What “God Provides” Really Means

Philippians 4-19 reads, and my God will supply every need of yours according to his riches and glory in Christ Jesus.

Hi, I'm Rob West. Well, no doubt that verse has assured countless believers over the centuries of God's unfailing love. But what does it really mean?

Is it possibly misunderstood? I'll talk about that first today, then it's on to your questions at 800-525-7000. That's 800-525-7000. This is MoneyWise Live, biblical wisdom for your financial journey. Obviously, the most important need God has provided is salvation through faith in His Son Jesus Christ. But after that, is there a limit to God's earthly provision for us?

Well, there certainly is. We must always remember that Philippians 4 does not say, and my God will provide every want of yours, only your needs, according to His sovereign will. Now, does that mean God wants you to take a vow of poverty? Some have mistakenly taken Jesus' answer to the rich young ruler to mean something like that. It's an important teaching included in all three of the Synoptic Gospels. But Jesus only told him to sell all he had, give to the poor, and follow me to reveal what was in the heart of the rich young ruler, a love of money and wealth that was greater than his love for God.

We must all be wary of that in our own lives, no matter how much or how little we have. God may intend for some of us to experience great need at times as a part of His plan, but nowhere does the Bible teach that we're all to live that way. Now, if the Lord doesn't mean for us to be poor necessarily, should we then expect great riches?

I know most of you are shaking your heads no right now, but far too many people have been duped into that thinking. Of course, I'm talking about the so-called prosperity gospel, which is contrary to orthodox Christian theology. It claims that God will reward you with material wealth and physical health according to your faith. So as your faith increases, so will His reward to you. Of course, God's Word never promises material reward. Now, that false doctrine rests upon another one, related to Christ's atonement for us on the cross.

It states that Christ died not just to remove our sin, but to also remove poverty and sickness, as if opening the gates of heaven for us for all eternity wasn't enough. The prosperity gospel is actually a modern invention. It started in the U.S. on a small scale in local congregations and tent revivals after World War II, but it really took off through the use of radio and television to reach millions and lead them astray by the 1980s. It's also responsible for giving televangelism a bad reputation. There are many true orthodox Christian preachers on the airwaves, of course, but the world tends to lump them in with the relatively few prosperity gospel preachers. The prosperity gospel may have started in the United States, but it certainly hasn't ended there. It's still spread by misguided or false teachers, and not surprisingly, it seems to spread faster in areas with great poverty.

So it's really taken hold in Africa, South America, and other areas where people struggle to make a living or have chronic disease. So how can you tell if someone's a prosperity gospel preacher? Well, theologian John Piper has identified several common traits to watch for. The absence of doctrine related to suffering. In John 1520, Jesus warns, Remember the word that I said to you.

A servant is not greater than his master. If they persecuted me, they will also persecute you. John Piper says the absence of a doctrine of self-denial, the absence of detailed exposition of scripture, church leaders with exorbitant lifestyles, raising the importance of self over the greatness of God. If you think the prosperity gospel is being preached in your church, pray for discernment and study God's word. If you become certain there's false teaching presented in your church, follow Jesus' instruction in Matthew 18, 15 through 17, which reads, If he refuses to listen to them, tell it to the church. And if he refuses to listen even to the church, let him be to you as a Gentile and a tax collector. Or you can simply look for a Bible teaching, Bible believing church.

So to recap, God will always provide for your needs as he determines them, and all he expects is that you be a faithful steward of that provision. All right, your calls are next. 800-525-7000. That's 800-525-7000. You're listening to MoneyWise Live, and we'll be right back. Thrilled to have you with us today on MoneyWise Live. We've got phone lines open. 800-525-7000 is the number to call.

That's 800-525-7000. You know, as we think about our role as stewards of God's money, we want to be found faithful in handling that well. So we go to God's word and we apply the Council of Scripture, the big themes that were to live with contentment within God's provision that we should save for the future, provide for our families and yes, give generously, holding everything we have loosely and realizing that it's a privilege and even an act of worship to participate with God in his activity. But I know you have questions about your day to day finances, how you establish your spending plan or save for the future and what's the right amount to give and what about giving versus paying down debt?

How do we reconcile those two and all of these questions that come about on a daily basis? Well, as we recognize that money issues are hard issues and that God's word speaks authoritatively to all that we have to deal with, we can apply biblical principles to those decisions and choices financially. I'd love to talk about that with you today with whatever is on your mind financially speaking. So give us a call. Our team is standing by and we'll be glad to take your call. 800-525-7000 is the number to call. This week's featured scripture verse in our Weekly Wisdom email digest is from Philippians 4-6.

You probably know it well. Well, that's good news from God's word. And if you'd like to receive our weekly email of the latest trending biblical financial topics, articles, videos, podcasts, well, go to MoneyWise.org and click the button that says Create Your Free Account to Subscribe. It goes out each Monday and we were privileged to send this week's edition earlier this week.

If you didn't receive it, it's probably because you're not signed up. MoneyWise.org and click Open a Free Account. This week's email was entitled The Power to Enjoy What God Has Provided, and I offer some thoughts about that. Plus, we share our recommended reads, our trending podcasts, and of course, that verse of the week that I just read. So sign up today at MoneyWise.org. Coming up on today's broadcast, I didn't get time yesterday to share some thoughts on must-have skills for young adults. I'll be sure to get that in today as we think about preparing the young adults in our home to be future adults, both with the understanding of God's heart as it relates to their money, but also with those necessary financial skills and concepts like budgeting, saving, insurance, and investing. What do they need to know?

Well, unfortunately, a recent survey by the TIAA Institute released in their personal finance index that most 18 to 25-year-olds in the survey failed to show a working familiarity with these financial concepts. So we'll talk about what those must-have concepts are and hopefully give you some encouragement as you move forward. We'll also be taking your calls again. We've got lines open today. We'd love to hear from you.

800-525-7000. Let's begin though today with a couple of emails. We receive emails all the time from listeners like you, and we try to get as many of them on the air as we can. By the way, our MoneyWise community is very active as well. If you'd like to visit our community in the app or on the website at MoneyWise.org, just about every day, if not multiple times a day, folks are posting their questions. And you, our listeners and stewards on the journey are responding, sharing ideas and insights on others' questions.

Well, if you'd like to be a part of that MoneyWise community, you can access it at MoneyWise.org. This comes to us by Kenneth, and he writes, I'm trying to help my mom with financial decisions. She's trying to pay her debt off, but she may not be making the best decisions.

How can I help her? And Kenneth, this is a challenging situation. We want to honor our parents. We want to step in and help. And it's often difficult, especially when we see them making poor financial choices and where perhaps our assistance is actually causing that behavior to continue. So the first step here is really whether or not your mom is willing to sit down with you and go over her income and expenses to develop a budget.

If so, that's the place to start. You could, of course, set up a budget with the free MoneyWise app, and that would allow her to monitor her spending. She could also allow you to do that as well if she wanted to rely on you for some assistance. If you want to help her financially, let's try to find a way for you to do it in a way that promotes and encourages the right disciplines and habits that's going to lead her toward financial health. So, for instance, could you offer to match payments she makes on her debts?

If you do that, I would encourage you to make the payments perhaps directly to the lender and not your mom. But that's the kind of thing you could do to encourage her in the right direction. If she's uncomfortable with you having that level of familiarity with her finances, perhaps you could take advantage of one of our MoneyWise coaches. This would be somebody, a third party, who could come alongside her, help her with that spending plan, that debt repayment plan, and perhaps could even report back to you how it's going that would give you the confidence to know that when you help, if you're able to do so, you're doing it in a way that's productive and helping her move in the right direction.

So, Kenneth, make this a matter of prayer. I know you want to honor your mom and serve her well and help her out of this jam. We also want to make sure that she's on a path to financial strength and health and making good decisions. So I'm confident the Lord will help you navigate that as you work through that situation.

A quick second email and then we'll head to the phones. This one comes to us from Henry and he writes, How can I get my wife and I to save together? Well, Henry, I would say the first and best place to start is by sitting down, praying together, and then establishing your shared financial goals. And I'd look at those goals in light of your values and priorities. Where is God taking you as a family and how can money be a tool to accomplish that? Well, as you all come together around what's most important to you, the exciting thing is that then any sacrifices that are made in the short term in view of the long term are much easier because you know you're driving toward ultimately what God has for you. Once you establish those shared goals, well then redo your budget to make sure it allows for you to do just that. I would encourage you to meet weekly. We call that a money day to go over your spending and determine if you're making progress. If so, celebrate. If not, make adjustments. But the idea behind marriage is, of course, oneness.

And I'd love to see the finances be that source of oneness with the budget being the instrument of peace that allows you to move forward together. I hope that's an encouragement to you, Henry, and report back. Let us know how that's going. All right, let's head to the phones. We've got some lines open today.

Perhaps a few more than normal, even. 800-525-7000. Give us a call and let's begin today in Chicago. Jason, how can I help you, sir? Hello? Hey, Jason, go right ahead.

Hi, it's actually from Indiana, Logansport. Oh, my apologies. I was actually inquiring about credit reports. Me and my wife, she has a pretty good credit score, but mine is pretty low due to a bunch of bad decisions when I was younger, but trying to rebuild that. A lot of my accounts are closed, and since I've been working on it, I only have about two open accounts left, and once I get them paid off, should I still focus on them closed accounts, or will it affect it that much anyways, because it's not like those closed accounts. I guess my student loans are closed, or I know they drop off after seven years, but how do I address those? Yeah, were those delinquent at some point or in collection?

They were, okay. Have you paid them off? Have they been paid in full prior to being closed? No.

Okay, so there's still outstanding balances on those? Yes, sir. Okay, very good. Let's do this. I know you're driving.

Are you able to hold just a bit longer? Yeah, sure am. Okay, great.

I need to take a quick break. When we come back, we'll talk about how you should think about these accounts, and as it relates to your credit score as well. We'll be right back on MoneyWise Live.

Stay with us. Just before the break, we were talking to Jason in Indiana. Jason's wondering how to think about and get on top of some old delinquent accounts, plus a few that are still current that are on his credit report, several of those still already closed, and yet still showing balances. Jason, first, have you been able to resolve the income issue? I mean, are you in a place where you have stable income and you have the ability to start tackling these and setting up repayment plans? Yep, definitely.

Okay, great. And after your essential bills are paid, how much do you have left over before any minimum payments to any of these debtors? Before, I'd say we haven't really calculated. I know there's a budget, but the wife really handles the budget portion of it. I know there's excess. That's something we need to calculate.

Yeah, very good. Well, the good news is with the student loans of $45,000, given that those are federal loans, there'll be a lot of flexible income-based repayment options that will allow you to take advantage of low payments, hopefully that'll fit into your budget to get you back on track. I like the idea with the ones that are already passed through and in collection, leave those there and focus on the ones that are still current. I'd probably, for the credit cards in particular, try to look at getting them in a credit counseling program. So our friends at Christian Credit Counselors could help you enroll them in debt management. That would lower the interest rates, which right now you're probably paying the delinquent rate, which is even higher than the prevailing rate.

And so everything you send is probably causing the balance to still go higher, not lower. If you could get these, even the closed ones enrolled in credit counseling, we'd get those interest rates down. Now you're sending a monthly payment, probably around 3% of the outstanding balances, and you're actually making some progress because of those lower interest rates. The key for your credit score is to try to get these either back in good standing with you as an on-time payer through a repayment plan that fits in your budget that you can sustain and or settled in full. In some cases, if you can accrue a little bit of savings and then come in, especially with a smaller account, say, listen, I'll give you 50 cents on the dollar if you'll take that as payment in full, get that in writing, make that payment. And then on your credit report, it'll show a zero balance. It'll probably be noted, settled in full. You'll get a 1099 for the difference because that's taxable to you. And then that will get you to a place where as that gets further and further in the past, your credit report or your credit score is going to repair itself because now you're back as an on-time payer with any active accounts.

So I would say through a combination of income-based repayment with the student loans, settlement where you have the ability to come in and pay something off at 50 cents on the dollar, and perhaps through credit counseling with any of the active accounts or the closed accounts that you can enroll in debt management, I think that's really the key to getting you back to a place where at least all the new information that's being reported as positive, meaning you're an on-time payer, and then the credit score will take care of itself over time. Does that make sense? Yeah, definitely. So pretty much handle the closed accounts still as like they're open because that's what we tried to do with some of the open ones and to negotiate a settlement price for them. That's how we got some of them paid off.

Good. Yeah, make sure you get that confirmation in writing and check the credit report to make sure it reflects a zero balance. But with any that you don't have the ability to settle in full, that's where I'd look at debt management, get on a regular monthly payment with a lower interest so you can actually make some progress.

Our friends at ChristianCreditCounselors.org, Jason, could be a great help to you there. Hey, thanks for your call today. To Cleveland, Ohio, Caroline, thank you for your patience. Go right ahead. Hi.

Thank you for taking my call. I am 48 now, and I work in a hospital, and I pay 10% toward my 403B. I used to contribute 20% up to $7,500 a year. But then I read somewhere that when I retire, they're going to tax me when I take out their money. But then also at the same time, I had an IRA growth with Vanguard where I was putting some money, but now I'm contributing $500 per month up to maybe $5,500 a year. I put maximum every year in that IRA growth, Vanguard, to retire when I'm 65.

So my question was, am I doing the right thing by reducing to contribute towards my 403B and contribute more toward my IRA growth? Yeah. What is your age, Caroline? I'm 48 right now. 48.

Okay, yeah. So I like that plan. I like the Roth IRA a lot. It's after-tax dollars, but it's tax-free growth. As long as that's invested with a long-time horizon and you've got plenty of time on your side, that's going to grow tax-free. The benefit is all that compounding and growth, although we're not seeing a lot of that right now in today's markets, but over the next 20 years we should, you're going to get all that growth coming out tax-free. And if you don't need it, there's no required minimums that you have to take out with a Roth.

So I like that a lot. If you get to the max contribution for the Roth and you still have more money that you can put away, because typically the $6,000 a year or $7,000 if you're over age 50 is typically not enough for folks to be able to save 10% to 15% toward retirement to have enough to supplement Social Security to maintain their lifestyle. So when you max that out, if you have extra, then absolutely I'd default back to the 403b through salary deferral.

But prioritizing the Roth IRA makes a lot of sense to me. Okay. All right. Thank you very much. Okay, Caroline, we appreciate your call today.

God bless you. Hey folks, before we head to this break, let me remind you, we've got some lines open, 800-525-7000. By the way, MoneyWise is listener supported. So if you're a part of our MoneyWise community, you'd like to support the ministry, we'd certainly be grateful. You can head to our website at moneywise.org. Just click the give button. You'll find an address to give through the mail by check over the phone, toll free with our team or online through a secure form. It's all there at moneywise.org.

Just click give and thanks in advance. We're going to take a quick break and we come back much more as we apply God's wisdom to your financial decisions. This is MoneyWise Live. Stick around. Thanks for joining us today on MoneyWise Live.

I'm Rob West, your host. Taking your calls and questions today, 800-525-7000. Let's head right back to the phones. We'll head to Cleveland. Judy, thank you for calling.

Go right ahead. Yes, I hope this isn't too complicated. I just retired a little bit early at 63. My husband will work for another three years. Our financial planner suggested that we put our assets, I assume 403b, 401k, money markets, my pension into a trust. I don't understand what's the advantage of putting everything into a trust. I think it's quite costly to do this.

He said about $2,000. So I guess my question, what's the advantage of putting everything we have in a trust, everything we can? Yeah, I mean the reason you would use a trust for certain assets is because you'd want to avoid probate.

You'd perhaps want to keep everything private, not a part of the public record. You want to be able to control those assets prior to your death if you're incapacitated through a successor trustee that would manage the assets according to the trust documents. You wanted to distribute the assets at certain triggering events even beyond your life. So if certain heirs at certain ages or under certain conditions wanted to receive the assets, I mean those would be the primary reasons you would do that. You typically don't see that with retirement accounts because they have beneficiary designations on them. So they would pass outside of probate anyway based on the named beneficiaries. But those would be the main reasons for a trust. And whatever action is triggered by the trust would happen outside of the will. So it ignores what the will says.

And that price point you mentioned between $1,500 and $2,000 would be about right. So I think the question is just why are you doing it? And what is it you're trying to accomplish? And that's what I would want to make sure you understand before you go ahead with this to be sure it's necessary. That's what I don't understand why he thinks it's necessary. Can't a will delineate where our money goes to and beneficiaries and all that without putting something in a trust? Yes, it can.

Absolutely. It will go through the probate process but it happens every day. And there would be an executor named and that person would work through the probate court according to the will to distribute the assets. But again, if somebody is looking for it to be private or happen outside of the courts or wants greater control even beyond their life or prior to their death, that's typically where a trust would come in. But if none of those really apply, then a basic will that's current and up to date plus beneficiaries that are current and up to date should take care of it. Okay, so the trust is what's costly. A will will not cost that much money. Would it be $2,000 for a will?

Yeah, no, no. It's probably around $500 for a will whereas a trust could be $1,500 to $2,000. So it is certainly more cost effective, a lot simpler. You don't have to retitle anything in the name of the trust. The key is just to make sure you understand what's the best instrument based on what you're trying to accomplish. And there's certainly not everybody needs a trust. A will will do just fine for most folks.

So you may want to revisit that or get a second opinion just to try to understand why he was suggesting that because I'm not hearing anything that you're describing as to why you would need one. But Judy, we appreciate you checking in with us. God bless you. Chicago, Teresa, you're next on the program. Go ahead.

Hi, thanks for taking my time. I'm calling in regards to a family member that I have who is incarcerated. She just recently divorced her husband and will be receiving a pension from him.

I'm wondering just how can we ingest it? I'm losing you a bit there. But I think I hear your question, Teresa. You know, folks in prison can receive money. There's no law that prevents a prisoner from receiving money that's legally theirs. What you would typically want to do and you'd want to check with an attorney on this is give someone power of attorney. That way they won't have to rely on prison mail to manage a bank account.

You would, of course, choose a POA that's trustworthy for this or an attorney if she can afford it, but usually just a power of attorney of a trusted individual and then pick a bank for the account that's convenient for whomever is the power of attorney and then have that power of attorney put the money into her prison commissary account. And that way it can be accessed or it could stay there. So that would be kind of generally the way that that would go for money that's coming to her from the pension. Does that make sense?

Yes, it does. Now, my understanding is that she has elected for the money to go directly to her commissary and then she will send it out. And that's okay, too? Oh, sure. I mean, it's her money and she's got an account so it could come right in there if she's got that set up to go directly in there and then she could transfer it out anywhere she likes. And again, having a power of attorney that could, on the outside, handle things that need to be done on her behalf would actually be helpful. Okay, yes. I'm the power of attorney for her and we want to set up a trust, some type of trust for the grandkids. I see.

Yeah, very good. So I would visit with an estate attorney. If you don't have one, you could contact a certified kingdom advisor there in Chicago and ask for a referral. They'd all have a godly estate planning attorney that they work with.

So just go to MoneyWise.org, click Find a CKA, but that person could make sure the will's up to date, the POA, any other instruments, plus if a trust is needed, could establish that as well. Teresa, thanks for your call today. All the best as you navigate that.

Let's head to Tennessee Autumn. Thank you for calling. Go right ahead. Hi. Yes, I am calling.

My son just turned 17 and he's interested in investing in stocks. So I was looking into opening up a custodial account for him. Can you hear me? Yeah, I can. Okay.

Okay. So I'm looking into opening a custodial account for him and I know nothing about stocks. I invest in my 401k at work and just let them handle that. But I heard you say Charles Schwab yesterday. I think that's it. Charles Schwab.

So I was looking into that versus maybe somewhere like Vanguard. And I didn't know what your thoughts were. I don't know what zero commission trading means. And I don't know.

I saw another one that said 0.61 contract fees. And what is your thoughts on a 17 year old having managing stocks versus just like a mutual fund account? Yeah, I'd rather see him and it's not as exciting necessarily, but I'd rather see him just start to learn the power of disciplined, systematic investing into a broadly diversified portfolio. The challenge is when you're starting out, it's exciting to do the research and pick a company and perhaps if it's a smaller amount of money and that's what he wants to do just to get some of the excitement of actually owning a company and being able to track it and follow it and see how it does. That's fine in the early days, but it's not a good longer term strategy because A, you're going to be too highly concentrated in one company, meaning his success or failure in investing is going to be dependent on one or two companies that may have a bad quarter or be out of favor. And that's just going to result in a lot of volatility, whereas the wisdom of diversification, owning a broad cross section of the market through like an index fund where you own 500 of the biggest companies in the country through the S&P 500.

It's not necessarily as exciting in terms of following those companies in the news and doing research and all of that, but it's a better way for him to establish the habit and discipline of investing. I like Schwab a lot. I would use the Schwab Intelligent Portfolios. You could also look at Acorns. They have a great custodial robo-advisor for miners, but any of those where he just starts making systematic contributions to a low-cost indexed approach to investing would be a great start for him to learn the power of compounding. So again, it's the Schwab Intelligent Portfolios or Acorns.

I think either of those would be great. Thanks for your call today. We'll be right back on MoneyWise Live.

Stay with us. ...personal finance that showed that young adults in the US are sadly lacking in basic money management skills. It showed that most 18 to 25-year-olds in the survey didn't have a working familiarity with financial concepts like budgeting, saving, insurance, investing.

And think about what this means. Thousands of young adults are going off to college or joining the workforce today without knowing how to manage their money or how to avoid overspending or even how to build a solid financial future for themselves. You know, when I was a kid learning to balance a checkbook and pay bills on time, we're a part of financial training for teenagers. I remember my dad giving me the check register and I used to balance it for him.

I thought it was fun. But today, things look a lot different, right? Now we have online banking and instant digital transactions. And it's so easy to use credit and transfer money that many young people today live day to day without a plan until they need a bailout from mom or dad. Well, the fact that this generation rarely handles cash also means they no longer have a physical connection to their money. When they don't actually see their money coming and going, they may not realize when it's gone. Well, that can lead to a disconnect and unintentional overspending, even a lifetime of debt, not to mention a lack of motivation to save for the future. So if you're a Gen Z, maybe just starting out, here are a few must-have financial skills that I'd like for you to think about today. The first skill is actually an attitude, knowing that God is the owner of everything and that you are a manager of his resources.

Well, that changes your perspective on money and material things. The number two financial skill you need is planning. Learn how to make and follow a spending plan. Well, the MoneyWise app can really help with that.

Dreams are good, but a dream without a plan is just a wish. So the next skill is employment. Start at the bottom if you have to. Work hard and develop your resume. Earning can really build your financial confidence. The next skill is to open and manage a bank account. Then make sure you develop habits of giving and saving from every paycheck. Build that right in up front if you do it.

Well, you'll benefit from that the rest of your life. Learn about credit and how to build good credit while avoiding debt. MoneyWise.org has some great articles on this topic as well. Learn about investing.

Investing includes not only the investment types but risk and return. And soundmindinvesting.org could be a great resource there. Finally, admit you don't know it all and learn where to go for solid financial advice as it says in Proverbs 15 22. Without counsel, plans fail, but with many advisors, they succeed. You know, now more than ever, young adults need financial skills to succeed in the real world. And my challenge to our bright and hopeful Gen Z generation is to pursue a firm faith and financial literacy. By the way, if you're a parent or grandparent, I hope you'll make it a priority to encourage your young adults in their biblical financial journey. It will pay huge dividends. All right, let's go back to the phones here with our final callers of today.

800-525-7000. Let's see, Orlando and Sebring, you go right ahead. Yes. Good afternoon, Mr.

Rob West. Hi there. Can you hear me?

Yes, sir. I just wanted to thank you for your show. I listened to Larry Burkett for years, and you now after him, and I really appreciate you guys, ministry. You guys have mentored me in this area of finances, so I just appreciate your ministry. Well, thank you.

What an encouragement, Orlando. Yeah, it's just awesome when the soundness of your teaching as a minister. I've been a pastor for over 20 years and just so encouraging and just helping me with direction in life as far as finance and so on. So I'm calling today real quickly about I'm in my mid-50s coming up on retirement, I guess, in seven or eight years, I don't know, depending. I may work longer than that, but I have four children, and now we're almost empty masters down to our last one.

She's 19 and in college, and although we are now starting to say both my wife and I are working, we've never actually saved for retirement. I'm currently working on my second month of savings, according to your council. It's just been real hard with the four, you know. Yes, sir. And everything. Yeah, but I just wanted your take on what, you know, kind of if you were me or I don't know if you can picture that because you're so wise and you know what you would find out about what would you what would you like as far as retirement, you know, planning for retirement, other than we're planning to have our house completely paid off.

Again, I'm saving I'm into my my second month of building up like the savings like the emergency fund. Sure. Yeah. Very good.

Yeah. Here's what I would do, Orlando. You know, first of all, don't feel bad about where you're at. Listen, the fact that you're on track to have your home paid off, that's incredible.

You need to be really excited about that, proud of yourself or what you're doing there, living within your means, putting your child through college as best you can. And, you know, being able to pay down debt and even being completely debt free, that's going to really help down the road as you find yourself in a position where you're trying to keep your expenses as low as possible as you fund your retirement. You've still got time on your side, too. I mean, we're talking, you know, a decade or more before you perhaps are going to consider retiring. And then even then, you have the ability to work part time or continue to work as the Lord leads, knowing that as a believer, we look at retirement different. Our calling doesn't ever expire.

The Lord may have different things for us in different seasons. But, you know, even once you retire, then you've still got a decades long need for this money. And so we take a long view. And I think that's the key. I would also say that right now, the most important thing is just to limit your lifestyle as best you can and just be systematic in what you can put away.

And if you save diligently over the next 10 years or more, you'll be surprised at how much of a nest egg you have that could supplement Social Security with a very modest lifestyle that includes no debt, which would allow you to live very well on just a little bit. So what I would say to you is let's start somewhere, not looking back, but looking forward. Do both of you have company sponsored retirement plans at work, Orlando? No. Okay. All right. We're both teaching now.

I am still in the ministry about to begin a Spanish work as an extension out of our church that we attend. Okay. So how do you get paid? Through 1099 or are you getting a W-2?

I believe it's W-2. Okay. And will you have access to a teacher's retirement or no? I can look into it.

Okay. Yeah, I would check that and just see what's available to you through your employer and just see how many years you need to have of service to be able to qualify, if you can at all, for the teacher's retirement. That would be one option. The second option is to fund every year a Roth IRA. You can put in over age 50, 7,000 this year and that changes each year. I would start a Roth IRA for each of you. You could do that at the Schwab Intelligent Portfolios or Betterment.

It'll be what's called a robo advisor, which makes it very simple. You just answer some questions and make your systematic contributions every month and it'll automatically invest it on a very low cost basis and that can start growing for you. So between the retirement at work, if you have one, I'd look into that, and the Roth IRA trying to put in up to 7,000 per person, you and your wife, per year. That'll be, if you do that every year for the next 10 years, get you going in the right direction to be able to save what you can for a nest egg that will supplement Social Security.

So I'd check into those two things first. I love that you're building that emergency fund. That's great.

Let's get that to three months expenses and then let's put everything toward retirement at that point and try to save as best you can. Thanks for your call, Orlando. God bless you, my friend.

Let's finish today in Lehigh Acres, Florida. Ray, you're next on the program. Go ahead. Yes, hi. Good afternoon.

Thank you for taking my call. Okay, just a question. I have two children. I have a daughter, 13, and a son, 12, and we have, between me and my wife, I have about $10,000 for each of them that we want to start putting towards their future. And would a traditional savings account be the correct place to put it for them at this time and moment being that they're so young?

Yeah. Would you like this to be earmarked for college or do you want it more widely available for their use? I would say probably more widely available at this time. Really, maybe as they get later on into school to see what direction they want to do about schooling. I don't know if to really lock it into some kind of a college plan or if they have other decisions. Yeah, and then the next question is the time horizon on it. Do you want them to be able to use it in the next five years or would you see this being money that you would allow them to access beyond five years? Oh, no, definitely beyond five years. This is more of like a long-term savings for them, something that will be probably maybe even in their mid-20s or I wouldn't want them to access it too early.

Okay, great. Yeah, so you don't want a custodial account because that would become their asset at the age of majority which is 18 in Florida and they'd have complete control over it. So I would open two joint accounts in you and your wife's name and I'd earmark one for each of your children, your daughter and your son so you know which is which and then make the contributions either one time or systematically over time and then just invest those. I would look at the same thing I mentioned in the previous call or either the Schwab Intelligent Portfolios or Betterment. Either of those would allow you to open two joint accounts, you'd automatically make your contributions, you could set up an automatic transfer from your checking or savings or you could make one-time contributions. It would get invested based on the age and the time horizon of the kids and it'd be very low cost, very broadly diversified because it's using index funds which mirror the broad market indexes so you just capture the broad moves of the market over the next five and ten years. And I think that would really set them up for something that would be really meaningful down the road. So check that out, the Schwab Intelligent Portfolios or Betterment.

I think that'll give you what you're looking for. Thanks for your call, Ray. Well, folks, thank you for being along with us today. We so appreciate it. You know, when we look to God's Word, we want to live within our means and avoid debt and set long-term goals and have some margin and finally give generously.

We do that, we're going to put ourselves in a position to experience God's best. Thanks so much to Gabby T., Amy Rios, Ryan Hansen and Jim Henry today. Thank you for being here. MoneyWise Live is a partnership between Moody Radio and MoneyWise Media. See you tomorrow. Bye-bye.