. So yes, we do have weekly chores, and they are paid for those for those chores.

Darrell Bock Okay, very good. Now, obviously, as they begin to graduate beyond that, and they get a little older, we build on this idea of give, save, spend. But you're also trying to communicate some big ideas to them, including this idea that the world, the culture is lying to them about money.

Tell us about that and how you go about it. Dr. Justin Marchegiani Yeah, so they are going to be bombarded with lies about about money, the world is going to constantly teach them its lessons about money, which is why it's so important for us as parents to teach what the Bible says about about finances. One of the lies is that the money that we have is actually ours.

I've already mentioned that God owns everything. Another one is that money leads to happiness. Your kids, if they're on social media, or they're watching, maybe their friends accumulate things, they may get the sense that, hey, if I have more stuff, or if I have more money, I'm going to be happier, which of course, we know is not the not the case. Another lies that money leads to a satisfied life, or that money is is always good, and that less is is always is always bad. Of course, we know with the parable of the of the talents that, you know, some people have more, some people God gives gives less.

And that's okay. What's ultimately required of us is stewardship in either scenario. And so we want to correct these lies and help them understand what scripture says about money and how we are to manage it.

Yeah. And when we look at the Council of Scripture, we clearly see jumping off the page that we should be givers, right? We were created in the image of the ultimate giver. So how do you teach the importance of giving back to God and sharing with others in need art? Well, and it goes back to those jars that give, save, live jar that they give jar is the first thing that they do with their finances, they put their money in that in that give jar. So helping them understand that generosity is a priority is essential as a as a parent. My recommendation to parents is to be generous themselves.

It lead the way and talk about it. Talk to your kids about your your generosity. Recently, I was at a stoplight and there's a homeless man right right next to me. I did not give him any money, but I gave him what what I had, I gave him some some drinks. And, and so just that display of generosity, my boys were in the car. So they saw that, let your children see you be generous to to others and talk about it. And then when your child decides to be generous themselves, let them don't ever stop them from being generous, especially at a young age. My, my middle son wanted to give money to a lion preserve something through the something through the Discovery Channel. I question whether or not he should, whether or not that was the best use of funds or should he give to the local church, but I didn't want to stop him.

So I did. Of course, now we receive Discovery Channel solicitations all the time. And then so when but when they do give, so don't stop them. But when they they do give, celebrate, celebrate their generosity so that they can be encouraged to continue to give as God has designed us to do. That's great.

All right, just about 30 seconds left. What about allowing our kids to fail, especially as they get a little older in in this area of money specifically? Yeah, so we are we certainly allow our children to to make bad purchase decisions, decisions that they that they regret. And we think that that's important for them to feel that that regret to feel the consequences of making a poor spending decision because I would rather them feel that now when the stakes are relatively low, then when they get into college or get out of college when the stakes are significantly higher. Hmm, that's so good. And then finally, we've got a model at art isn't that critical? Yes, without without question.

If we want our children to be financially healthy and to align them their their financial practices what we find in Scripture, we have to do it first. We have to model it for them. Yeah, I love it. You can learn much more at art rainer.com. He's got some great articles on this topic art. Thanks for stopping by my friend. We appreciate your time.

It's always on or thank you. His three book series for kids The Secret Slide Money Club is available with a gift of $25 or more at moneywise.org. That's moneywise.org. Your calls are next 800-525-7000.

Stick around. Thanks for joining us today on Money Wise Live. So glad to have you along with us as we tackle your financial questions through the lens of Scripture. We started today by talking about kids and money. I can't think of a better topic to think about in terms of our legacy. You know, we're raising future adults if we have kids and as they leave the home, not only do we want them ready in terms of financial literacy, we want them ready to understand their role as a steward of God's resources and what it means to see money as a tool, not an end and to fight against the world's messages that say your self-worth is equal to your net worth and allow them to avoid the comparison trap. So many things that our culture can draw us into. We want to try to help keep them out of that.

And we would love to come alongside you as you think about that. The number to call is 800-525-7000. We'd love to help you tackle any financial question, not just the questions related to your kids, whether it's saving or giving, perhaps paying down debt or your lifestyle, your spending plan. 800-525-7000 is the number to call. All right, let's begin today in Crown Point, Indiana. Mary, thank you for going.

Go right ahead. Hi, I was calling because I was left a little bit of money from my mom when she passed and I have three grandchildren and I would like to open them some kind of a savings, not actually a savings, I'd like to open them an IRA. Now, two of them are in college and the others in high school and I told them if I open this, you're just to put money in and never take it out. But I wanted to know if that's a good way to start them out or should I do it with some other type of saving plan or something like that. Yeah, well I think the key is to define what the purpose of this money is.

Let's first tackle whether or not you're even able to put the money into an IRA for kids. You are to the extent they have earned income. So they would have to have jobs and you could only put in money up to the limit. So that's the contribution limit for the year which happens to be $6,000 for this year and then it's only up to the earned income that they have until you reach that $6,000 cap. So do they all have jobs? Well, they're in college and they have jobs in the college but I don't know if it's to help pay for their college or if it's their money.

Well, it doesn't really matter what they use it for. It's really in terms of the ability to contribute to an IRA in their name. It's really only up to the amount of earned income that they have that would be subject to taxes.

Now they may not pay any taxes because they may be below the standard deduction but if they have earned income, they would be able to contribute or you could on their behalf into an IRA in their name. But if they don't have jobs or they're only earning a few hundred dollars, then you could only contribute up to the amount of earned income that they have. Beyond that, I think we need to back up and decide what's the purpose of this money. Is it specifically for college?

Obviously, for the ones that are in college, that's probably already taken care of. Is it for kind of the near term to be able to use to buy a car or put a first last in security on an apartment? Or is it money that you truly want them to sock away for the future as in 40 years down the road for retirement? And I fully believe that this is a great use of the money if that was something you wanted to do for them and they had that earned income allowing them to make that contribution or to you to do it into their custodial IRA.

That would be great. There's nothing more powerful than the power of compounding over a long period of time and this would certainly get them going toward retirement savings. But give me your thoughts on just how you want the money to be used.

Well, because I was fortunate to get a job where I was able to make some money and put some into, I got a pension and a 401k. But my thought was with the IRA that it would be their savings for their older age. I was kind of helping them start that because I'm not sure where they're going to end up with jobs if they're going to have that. And I told them if you contribute to that, it'll always be for your money when you need it when you're older. So I'm encouraging them to start that now when they're 18 and 19 and start saving in there.

Yeah, very good. Yeah, so I think if that's really your heart's desire and that is to encourage the long-term systematic savings for retirement to begin that now, to begin to realize the power of that compounding over a long period of time, that's a great thing to do. And it's going to come down to opening an account. So basically the way you do that is you have to have an adult custodian account. So there'd be an adult on it that could be you or their parents. And then they would be the custodian or they would be you would be the custodian, but then they would be named on it as well. It becomes their account solely when they reach the age of majority, which is 18 in most states.

So there's no minimum age, but there is that requirement that it can only be up to the limit, which is $6,000 for this year, and only up to the amount of earned income that they have. So depending on how much they're working, how much they've earned, they may or may not be able to put in, or you on their behalf, the full $6,000. And then you'd have to decide where not every custodian offers custodial IRAs, but in particular Fidelity and Charles Schwab do. And both of those are known as low-cost providers that would be great options for you.

So you would go open those custodial IRAs, and then you could make that contribution up to the earned income that they have for the year, no more than $6,000. Does that make sense? Oh, it does make sense. Thank you so much.

I just want to make sure with that I've got a sound idea and that I could do that for them. Absolutely. Yep. Wonderful. Thank you so much. Thank you. Thank you, Mary. God bless you very much.

800-525-7000 is the number to call. Whatever's on your mind today, financially speaking, we'd love to hear from you. Also coming up today, if you thought about the fact that we were wired for impact, we're hardwired for worship. And as we think about our purpose, we're wired for impact as well, an impact beyond ourselves. Well, what does that look like in terms of the financial decisions that you're making?

Well, I think you can make a difference in your giving, and your investing, and in your living. We'll talk about that today. Plus, I'll tackle a question that came in by email, specifically related to a spouse that doesn't have any credit because her husband, everything's in his name.

She's concerned that she wasn't even able to qualify for a credit card. I'll give you my thoughts on how to overcome that. Plus your questions. 800-525-7000. We'll be right back. Delighted to have you with us today on Money Wise Live. Biblical wisdom for your financial decisions. We've got a few lines open.

The lines are filling up quickly. 800-525-7000. Whatever's on your mind today, we'd love to hear from you, financially speaking, that is. All right, back to the phones we go. Lakeland, Florida. Hey, Carol, thanks for calling.

Go right ahead. Hello, thanks for taking my call. I'm calling on behalf of my friend. I'm looking for any ideas for her. A little over a year ago, she was independent. Then she lost her job due to child custody's strange schedule, but nobody would hire her with that schedule. For the last year, she's had government, I think government housing assistance, but that's ending. She has to pay full rent this next month. She's got no more unemployment. If she moves, she will probably lose her custody cases, but she doesn't have a job, so she can't get paid for her housing. She's looking for a night job from home that would pay a living. She tried about every assistance organization she can find. I'm just wondering if you have any thoughts on what she can do.

Yeah. Well, it's so challenging in this situation, and I'm so delighted to hear that you're being a friend to her, because I think, you know, obviously somebody in this situation needs somebody walking alongside them. As it's often said, you really want to be able to think about doing for one, which you wish you could do for everyone. And I think in this case, you know, just being a friend to this person is really helpful, and helping them navigate the assistance that may be available. Does she have a local church, Carol, that she's a part of?

Yes. Sometimes they have helped her all that they can, and that sort of dried up. She spends every day looking for jobs and resources.

Yeah, yeah. Well, I think staying connected to her local church, I think one of the keys is that she's demonstrating a desire to be part of the solution here, and making her full-time job trying to find assistance. I think beyond that, I would check into the church, perhaps knowing a listing of the available community resources that are there, because not only can they be in assistance to her directly, and as you said, they already have, and perhaps there's a limit to that. I know that in many cases, they can connect her to local counsel and aid that may be available there locally.

You know, housing allowance and other types of things that she might be able to take advantage of. You know, it's really going to come down to social services, you know, local ministries or outreach organizations that can meet her needs there on the ground, and then the local body of Christ. And I think as we ask the Lord to give you some wisdom here and help her navigate this, plus her desire to get out and work, and the good news is this is a really attractive job market right now.

I mean, the labor market is still very strong. There's a lot of people who are still looking for folks to take jobs that they have open, and so it's not like we're in a challenging job market right now, and I realize there's limitations with her kids and so forth as to what she can do, but there should be plenty of options. So I think between all of these and then ultimately our trust in the Lord as her provider, I'm confident something will come her way. Let me just ask the Lord to be in the midst of this, if you don't mind, Carol. We just lift up Carol's friend to you, Lord.

You know the situation. You know every detail is her creator. Lord, we just ask that you would intervene here miraculously, that you'd provide employment, that you'd rally around her people like Carol and others that can meet needs, that you'd give her wisdom and endurance during a challenging season, that this wouldn't cause her to wane in her faith at all, but she would lean into her relationship with you, knowing that she can trust you and your promises are real. Be near to those kids in this difficult time, given what she has in front of her. And Lord, we're just going to tell you today that we trust you and invite you into every facet of this situation, including the finances of Carol's friend. And we ask all this in Christ's name.

Amen. Carol, thank you for your call today. Please keep us posted on this situation. To Des Moines, Iowa, Anita, thank you for calling. Go right ahead.

Well, thank you for taking my call. I'm curious. I have a thrift savings account where I put my money in biweekly from my employer, and they match me 3%.

Right now, I'm giving 8% of my money, and I'm trying to see if it would be wise to just go with the 3% and have them match that, and then put that other 5% in a different savings or retirement account. Sure. What is your age, Anita, if you don't mind me asking? Fifty-two.

Fifty-two. Okay. Yeah, I mean, absolutely, you want to take advantage of the match. Beyond that, I like you continuing to contribute to the TSP. The only thing I might offer would be, if you want to open a Roth IRA in addition to the TSP, what you could do is do the first 3% to get the full match, then contribute up to the full amount in the Roth IRA, which is going to be after-tax money that will grow tax-free, and you could do that over age 50.

It's up to $7,000 this year. And then if there's anything left, perhaps you come back to the TSP and you put in as much as you can. I think the key is that it's either going into a tax-deferred environment where you're getting tax-deferred growth, so the taxes aren't weighing on the investments, you can maximize the growth over time, or in a tax-free growth environment like the Roth. Either one of those are great, and my priority would be match first, then Roth, then back to the additional contributions into the TSP. So that would be the only other thing I might consider other than what you're currently doing. But if for simplicity's sake, you'd rather just put the full 8% into the TSP, I don't have any problem with that. The only other thing I would just say is make sure that the investments that you're selecting inside the TSP are the best ones for your age and risk tolerance. Perhaps if you have some insight into that, great. If you don't, maybe ask somebody for some help there just to make sure you're picking the right investments. Not that we know what they're going to do, but that they're the right mix of investments for what you're trying to accomplish. Does that all make sense?

It does, it does. So someone had told me that I should just take it out and put it in the bank, but I'm not so sure that I trust the banks to hold onto my money either. Well, yeah, I certainly wouldn't do that. In terms of taking the money out of the TSP, you're going to create a taxable event plus the penalty, and then it's not available for it to be growing or compounding for the future. You know, the other problem is in the bank, it's losing purchasing power every day. I mean, inflation's running north of 8% right now, so you're losing 8% purchasing power every year on that money, and it doesn't even have the ability to grow. And I realize we're in a volatile market right now, but the market works in cycles, and it will recover ahead of this economy. We have some longer-term challenges in this country, but in my view, there's nothing on the horizon that would cause us not to continue to be the most dominant economic force in the world in terms of the size of our economy. We will get through, even if we slip into a recession, I think it'll be minor.

The market will recover ahead of it, and we'll move to higher ground. So the very best way, in my view, for you to build wealth, Anita, over the next, you know, 15 years, let's say, until you retire. And then if you're in good health in the Lord Terry's, you need that money to last several decades beyond retirement age. The very best way to maximize that is a properly diversified stock and bond portfolio where taxes are not putting a drag on the investments, and that's exactly where you're at right now in the TSP.

So I would say continue to be faithful and systematic in your contributions of that 8% a year, and it'll pay off over the long haul. Hey, we appreciate your call today. 800-525-7000 standing by today. Gabby T managing our phone.

She'd love to talk to you, and we'll try to get you on the air quickly. A lot more to come on MoneyWise. Don't go anywhere. We'll be right back. Great to have you with us today on MoneyWise Live. We're thrilled you're here today.

This is where we apply God's wisdom to your financial decisions and choices. I'm Rob West, your host. We've got lines open, perhaps room for maybe one more question. 800-525-7000. Let's quickly go to Tampa, Florida. Fred, thanks for calling, sir.

Go right ahead. Yeah, so I'm going to catch 22. I'm stuck in a timeshare that I can't get out. I'm paying the principal and mortgage, but cannot do the maintenance, which means that I will never be able to use it unless I'm able to catch up with maintenance. Any suggestions? Well, first suggestion is, Fred, to let this be encouragement for everybody else listening, to be very careful before getting into a timeshare.

I can't tell you how many calls I've gotten exactly like this one, and I don't mean to make light of it because I know it's frustrating and it's a difficult situation. There aren't great options here. One is there's a forum online called TUG2. It's the Timeshare Users Group.

You'll find it on the web at tug2.com. That is a place you could list this for sale. The challenge is there's more people that want to get rid of these than buy them, so it's not always easy to get rid of them, but you could check that. Second, you could check your contract. I'm sure you've already done this, but you could see what options you have there. You could see if the company will buy it back.

They likely won't. They want to be in the business of selling new timeshares to other folks. They don't want to buy them back, but you could also see if they take it back for free. You could try to sell it in the newspaper or online, but I think the TUG2 website would be your best bet there. You could try to find one of these exit companies. I've never had great success with the exit companies, but I know there are several of them that are promoted in various places. You could do some due diligence there.

I wouldn't want to make a recommendation to one because, again, I've never found them to be terribly successful. And then the other option would be can you give it away to somebody who'd be willing to just take it off your hands. If they'll use it and start paying the maintenance, obviously, then they could get something that could be really a win-win for both of you. But unfortunately, there's not a silver bullet here, Fred. You're going to need to do your homework, but I'd start with TUG2, see if you can give it back to the company, and then see if you can give it away to somebody who might be willing to take on the maintenance. Wish you all the best in this, Fred, and let us know how it turns out.

To Tennessee, Matt, thanks for calling. Go right ahead. Hey, I've got a question.

We had a business meeting on Sunday, and our church has somewhere around about $30,000 or so just in a general fund, and they were asking about investing some of that, and I was wondering if you had any ideas on that one. Well, is it legal? Yes. Is it advisable?

No. In my view, I wouldn't want to see a church invest its capital. You know, what I would say is, and I've served on finance committees at the church over the years, and we always had a policy that basically established the target for our reserves, and I think somewhere between 6 and 3 to 12 months' worth of reserves is prudent, and that's beyond what the mortgage may require as reserves, just for operating reserves. But I think anything beyond 12 months is excessive, and I think the key is that God's people are giving to the church to fund the work of the church, which is to reach the lost and build up the body, and the extent to which we're taking risk with those funds and not deploying it into ministry is just something that I really don't get excited about at all. So, obviously, putting the reserves to work in a way that protects the capital and earns a decent interest rate on it, as long as it's fully secure, I think is an option. But anything beyond that with marketable securities, no, not in my view. And I would say if you receive gifts of stock or real estate, I would immediately initiate a sale at that time. That's just my view. It doesn't mean it's right or wrong.

I wouldn't be able to get comfortable as a lay leader in a church that we're taking the gifts that were given to the church for the purposes of ministry and putting them to work in the stock market. Is that helpful? All right, I think we lost him. Hopefully that was helpful. If he has any follow-up thoughts, I'd encourage him to give us a call back.

Kelly in Florida, go right ahead. You're on MoneyWise Live. Hey, good afternoon. Thank you for taking my call. So, I'm a young man of 52 years old, have not put a whole bunch of money away from my retirement, but I have some cash for about $100,000 that I'm about to come into.

So, I wanted to find out about either getting involved in some type of compound interest or whatever suggestion would you have as far as investing for my retirement. Yeah. Do you have a company-sponsored plan at work, Kelly? Well, I work for myself. I own my own business. Okay. All right.

Great. And do you have a retirement account that you've opened that you just haven't put a whole lot in or you don't even have an account created? I haven't created an account.

I've been putting some money away, but not a whole lot. What type of account is it? It's just a regular bank account, you know. Okay, got it.

Yeah, yeah. Well, what I would do is I would open a SEP IRA to start with. This is a very effective tool for self-employed individuals that stands for Simplified Employee Pension Plan. And it's a great way to get a significant amount of money into a plan on a tax-deferred basis. You can put in up to $61,000 and there's some limitations on that in terms of there's a personal limit and then there's the employee contribution, then there's what's considered the employer contribution even though they're both your money. And, you know, it's a great way to get a good bit of money, you know, going in on a tax-deferred basis. So, for you in terms of thinking about that $100,000, if you don't have an emergency fund of three to six months expenses and I'd probably err more toward the six months as a self-employed person, then I would say take that portion of what is equivalent to six months worth of your household expenses and I'd put that into a high-yield savings account online with like Marcus or Ally Bank, one of those earning one and a half percent a year but with total safety and then link it to your checking account and that's for emergencies. And then whatever's left, I'd say let's try to get as much of that going in on a tax-deferred basis as possible and that's where the SEP IRA will come in in terms of you being able to make some contributions to get that money going in and then you invest that, you know, for your future. And then keep up those contributions, you know, by limiting your lifestyle and as you have profitable years where you have some excess, you know, you can sock some more away.

And you can open that at Schwab or Fidelity, any number of institutions will allow you to do that but this would be a great tool for you to be able to get some money going, okay? All right, that's excellent. By the way, this little resource for the young lady who called Carol, if she checks with her local career source, that's part of my ministry that I do, I put on a lot of career fairs here in Broward County, so if she checks with her local career source, there's a lot of resources to help her with employment. Yeah, great. Well, I appreciate that. That's great counsel. I hope she's still listening. Thanks for calling, Kelly. To Illinois, Susan, you're next on the program.

Go ahead. Yes, I'm 65 this year. Read Larry Burkett when I was 20. I've stayed out of debt. So I raised five children after 20 years married, divorced 20 years, took care of them. I have an emergency fund established. I rent but my rent went up $320.

My oldest child who lives out of state, him and his wife want to buy a property here to stabilize my rent as I'm going into retirement. I am planning on continuing to work. I told them I think, you know, they make good money, but I don't think they have to have four children when they don't have a college fund established for their children and their home is not paid for. They're not completely out of debt. So I feel like they need to establish their own those things before they try to help me. Yeah. Yeah. And so you're just wondering how to navigate that with them? Yeah.

Yeah. Well, you know, this is tough because obviously, I mean, I think if it were me, Susan, what I would do would be just to approach them with that same heart, you know, sentiment that you just expressed to me and just say, listen, I love that you guys want to help me. And here's my thought. You know, I think I want you all to make sure that you're doing what you need to do for your own financial future first.

And I love you and I appreciate your desire to help. But that's, you know, what my concern is. And at the end of the day, Susan, if they just decide, listen, the Lord has impressed upon us to give to you and to help in this way, I think that's great. And I would allow them to do that.

I mean, obviously, it's something that they have a burden for. I think as long as you've made your desire known, then giving them permission to say as much as I can use your help, I really want you guys to focus on yourselves. I think you'll come to the right conclusion where either you say, you know what, I'm just going to be willing to receive this and be grateful for it and know that that's going to bless them in doing that. Or they might say, you know what, we really appreciate that. And we'll take that counsel and go, you know, put that money to work. And, you know, that'll make you feel good as well. But I think the key is just open and honest communication here.

And an understanding that, you know, at the end of the day, this may be something that really just gives them a lot of joy to be able to do. So let us know how that turns out. Susan, be prayed up, ask the Lord to intervene as you have that conversation.

And I would love to hear how it turns out. God bless you very much. Well, folks, we've covered a lot of ground today, a lot of great questions, running the gamut of financial decisions and choices. It's such a privilege to be able to come alongside you each day as we talk about how we can each be found faithful in serving the Lord and being a good steward of his resources. MoneyWise Live is a partnership between Moody Radio and MoneyWise Media. We are listener supported. You'd like to support us, you can do that at moneywise.org. Thank you to Gabby T., Dan Anderson, Amy Rios, and Robert Sutherland. I hope you'll come back and join us tomorrow. We'll see you then. Bye-bye.