The Business of Witnessing

Today's version of MoneyWise Live is prerecorded, so our phone lines are not open. In Matthew 5, Jesus tells his disciples, Let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven. I am Rob West. We have that same calling today as followers of Christ to share the good news of the Gospel wherever we go, including at work and in the business world. I have some advice to help you do that.

Then we have some great calls lined up, but please don't call in today because we're prerecorded. This is MoneyWise Live, biblical wisdom for your financial journey. We all need to look for ways to share the Gospel with those who don't yet know Christ. But the workplace and business world can provide unique opportunities for witnessing.

Business people especially come in contact with many different people like associates, customers and vendors. And while doing that, they can make a strong witness for Christ. And that doesn't mean proselytizing.

A better way to interest people in Christ is to act differently than the world by always acting with absolute integrity and honesty and showing respect and concern for others. God knows this, of course, and that's probably why His Word contains so many passages about work. We were ordained to be workers even before the fall. We see work referred to as a gift in Genesis 2 and a gift from God in Ecclesiastes 5. We're also commanded to work in 2 Thessalonians 3.10.

Work in its different forms is mentioned more than 800 times in the Bible, more than all the words used to express worship, music, praise and singing combined. People in the business world have a unique platform through the practice of buying and selling to witness for Christ and leverage their kingdom influence. It's probably not a coincidence that when Jesus called the 12 disciples, many of them owned and operated businesses as tradesmen and commercial fishermen. And consider where Jesus spent a lot of His time during His earthly ministry.

Of His 134 appearances, 122 of them are in the marketplace. He also told a total of 52 parables and 45 of them have a workplace context. And the practice of witnessing in the business world continues with the apostles. Of the 40 divine interventions recorded in the book of Acts, 39 were in the marketplace. Obviously, the Holy Spirit and the apostles knew the value of witnessing in the business world. There's evidence for this throughout the Bible.

In Hebrews 11, we find what's often called the Faith Hall of Fame. Listed there are the many who were saved by their faith, including Abel, Abraham, Moses, David, Samuel, Rahab, and of course the list goes on. They weren't all necessarily business people by today's definition, but they all used their position and interactions to influence others around them for God.

Only one of them was what you might call a religious professional. In the modern world, we have many examples of business people using their influence to lead others to Christ. In his book, God Owns My Business, Stanley Tam writes, Although I believe in the application of good principles in business, I place far more confidence in the conviction that I have a call from God. I am convinced that His purpose for me is in the business world. My business is my pulpit. We also see this demonstrated by the Green family who owns Hobby Lobby, the Kathy family, owners of Chick-fil-A, the Maloons, owners of Correct Craft, and the Barnhart family, owners of Barnhart, Crane, and Rigging who give away millions.

Then there's of course R.G. Letourneau, who's often called the most inspiring Christian inventor, businessman, and entrepreneur the world has ever seen. He also gave millions to spreading the gospel. And of course the late Larry Burkett, whose legacy of teaching God's financial principles we try to carry on here at MoneyWise. He was also a successful businessman. Larry also wrote Business by the Book, where he lays out the biblical principles all Christian business people should follow. Larry was also intimately involved with the Fellowship of Companies for Christ and the Christian Businessmen's committee. He passionately believed that your business is your pulpit. Now I've talked a lot about the business world, but the opportunity to share the gospel with others extends to any work situation.

You see, God strategically places His children everywhere. If you work for a paycheck or own a business, big or small, the Lord has given you a position of influence. He wants you to impact your co-workers, vendors, customers, and even your competitors for the cause of Christ.

With the Holy Spirit, you can help point people to Christ and salvation. It's both a duty and an honor we should all gladly be a part of. All right, coming up, we have some great questions lined up, but hold your calls because we're prerecorded. I'm Rob West and this is Money Wise Live. We'll be right back. Welcome back to Money Wise Live, where biblical wisdom meets today's financial decisions. Let's go right to our phones.

We're going to begin today in Virginia. Gary, you're on the program. Go ahead, sir. My question is, I'm single, 67 years old. I put a lot of money in the stock market and bonds and all whatnot, and I've got some substantial amount of it, but I ain't getting too many good returns on it. I'm losing, and I've actually talked to my stockbroker about pulling everything out. Being 67 years old and playing golf every day, I thought, well, I'd pull everything out and just enjoy life and be a good steward to the good Lord. I told the kids not to hold out their hands at my coffin because I sent them to major colleges.

And I said, I sent y'all to school for one reason, to make it on your own. So they're doing okay too. So that's my question.

Should I pull out my monthly incomes around thousand dollars? Very good. Well, I appreciate that question, Gary, and the background.

And I certainly understand where you're coming from. Let me ask you just a couple of questions, if you will. Outside of the investable assets that's currently in a stock and bond portfolio, what do you have in savings, roughly? Well, 5,000. Okay. So you've got about five months worth of expenses in liquid savings.

And then what is the stock portfolio valued at today, roughly? Well, it started out at 145, but it's down to 125 right now. Okay.

All right. So you had 145,000 and you're down at 125, which actually, I mean, I understand that it's not exciting to be down 15%, but you're down less than the market, that's for sure. So that's a good thing, even though I understand that's real money and that's not an insignificant amount. I would remind you, it's what I call a paper loss, right?

So it's an unrealized loss. And as you think about kind of managing God's money moving forward, I think there's several things you need to do in this season of life. You know, we break money down into the categories of live, give, owe and grow. And as we get older, hopefully life becomes simpler in the sense that we have the opportunity to eliminate the O category. We want to get out of debt completely.

We are able to eliminate the grow category because we've accumulated enough. And so then it's really just about our living expenses. What is our lifestyle? It sounds like you're living modestly. And then how much do we want to give away? And I think, you know, this last stewardship decision is do I want to give an inheritance financially to my kids? And I think that's for each of us to decide what's far more important to that is the spiritual capital you leave.

And as you said, you've already spent a ton on college and that was an incredible gift that you gave them. So how should you think about in this next season of life, which, by the way, if the Lord tarries and you're in good health, you know, could be several decades, right? So how do you think about managing this 145,000 now, 125,000, given what's going on in the market, given your needs? You know, Gary, you've got five months expenses in savings. You're living, I assume, on Social Security exclusively.

Is that right? Okay. And so you're really not touching this 145,000 that's now down to 120,000. But here's the thing, you know, because you're not having to live on this money, and even if you were, I would say, just given everything I know right now about, first of all, what's going on with inflation, which means you're losing purchasing power by this money sitting in cash. And number two, just where we are as an economy and as a nation, yes, we have some headwinds. Could we have some, you know, major challenges down the road if we don't get on top of our debt and our spending and several other policy related decisions?

Certainly we could. I think that's more plausible now than it's ever been. But I don't think that's in anywhere near, you know, the next five years, let's say. And so given what we've got right in front of us right now, whether we're in a recession now or we're about to slip into one, we're probably in one, it's likely going to be mild just based on everything we know. And the market will recover in advance of it because the market tends to look out six months or more. And so we could see a market that recovers, I think, into the end of this year, perhaps early next year. Could it go longer than that? Absolutely. Could we see more downside?

For sure. But I think given where you're at right now, a properly diversified stock and bond portfolio that's not highly concentrated, that's not too speculative is probably your best opportunity to first recover those unrealized losses that you have and then allow this to have some growth for the future so that you have the ability, even if you're not concerned about a financial inheritance, you have the ability to tap into that if you needed it for long term care. You know, seven out of 10 Americans over 65 will need some sort of long term care for somewhere between two and three years on average.

That's expensive, whether that's in home care or something else. This is probably the thing that could erode your assets the quickest in this season of life. And so however long the Lord has for you here, he's obviously still has a calling on your life because he hasn't taken you home yet. And so I think, Gary, if it were me, and obviously you're the steward, you need to make this final decision. I'd probably stick with the portfolio I have right now, especially if you feel comfortable with this advisor, with the idea that we'd want it to recover and get some growth, you know, over the next several years, we perhaps could enter into a period where we've got more of a sideways market where it's just kind of, you know, bouncing along.

And we're certainly not seeing the growth that we had the last 10 or 12 years, but the very best opportunity to overcome inflation, even as it tempers probably down to more like 4%, instead of two, the very best way to overcome that is to stay invested. So that would be my best advice for you at this point. Thank you, sir. God bless y'all. All right, Gary, we appreciate your call today, sir.

Alabama, Michael, thank you for calling. Go right ahead. My question is on I bonds. Can my wife and I, which we filed jointly on taxes, can we both purchase an I bond? And can would it be feasible at this point to pull it out of our Roth to do that? Or out of a non retirement investment account? Yeah, it's a great question, Michael, as to you and your wife each purchasing them?

Yes. So you can put in up to 10,000 and electronic I bonds at treasury direct.gov. That's per person per calendar year. So you each could open an account at Treasury direct, transfer the money in, and then have up to $20,000. And as we've talked about before, you've got to keep it in there for at least a year. Should you pull out of a retirement account? Well, first of all, you can't put retirement money into the I bonds, you probably know that, which is why you're asking about pulling out, I wouldn't, you know, the typical return on these bonds has not been anywhere near what it is right now, just because of the unusual times we're in right now. So pulling that money out of the Roth, even if you pulled out up to your original contributions, which would not be taxable, and put that money into the I bonds, you'd have a short term win with this great rate. But what about the long term, you know, if you guys, you know, are looking at this money growing over the next 10 or 20, or, you know, 30 years of the Lord Terry's, and you're in good health, you're going to miss out on all that tax free compounding.

And so yeah, it would be a kind of a short term win. But I just think the longer term benefit of that money staying in that tax free growth environment, where you don't even have to pull it out at 72 because it's a Roth with your required minimum because there is no required minimum for a Roth, I think the better option is not to use qualified money. Now, if you have other money beyond your emergency fund in a taxable account, I would say that could be a great option, especially if it's just kind of sitting on the sideline, because you only have to stay in for a year, and it's paying a really great rate.

But tell me your thoughts and any follow up questions, Michael. The other question about the bond is you say after a year, you could close it out, could you pull just the interest after a year? Would you actually reinvest or does it mature after five years? No, no, it's actually a 20 year bond with an additional 10 years attached to it. So it'll earn interest for up to 30 years. And so you can redeem whatever portion you want.

But it'll continue to pay out the interest until you redeem it. Okay. All right. Well, thank you very much. All right, Michael, thanks for your call today.

God bless you, my friend. We'll be back on Money Wise Live. Stay with us. It's great to have you with us on Money Wise Live today, but unfortunately, today we're not live. We're prerecorded and therefore won't be taking your calls. However, we've lined up some calls in advance that we think you'll find helpful.

So stay tuned and enjoy the rest of the program. Let's talk God's money and how we can manage it wisely, hold it loosely, give it generously, whether it's your spending plan, your debt repayment, your giving, or maybe your short term or long term savings, whatever it is, we'd love to hear from you today and we'll see if we can help you run it through the lens of biblical truth as we look at the Council of Scripture, the big ideas from God's word about how we should think about managing money and then make those practical day to day decisions with confidence. Just before the break, we were talking about starting your own business and that is exciting. What an opportunity and yet can be challenging as well. Obviously, the big idea there in terms of the pros is you have more control over your professional destiny, if you will. You are owning your business.

You can take it as far as you want to. Your earnings might be higher compared to working for others or not, depending upon how well that goes and how much you have to put into startup costs. Of course, you can hire your team and choose your co-workers. I think the thing we have to be careful on is just getting into a trap of working longer hours and realizing we may not get paid for a while, that we're putting potentially our financial situation at risk, knowing that many small businesses fail. That's not to discourage us. It's just to make sure that we go in with our eyes wide open, making sure we have the staying power, so to speak, to get started and stay with it.

We've got the financial reserves, so we don't put our financial house in jeopardy as a part of that. As we're thinking about the hours we're going to put in, that we're not robbing precious time for our families, all of that can be challenging. I think we just have to go in with a plan.

Many times, it involves keeping a paid job and then maybe starting something on the side and see if we can work into a job, perhaps, that we've been doing, working for somebody else, but now we're going to launch out on our own. Be cautious and careful. Be prayed up and make sure you have spousal unity.

I'll tell you, that is a huge one. If your spouse has a check about whether or not this is the right fit for you, I think that might be a great sign that maybe you're getting out ahead of the Lord. Make sure you pray about it and make sure you have spousal unity before you proceed.

I hope that's helpful to you. As we talk about the noise of this world and God's truth, it's important that we think about the warnings in Scripture about listening to worldly ideas. Listen to Colossians 2.8. See to it that no one takes you captive through hollow and deceptive philosophy, which depends on human's tradition and the elemental spiritual forces of this world rather than on Christ. Many of the deceptive philosophies we encounter today are materialistic and self-serving.

I'm sure you've heard these. Your future will be secure if you accumulate a lot of possessions. You may have heard wealth, fame, and beauty will make you valuable.

You may have heard that if you borrow money now, you can have everything you want, or all you need is a positive attitude and you'll succeed, or just believe in yourself. Well, the Bible calls these ideas hollow and deceptive because they're lies, glorifying material possessions and selfish desires, and the end result of this worldview is death. So how do we avoid being fooled by the world's noise? Well, we can focus on God's truth instead. So here's a few life-giving messages straight from God's word for you to meditate on. First, Jesus is everything we need. We can't live abundantly without him. In John 14.6, Jesus says, I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. You see, in Christ, we have life, peace, hope, and a secure future.

Second, listen to this. Possessions can't satisfy you. I would take you to Proverbs 23.5. It reads, cast but a glance at riches and they are gone, for they will surely sprout wings and fly off to the sky like an eagle. Thirdly, lasting success comes from serving the Lord, not chasing worldly glory.

Psalm 31 tells us charm is deceitful and beauty is vain. Next, financial plans are uncertain, but we can rely on Jesus every day in every circumstance. This is what the sovereign Lord says. See, I lay a stone in Zion, a tested stone, a precious cornerstone for a sure foundation.

The one who relies on it will never be stricken with panic. That comes from Isaiah 28 16. You see, folks, when we listen to God's truth instead of the world's noise, well, we can put our priorities in order, following Christ first and then loving one another and everything else falls into place. So we need to remember Matthew 6 33. Seek first his kingdom and his righteousness and all these things, the things you really need, will be given to you as well. Finally, consider Paul's admonition in Ephesians 5 1 and 2.

Follow God's example, therefore, as dearly loved children and walk in the way of love, just as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us as a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God. Now, I hope that helps you focus on what's most important today. And that's what we all need to be doing. All right, let's head back to the phones today.

Quickly to Mansfield, Ohio. Randall, thank you for calling. Go ahead. Yes, sir.

I'm calling to find out what the best way to pay my daughter's mortgage off with out of my savings and then be in the neighborhood of one hundred thousand dollars. And I just wanted to know if that's legal or is there a tax issue with her? No, sir. That would be considered a gift, Randall. And so you're able to do that this year. You can give sixteen thousand dollars as a gift. Now, beyond sixteen, are there tax implications?

No, there aren't. You're just going to have to file a form that alerts the IRS that you gave more than the sixteen thousand. That's going to then go against your lifetime exclusion, which this year is eleven point six million dollars.

It's going up to over twelve million dollars next year. So that's the lifetime exclusion you can give away without having any gift tax. So in no case will there be any gift tax.

It's just that beyond sixteen, you're just going to need to tell the IRS that you did it and it's going to be a notch against that twelve million dollars as of next year that you can give away. Does that make sense? Yes, sir, it does.

But can I ask you, will that mean that do they have to pay taxes on themselves? They do not. You do not.

And they do not. It's just a gift. OK. All right. I appreciate that. You're welcome.

Can they do all that electronically? Let's talk offline. We've got to hit a break here. We'll be right back on Money Wise. Stay with us. Delighted to have you along with us today on Money Wise Live. I'm Rob West, your host. This is where we apply God's truth to your financial decisions.

Here's what we recognize on this program. God owns it all. Money is a tool to accomplish God's purposes because you're a steward and so am I. We're money managers for the King of Kings.

Here's the other reality is that money issues are hard issues. You know, my experience is that our financial journey is one of the key ways God shapes our spiritual journey and really money issues. The way we handle money, it's a training ground of the heart. It's one of the most tangible, visible expressions of what we value and where we've placed our trust. The question is, is there a misalignment between what's really important to us and what money says is important to us?

And if it is, perhaps we need to change the way we're allocating God's resources. Well, we can all get better at that. And so let's do that together. Our phone lines are not open at the moment because we're away from the studio, but we have some great questions that we lined up in advance.

So in addition to those calls we've already lined up, we'll tackle a couple of emails. We're so grateful for the emails we received to be read on the air as well as the really active participation in our MoneyWise community. When you open a free account, by the way, at MoneyWise.org, you can participate in our community where you can post questions, share ideas with all of the other stewards in the MoneyWise family. Every day there's new questions being posted and then our MoneyWise coaches as well as just other stewards on the journey are weighing in on those questions.

So it's a great place where people who share God's heart and desire for being good stewards come together around practical ideas and questions. Just head to MoneyWise.org, click the community button. When you create a free account, you can jump right into the MoneyWise community. Also, the MoneyWise community is on our MoneyWise app and we'd love for you to download that but not only can you get these broadcast archives and use our world-class money management system to manage your day-to-day spending using a digital envelope system and a simple, beautiful interface but also you can participate in the MoneyWise community right there in the palm of your hand. If you'd like to download the app, we'd love for you to do that. Just head to your app store and search for MoneyWise Biblical Finance or you can go to MoneyWise.org and click the app button and learn all about it.

Again, MoneyWise.org and click app. All right, these questions came in to us over the weekend. This first one comes from Paul and he says, when is it a good idea to use a debt consolidation service?

And I would say, unfortunately, Paul, never. I'm not a fan of debt consolidation. This is where you combine two or more debts into a single larger debt. Consumers often take this step with a significant amount of high interest debt and they do it to simplify things for a lower interest rate, perhaps for a fixed repayment schedule.

The downside that I've just seen over decades is that when we use that kind of approach to paying off debt, number one, we don't solve the underlying issue that led to the debt in the first place. And so it takes the pressure off even though the interest rate is lower. Often the repayment term is longer. Often the total monthly payment is lower with that single monthly payment. And because we didn't solve the issue, the overspending that led to the debt in the first place, six months or a year later, we've got the consolidation loan and then guess what? The debt is back.

So my preferred approach to paying off especially credit card debt when you have more than $4,000 in credit card debt is to use a debt management program different than debt consolidation where you use a credit counseling agency to get that debt paid back. Essentially what would happen is the interest rates are lowered. You have one fixed monthly payment. You don't have new loans being taken out.

It stays right where it is. But through that fixed monthly payment and the lower interest rates, you will find that on average, you'll pay back 80% faster that debt. You'll pay it off in full.

And my experience is when you do it that way, you solve the issue of overspending because it takes time. And when you do it that way, hopefully you'll never find yourself in debt again. Our preferred team to help you do that is Christian Credit Counselors. You'll find them on the web at christiancreditcounselors.org. They've served hundreds and hundreds of our MoneyWise listeners and we always get great feedback from these men and women who really see themselves as in ministry to serve you as God's people in getting out from under the burden of credit card debt.

Again, christiancreditcounselors.org and I would much prefer that approach than debt consolidation. Paul, thanks for writing to us, sir. We appreciate it. All right, back to the phones. To Iowa we go next. Lori, thank you for calling. Go right ahead.

Hi. I have a nine-year-old grandson who's in second grade and they're through a series of circumstances that I won't go into. I am supporting him and paying his school tuition and he goes to a private Christian school. I would like to do something to put money aside, I'm 75, I'm still working but that's not going to last forever, to pay his tuition through 12th grade. How can you recommend a way that I know it's kind of a weird question but how could I put this money aside where it's not going to get taxed and it will only go to pay his tuition.

Yes, very good. So you can use a 529 plan for that. Have you heard the term 529 college savings? Right.

Okay, so the law allows and this wasn't the case in the early days, this is a recent edition. The law allows for you to use up to $10,000 per year of 529 plan funds to pay for private elementary or high school. So what would happen is you would put the money into the 529 plan to fund it and the nice thing is that it does grow tax-free. So if it were to be invested and then you know gain some through appreciation over time especially with the market down right now as it recovers then his parents could pull that money out of the 529 up to $10,000 a year tax-free meaning the tax has already been paid on the contributions but any of the gains would come out tax-free and it could be used for you know elementary, middle or high school tuition at a public private or parochial school.

So that could be a great tool, very simple to set up and sounds like it would accomplish what you're looking for. Do it with I bonds or not? No, the 529 plans cannot hold the I bonds and I probably wouldn't do that anyway.

I mean although that would be great for the next year I don't see the I bonds continuing to perform very well longer term especially given the age of this child. Alright and I don't want his parents to have access to it. That's the reason I'm you know kind of raising him. Sure and so you could be the owner of the account and it would be for his benefit and then you would just have to deal with the you know estate planning issues of who takes control over it if you know with him being a minor if something if the Lord were to take you home but it would be I think a great vehicle that would make sure that these funds are used for this purpose but you'd get the tax benefits for any growth.

Alright well thank you so much. You're welcome and listen every pretty much every state has a 529 but it doesn't mean that your state is the best one based on the fees and the most importantly the performance of the investments. So to determine Lori which state's 529 plan and again it may be not your state but another state to determine which one is the best one for you.

My favorite website for this is called saving for college dot com saving for college dot com. I check that out run through the questions that they ask you and they'll recommend the top five plans for you to consider. Thanks for your call Lori. We'll be right back on Money Wise Live. You're listening to Money Wise Live with Rob West. Today's broadcast is prerecorded and that means we're not taking any calls but we've got some calls lined up and great information coming your way that we think you'll find helpful. So stick around for more Money Wise Live after this brief break. This is our final segment of a broadcast we previously recorded. Thanks so much for being with us today and we hope you'll stick around and enjoy the rest of today's program.

Let's head to Oregon Betty you're next on the program go right ahead. Yes sir I had a question on behalf of my son-in-law who is just majorly in debt over 45k and I'm wondering pros and cons of filing for bankruptcy and how that might negatively impact the title to their home by on behalf of the lenders. I just I'm trying to give them some ideas and is there a CKA person perhaps near where they live? Yeah they're very well could be although this is really not the typical purview of a CKA really you need a godly bankruptcy attorney to probably talk through Betty just the implications of a bankruptcy you know so you understand exactly what you're getting into. You know bankruptcy is not addressed in the Bible clearly says the wicked borrows and does not repay bankruptcy though is a modern legal term we've created and I would say in some cases we may be forced into bankruptcy just for legal protection.

I don't think that then removes this requirement to repay as we're able over time and I could tell you countless stories of folks who did file bankruptcy for that protection that they needed but then was they were able to repay everything that you know they had you know borrowed over time even in some cases when the creditors pushed back against that because they you know were had already charged everything off. So you know you really need legal counsel here to understand the implications of what will happen you know especially with you know properties as opposed you know whether you'd lose your house depending on whether it's a 7 or a 13 bankruptcy and what exemptions that you get including your home, retirement accounts and personal belongings and car but you have to comply with the exemption rules and it does get fairly complicated. So I think the next step Betty would be for your son-in-law to visit with a godly bankruptcy attorney.

What you could do is reach out to a certified kingdom advisor in your area and ask for a referral or perhaps call your church and see if there's a bankruptcy attorney in your church that could be of assistance but I think that really is the next step because it does get fairly complicated and a lot of it just depends upon the situation circumstances and the laws in your state. Okay all right I will do that and does your organization he just needs help with with the patterns of spending and that does your organization assist with that? We do yeah so we've got MoneyWise coaches that would be happy to help him set up a spending plan and try to get a system to control the flow of money in and out in place. So if you stay on the line what I'd like to do is we'll get you a six-month pro subscription to the MoneyWise app and with that will be all the assistance that he needs to get set up and have somebody just look over a spending plan give him some advice at no cost. I'll also send you a copy of Howard Dayton's book on this topic that I think will be an encouragement to him that really gives a biblical perspective on how to manage money God's way but even the practical details of you know what it looks like to manage it day to day. The book is called Your Money Counts and I think that will be an encouragement. So we'll get you a six-month pro subscription to the MoneyWise app.

He can connect with a coach if he'd be willing to do that and we'll send you a copy of this book Your Money Counts. Does that sound good? Thank you so much. God bless you. Thank you. I've never heard of people being this much in debt and it's just unfathomable to me and it could wreck a marriage. Oh yes. I understand and what we need to do is get him to a place where they feel like they have a plan moving forward because right now he probably feels like you know he just doesn't know where to turn and I think if even if it's a difficult one if they know they have a plan and they know what they need to do moving forward to control the flow of money to manage it well to get the legal protections they need to get you know a repayment plan with their creditors that fits into their budget I mean all of these things I think once we know okay we have a plan moving forward it takes a lot of that pressure off doesn't mean it's going to be easy it's going to take a long time it's gonna be a lot of hard work but at least he'll know or they'll know that they're making some progress and I think that will be an encouragement so you stay on the line Betty we'll get your information and get that right out to you and God bless you today let's see to Missouri hey guy thanks for calling go ahead yes sir you have probably covered this topic before but I haven't been able to listen every every episode but just had a question about Bitcoin I have not invested in it and really not planning on it but just kind of wondering your approach and your thoughts about that whole very confusing financial situation or as some people see it as an investment yeah yeah well first of all I think you know that the cryptocurrencies are here to stay I mean they run on something called blockchain which is a record of transactions that's maintained by a decentralized network of computers so the big idea is that instead of a centralized ledger like your bank maintains blockchain allows this decentralized network of computers to record and maintain a record of transactions and as we see a breakdown of trust in centralized institutions everywhere in society whether that's what the Fed is doing or global health institutions or big tech companies there's more and more appeal to this decentralized approach so it takes something we're already familiar with currency saving lending that we would typically do with a big institution it redesigns that function using a computer code in a way that enables us to accomplish the same thing in a trustless decentralized way and there's obviously a lot of excitement around it but at this stage of development I would put cryptocurrencies including Bitcoin the most well known in a highly speculative category in terms of an investment there's just incredible volatility unlike anything most people have ever experienced and we've certainly seen that with Bitcoin in terms of the wild swings up and down so you basically think of investing in in a tech stock and then crypto is going to be four or five times more volatile than that second there's a risk of a lot of today's cryptos that they'll ultimately end up worthless you know we saw tons of internet companies disappear 20 years ago as the internet was gaining momentum and going mainstream there's a winnowing process we're going to see that in the in the cryptos and then one of the biggest risks is how governments are going to react as Bitcoin and other cryptos threaten their stranglehold over money you see governments get a lot of benefits from controlling their currencies that's why the US is currently looking at you know whether we should have a central bank issued digital currency but you know governments are going to push back as this gives a way for people to opt out out of the official money via something like Bitcoin not to mention that you know any big bank or other entrenched financial interest isn't going to be keen on having a new better alternative to take their business away so because of all that we still are going to see a lot more regulation coming into this space so I think bottom line guy is that cryptos are here to stay the blockchain technology is going to be used in finance and commerce but it has far-reaching implications beyond that it's not going anywhere but it's not something I would put investment dollars in just given the highly speculative nature of it does all that make sense okay I guess I guess we're pretty much old school but yeah I just yeah I mean just what I've seen lately or in the last year or so how it's just up and down so much it's like I don't think I really want to be involved in it no I would totally agree and I mean so just just take this into account so Bitcoin is down 55% since the first day of the year and down 66% in one year that's the one year return minus 66% so is that volatile absolutely should you invest in it I don't think so you know even if it we didn't see that kind of downward pressure my rule on investing is if I can't explain it I don't invest it and I think for a lot of folks they're getting into something they have no idea even what it is they don't understand the risks and the staying power and they certainly don't understand the volatility God's Word speaks to a get-rich-quick mentality and I'm not saying they're going into it with the right heart posture or the wrong heart posture but I think we just have to be careful when we throw kind of conventional godly wisdom you know to to the wind and we invest in something we perhaps don't understand or don't have any business being it just because of the extreme volatility so guy I hope that gives you some things to think about as you talk through this with your family members we appreciate your call today sir god bless you well folks we've covered a lot of ground today and we're nearing the end of the broadcast you know as we think about managing God's money well I think the big idea is faithfulness it's consistency in the same direction over a long period of time and when it comes to managing money I think we've got to begin with this idea of a recognition that money issues are hard issues you see the way we handle money is a pretty clear indicator into what's going on in our lives spiritually it tells a story about where we placed our trust and what's most important to us and the question is what story is our money management telling and are we happy with that do we need to make some changes perhaps we're holding too tightly perhaps we are chasing returns and you know our heart posture is trying to get rich quick maybe we are finding our self-worth and our net worth maybe we're finding that you know money is a way to make sure that we feel good about ourselves especially if we get caught up in the comparison trap that's just so entrenched in social media today well if any of that is true I think we need to renew our minds and go back to God's word and say what is God's word say about handling money well we should hold it loosely we should be living with contentment we should be using it to serve and support others through our generosity and we should be trusting God at the end of the day with everything because he is our prize we have an abundance before the first dollar through Jesus Christ our Lord and Savior that's going to do it for us today folks thanks for tuning in Money Wise Live is a partnership between Moody Radio and Money Wise Media I want to say thank you to Jim, Amy, Dan and Gabby and thank you for being here as well hope you'll come back and join us next time for another edition of Money Wise Live we'll see you then.