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Hi, everyone. My name is Emma, and I serve as a producer here at Moody Radio. I want to take a quick second to tell you about our newest podcast, 52 Weeks in the Word. This podcast hosted by Trillia Newbell will walk you through the Bible cover to cover in 52 weeks. Each week, Trillia sits down with a guest for a 10-minute conversation about the weekly reading, Bible reading habits, and spiritual disciplines.

Some of these guests include our very own Chris Brooks, Jen Wilkin, Nancy Guthrie, and many more. If you've ever wanted to read the Bible in a year, now's your chance. Listen to the trailer, follow and subscribe on the Moody Radio app or anywhere you listen to podcasts.

Episode one drops on January 1st. Proverbs 31 16 provides a model for investing. She considers a field and buys it.

With the fruit of her hands, she plants a vineyard. I am Rob West. That, of course, is a reference to the excellent wife. With great intention, she chooses an investment that benefits her and others. Today I'll talk with Cole Pearson about how we can all be excellent investors. Then it's on to your calls at 800-525-7000.

That's 800-525-7000. This is MoneyWise Live, biblical wisdom for your financial decisions. Well today we're excited about welcoming Cole Pearson for the first time. Cole is president of Investment Solutions at One Ascent, which is actually a family of companies that fill an important space in values-based investing. Cole, it's a great privilege to have you on the program today. Thank you, Rob.

It's my honor and privilege to be with you. Cole, I'm interested in the name One Ascent, which is actually written out as one word. I'd love for you to give us just a sense of what the meaning of the word is.

Great question. It is unique. The name One Ascent comes from John 3, verses 13-15, where a passage that was really important to our leadership team over the years. When Jesus is encountering Nicodemus, he says that no one has ascended into heaven except he who descended the Son of Man. Just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up. With all that we do at One Ascent, we want to be lifting up the Son of Man, our Savior, Jesus Christ.

I like that. Well, obviously, the organization was built on Scripture. I'd love to know, is there a particular passage that really motivates you as you try to fulfill your mission there at One Ascent to provide values-based investment opportunities?

Sure. There's several, but one that I'll point out here would be maybe Ephesians 2.10. That's certainly one of those cornerstone passages for us, where it talks about we are God's workmanship, and He'll create it in Christ Jesus for good works, which He has prepared beforehand that we should walk. And so you mentioned One Ascent being a family of companies. Really what we're trying to do is help everyone, whether they be an investor or an advisor, find that 2.10 calling on their life and walk into it and integrate financial wisdom into that as well.

So Ephesians 2.10 would be one that I'd point to. Yeah, I like that a lot. You know, let's apply that to investing. I think in many ways, investing perhaps has become divorced from its true purpose, that is, to supply capital to great businesses making a meaningful impact in the world. Would you agree with that?

I would, and we use this terminology a lot. And what's gotten lost is that investing is ultimately about ownership. You know, when you think about modern investing today, we have these publicly traded companies, which are very large, and so it can be hard to really know what all that company is involved in or doing. And we use mutual funds and ETFs and investment products that themselves are kind of like a black box. And so just the structure of our industry has sort of been part of that disconnect.

And so if we're trying to find great businesses supplying capital to those businesses, that's gotten harder and harder to do. Yeah, well, it's exciting to see what's happening in this space as the whole area of faith-based investing is really growing and maturing to the place where believers now have real options if they want to align their values with their investments. You mentioned a moment ago that OneAscend is actually four different companies, and we've got just a minute till our first break.

Perhaps you can begin by sharing just a few of those. That's right. OneAscend is a family of companies that all do different things, but in the areas of aligning faith and finance. So OneAscend Wealth actually serves the end client, whether that be an individual, a family, a business owner.

We believe that we all have a deep desire not only to live well, but to finish well. And so our advisors help those families, those clients integrate their planning, investments, giving, legacy, those things to that end. But we also have a part of OneAscend that's for the advisor.

There are a number of advisors out there who want to partner or be a part of a group who's doing that, who's allowing them the freedom and the solutions to integrate what God is calling them to as they serve their clients. So OneAscend Wealth serves the client, OneAscend Financial actually serves the advisor. And the last two companies that OneAscend are actually where I personally spend most of my time, these businesses are strictly asset manager or money manager, where we build out comprehensive values-based solutions to help investors live aligned with what they value most, whether that's in the public markets through OneAscend investments or OneAscend capital in the private markets. Well a lot to cover today as we talk about investing in a way that aligns with your values. What makes up a good investment and can you avoid companies that are misaligned?

How do you do that? Well, we'll talk about that and much more with Cole Pearson today. He's president of investment solutions at OneAscend, an underwriter of this program. We're going to take a quick break back with much more after this.

Stick around. Great to have you with us today on MoneyWise Live. I'm Rob Les joining me today, Cole Pearson, president of investment solutions at OneAscend and underwriter of this program.

OneAscend is a family of companies that fill an important space in values-based investing. Cole, just before the break, we were talking about the true purpose of investing to supply capital to great businesses making a meaningful impact in the world. In some cases though, investors want to actually eliminate companies that are misaligned with their values from their portfolios. I know you and your team have some technology that helps you do that. This is a fascinating new area in investing that's now possible. I'd love for you just to help our listeners understand how that works.

Sure. When we think about eliminating companies, what we're really trying to say is how do we get those out of the way so that we can invest in the things that we do align with? That's our ultimate goal is to elevate those companies that are helping the people and the places around them flourish. As you said, Rob, the first step in that process is to eliminate companies that are causing harm. Unfortunately, what we've found is that investors are often unaware of the companies they own, but also the impact or the harm that those companies may be causing.

Even if they are aware, they might not feel like they can do anything about it. That's where our technology and repeatable processes come in helping uncover and identify where there may be misalignment or where there already is alignment. When it comes to eliminating and elevating companies, what we're focused on primarily is a business's products and their processes.

Think about what they make and how they make it. Our proprietary technology aggregates data from world-class providers. We have our own internal analyst research team. We're really trying to do two things. Number one, we want to identify businesses out of step with our clients' values. Number two, look for investment opportunities that might deepen or further that alignment. Our technology is free to use.

If anyone would like to know where their current portfolio stands, we'd love to take a look at that and show you where that might be for you. Interesting. Could you provide some examples of that, either a product or a process to create the product that might be misaligned with a believer's values?

Sure. For us, that could be things that cause harm. We think of a business model where the product itself is causing harm. That could be things like abortion or pornography, gambling, tobacco, to name a few. It also could be things where maybe the way the business operates is causing harm. Predatory lending, for example, where the business model is preying upon the end customer. Those are simply types of business, models of business that we believe we would not like to align with and many of our clients would like to avoid as well.

Yeah, that's really helpful. Cole, you say there's really four things necessary for a good investment. The first is filling a need. Talk about what you mean there.

Sure. When we think back to Genesis 2, God put us in the garden to work it and to keep it. That's when business came into being, the idea of keeping watch of the good things that God has made and working for their flourishment. We want to invest in businesses that do this too. We know that we're in a broken and fallen world, and so there's more needs than we can count. A sustainable business is meeting a need, a true need, of a customer that can continue to sustain. It's worth pointing out, though, that these needs don't have to be the most exciting new technology or cure for cancer. Those are great and wonderful things.

Those are needs that need to be met, and we love investing there. Just thinking about business and meeting needs, I was impacted by several ordinary businesses this morning, just coming to work. I had to get in my car. Someone had to make. Someone had to assemble. There were many, many pieces and parts that had to get made as well. I drove on a paved road to get to my office, and someone had to go out and procure the raw materials. Business touches our lives in all kinds of ways.

It can be as exciting as a cure for cancer or as simple as a well-paved road. The point here is that when we think about a good investment, that business has to be meeting and filling true needs of its customers. Yeah, no doubt about that. But then, in order to stay in business, it needs a sustainable profit. I know that's the second element of a good investment.

What does that look like? Sure. This part's pretty straightforward.

Without margin, there is no mission. When we think about a good investment, we're employing a long-term view. Thinking about the business, the company, the macro environment, the business cycle, and part of understanding the fundamentals of a business as well as where they are in their own corporate life cycle is central to building a good portfolio. That's part of our checklist. That's step two of identifying a good investment.

All right. We've got filling a need, a sustainable profit. What would be the third element of a good investment? For the investor, the third element is a positive return.

The business itself has to be profitable. There needs to be enough excess profit or income that that can be provided back to the investor. A lot of folks don't necessarily think about that, but that actually is a biblical principle as well. As stewards of God's assets, it's vital that we invest wisely. A common concern about values-based or faith-based investing is that it's just language.

It's just words, and we're masking something. For us, we want to make no mistake. We're not afraid to make money. For ourselves and for our clients, we believe that aligning God's principles and seeking world-class returns are not mutually exclusive. As believers, we need to remember that the world did not create excellence.

God did. In all that we do, including our investments, we work hardly as unto him. It's okay to have a positive profit in that.

Yeah, that's exactly right. That, of course, I think resonates with everyone. The fourth element, though, of a good investment perhaps is one that we'll resonate with, but maybe we didn't see it there initially. That is, you say for an investment to be good, it really must bless mankind. Talk about that and perhaps even share a few examples.

Sure. When we think of mankind, we also think about the people and the places that God has built and that business touches. Like I said earlier, our desire ultimately is to elevate companies, who are helping the people and places around them flourish.

But to do that, we first have to eliminate those who aren't. There are entire industries of companies who may be meeting a need. That first step has to be filling a need.

We mentioned abortion and pornography, gambling, tobacco, just to name a few. There's clearly customer demand. But by meeting those needs, those so-called needs, those businesses are actually causing harm. They may be preying upon their own customers. They're exploiting and through addictive business models. On the flip side, when we're thinking about what makes a good investment here, when the need is met, it needs to bless mankind. Just to give you an example, there's a company that we're invested in who uses virtual reality, VR, to teach English as a second language. What's interesting is they found that by transforming the traditional classroom into an immersive task-based learning environment and through virtual reality, it actually increases retention by 250% and enjoyability by 150%.

The fun of that. For this particular company, Facebook, who's now known as Meta, has actually tapped this particular company to be the provider of language learning on their platform. Not only is the company meeting real needs in the marketplace, that's step one, but it's bringing blessing to its customers in a unique way. This company is also allowing missionary training centers around the world to train up and send out missionaries into the field by helping them learn that language faster and enjoy doing so. We think God is a God of joy and fun. That's why we get so excited about the power of investing and helping faithful stewards connect in a meaningful way their deepest core values.

I love it. Well, Cole, unfortunately, we're just about out of time. How can folks learn more? Sure. On our website, I would say, is the first place at investments.wannascent.com. You can read more about our team, our process, and we'd love to connect with you there.

Sounds great. Cole, great to have you with us today. Thank you, Rob. That's Cole Pearson, President of Investment Solutions at One Ascent, an underwriter of this program.

That website again, investments.oneascent.com. Your calls are next, 800-525-7000. We'll be right back. Glad to have you with us today on MoneyWise Live. I'm Rob West, your host, and we're going to take your calls and questions now on anything financial.

What's on your mind today? Give us a call, 800-525-7000. We can tackle any financial question.

We'll apply the wisdom from God's Word to see if we can help give you an answer to move forward with confidence. Again, 800-525-7000 is the number to call. Let's begin today in Chicago. Mike, you'll be our first caller. Go ahead, sir. Yes, hello there. Thanks for taking my call.

So I have a question which I have no clue. To make a long story short, my mother-in-law was a prisoner of war and taken to Russia to a hard labor camp. Now, she died back in 1971. Now, since then, we got married and we live in Chicago.

We moved to Chicago. However, we heard that she is entitled to some kind of restitution that will be paid by this Eastern European country. And my question is, do that amount will affect our Social Security or any of our benefits here since we're very close to retirement?

Yeah, it's a fascinating question, Mike. Obviously, I'm not in any way familiar with this restitution and who might be offering it and how you might access it. What I can say is that that would not be affecting any kind of Social Security. So Social Security is based on payment in through the FICA taxes over a long period of time. It's based on your high 35 years of earnings.

And as long as you didn't have some sort of compensation that excluded FICA taxes, then as long as your work record is long enough and you paid in the tax, then you would be entitled to Social Security benefits. And this wouldn't affect that. Are you thinking perhaps of the U.N. resolution that Russia pay reparations for the Ukraine war or something different? It's not related to Ukraine war. OK, this was back back in Romania many years ago.

And I do know exactly who came up with this. OK, we just learned that that she's entitled to that. That's all. Got it.

OK. Yeah. So I would just follow that through and apply in whatever way is communicated to you to receive that. You can always call the Social Security Administration or visit their Web site at SSA dot gov. But again, any kind of income that you would receive or reparations, you know, as long as the work record is there and you paid into Social Security through FICA taxes for a long enough period of time, 40 quarters or 10 years, then they'll take your highest 35 years with a minimum of 10 and base your benefits on that. And once you reach full retirement age, you can earn as much income as you want. Prior to that, over a certain amount, you may have it slightly reduced, but that would be made up to you after full retirement age. So I wouldn't worry about any effect on Social Security. But clearly, if you're entitled to what was communicated to you, as long as it's not a scam and you do your due diligence and don't provide anybody your personal sensitive information, especially if they contact you, then I think you ought to proceed.

And again, it shouldn't have any bearing on Social Security, but a quick call to them or an in-person visit could confirm exactly what you should be expecting. Thanks for your call today. Hey, let us know how that turns out. That's very, very interesting.

Eight hundred five to five seven thousand. We've got four lines open today. We'd love to hear from you. To Miami, Florida, Mary Lou, you're next in the program. Go ahead. Yes. Hi, Rob.

Thank you for your show. I have a 60 year old sister and she's been wanting to leave something for her for adult children. Her house is paid off. The only debt she has is like some school loan she had taken for her for her kids while they were in college. And she wanted to like purchase a life insurance. And I was telling her, no, you know, because now they want to charge her about almost like two hundred dollars for a fifty thousand dollar policy. So she was like, well, what do I do?

How do I leave some money for my kids? So I said, well, let me call Rob and see if he could give some advice that two hundred dollars that she was going to pay. What would she what can she do with it? So, you know, to to leave something for them.

Yeah. Well, I would agree with you, Mary Lou. That's not the best way to go. What I'd rather see you do is or her do is just take that same two hundred dollars a month and just systematically invest that for as long as the Lord allows her to be here and see that grow. And that plus the equity in the home, which should continue to appreciate, would make for a nice legacy and inheritance. The challenge with life insurance is that's really not the purpose of it. It's to offset a risk to provide for family members that depend upon your income if you die.

Well, she doesn't have anybody depending on her. She is looking at this as a possible way to leave an inheritance. The challenge is it's a very costly way to do that, because if she gets a term policy, that would be the least expensive way to do it.

At age 60, it's going to get pretty pricey. As you said, let's say she gets a term policy. Well, if the Lord tarries and she's in good health and lives to a life expectancy of 83, well, at some point she's going to have to drop that policy and then all that money's gone. If she got a whole life policy that lasts for the rest of her life in the Lord tarries and she lives for another decade or two or three, many people are living into their 90s and beyond today, that's going to get very expensive. She's going to spend a lot of money to be able to provide this quote unquote inheritance that perhaps her kids don't even need. Again, I would rather you look at the assets that she has, which today is the home and whatever else she's accumulated, and then say to your sister, let's think about just being disciplined and taking whatever margin you have and let's try to build assets with that in a diversified stock and bond portfolio with systematic investments, allowing her to dollar cost average into the market. The great part about that is that if she ever needs that money for, let's say longterm care, which could be very expensive or some other unexpected expense, well, she's got it, but if she doesn't, at least now it's not all down the drain with a life insurance policy that lapsed because she can no longer afford it.

At least she's got now something, another asset beyond the home to pass on to the kids. So I think that would be my best advice. Does that make sense though?

Good dog, good dog. So you say stock and bond to get that money in stock and bonds instead? Yeah, just create a portfolio of stocks and bonds and just do a systematic investment. She could do some high quality mutual funds or exchange traded funds like indexes.

If she wants more information on how to do that, have her check out soundmindinvesting.org and I'll send you a book as well. Stay on the line. We'll get your information. We'll be right back.

Great to have you with us today on Money Wise Live where we apply the wisdom from God's word to your financial decisions and choices. Give us a call. We've got some lines open today. 800-525-7000 is the number to call. Back to the phones.

To Texas we go. Andrea, thank you for calling. Go right ahead. Thank you for calling, taking my call. One of my questions is if it's not too late to get a retirement plan. My husband is 60 years old and I'm 52.

It's never too late, Andrea. What options do you have available to you? I guess my first question would be, are you both still working? Yes, I just started a new job but he is a builder and he uses the money to reinvest the money and that's why we never thought about having a retirement plan because he was using the money all the time to reinvest the money.

Yes, yeah. Okay, very good. Do you all have real property? Do you have beyond your primary residence, do you own any homes or have any other assets?

Yes, under his business he owns like six houses right now and personally I own another house where my mother-in-law lives there. Okay, very good. Yeah, so those would be part of your retirement plan, I assume, to either generate income in retirement or to liquidate those assets and take that equity and invest it, is that right? Yes. Okay, and so you're looking at saving in addition to that inside a retirement plan, is that what you're asking about? Yes. Okay, sure. Do you all have any margin left over at the end of the month after the bills are paid that you could direct into a retirement plan? We do. It's just that my husband thinks that he can work for another five years and he always thinks that if we put money aside, he probably will need that money to keep building.

Yeah, yeah. Well, I think that's the next question you have to answer is are we, given the capital that he needs for his business, do you actually have money available to put into another asset class, in this case stocks and bonds, or are you all just going to rely on continuing to build out your real estate portfolio as the assets that you'll rely on in retirement for income? Keep in mind, Social Security was never intended to cover more than 40% of your pre-retirement income and with most folks living on 80% of their pre-retirement income, you need to make up that gap and that's why we need to save over our working life so that we have the ability to supplement Social Security to provide for our needs in that retirement season. Now, that can be done with real estate. It doesn't have to be through stocks and bonds and that real estate, as I said, could be sold or it could be rented out as an income property to generate income to use alongside Social Security. So I think you need to do some planning to determine what is your ultimate goal for retirement assets, whether that's held currently in the form of real estate or stocks and bonds, and if you feel like you're not on track with the real estate portfolio that you have and what you might expect him to add to it over the next five years, then perhaps this is a season where you say, you know what, we really need to focus on building other assets to be used in retirement and so let's really limit our lifestyle and let's try to figure out how much we can put every month into a retirement plan. At that point, you probably, assuming you have some matching available with your new employer, I'd probably use your company-sponsored retirement plan, if you have one, as the basis for those systematic monthly contributions so that you're building over the next five years or more. If you plan to work longer than that, you're building other assets alongside your real estate portfolio and the combination of the two, the idea would be that those would provide really the income you need in retirement. But I think at this point you probably need to do some planning so you know what your ultimate goal is and whether you're on track currently ahead or behind. Does that make sense?

Yes, it does. We've been talking to a person at Northwestern Mutual, but we are afraid, I don't know if this company has a good reputation. Yeah, there's nothing wrong with Northwestern Mutual. You may want to get a second opinion. We recommend the Certified Kingdom Advisor designation so you could look for a CKA there in Texas to interview, either for just the planning side of it to just to do some comprehensive retirement planning and or investment management now or in the future.

So you just head to our website MoneyWise.org, click the button that says Find a CKA and I'd interview a couple of them in addition to the Northwestern Mutual representative that you're talking to and see who can provide fee-based retirement planning for you to be able to create a plan so at least you know where you're ultimately headed and how you're doing currently based on that plan. Andrea, thank you for calling. God bless you guys. To Grayslake. Linda, you're next on the program. Go ahead. Thank you for taking my call. We just took our required minimum distribution and I believe a couple months ago you were talking about an I bond and I was wondering is it wise at this time for me to do a $10,000 with mine and a $10,000 for my husband and then also do that next year in January?

Yeah, it could be, Linda. They're certainly not as attractive as they were 60 days ago just given that the yield on the bonds, the I bonds now have come down from where they were at a staggering 9.62% to 6.8%. That's going to be good through May. If you were to buy $10,000 for yourself today in electronic I bonds, you'd get that 6.8% for the next six months and then for the following six months you'd get whatever the new rate is that comes out based on the consumer price index at the time in May of 2023. I still like the I bonds because they're very safe.

They're backed by the full faith and credit of the United States government and currently because of inflation they're paying attractive rates better than you'd find anywhere else with that degree of safety. But you do have to keep the money in for a year. So I like to think in terms of buckets. Bucket one might be your emergency fund, money you need immediate access to and we recommend three to six months expenses in that bucket. I wouldn't put that in an I bond because you can't get to it for a year. Bucket two is money that you don't need for a year but you probably want to have access to in less than five years. That's the ideal bucket for the I bonds because bucket three would be money that you don't need five years and beyond and because I think this elevated yield on the I bonds is temporary because the feds doing everything in their power to get inflation under control and will continue to see the I bond yield fall.

For money that has a time horizon of greater than five years, I'd encourage you to put that into a properly diversified stock and bond portfolio which is going to have a better long-term return especially given how low the market is right now with the recent sell-offs. Does all that make sense though? Oh yes, yes that's very, very helpful. Thank you so much.

You're welcome. If you decided to proceed with that bucket two if you will for money that has a one to five year time horizon and you could put in $10,000 or even $20,000 for you and your husband for this year, then you just head to treasurydirect.gov. It's the only place to buy the I bonds. You can't buy them through the bank. They don't issue paper I bonds anymore.

It's all electronic so you'd create an account treasurydirect.gov and then do transfer the funds from your checking or savings in to purchase the electronic bonds. Hope that helps you Linda. We appreciate your call today. Georgeann, Anna, Israel, we're coming your way next and a couple of additional lines open if you have a question for us today.

1-800-525-7000. This is MoneyWise Live. We'll be right back. Thanks for taking time to join us today on MoneyWise Live.

I'm Rob West, your host. Hey, before we head back to the phones, let me remind you as we head toward year end, just about a month left in the year, hard to believe, we would like to invite you to become a financial supporter of this ministry here at MoneyWise Media. Everything we do on the air and through the app and with our coaches and at MoneyWise.org, all the content and resources, it's all as a direct result of your support. We're financially supported by our listeners and donors to the ministry and we would invite you if you're a part of the MoneyWise family, you rely on this broadcast or you've benefited from the biblical advice shared through the ministry to be a monthly or one-time giver to support this work. You can do that quickly and easily at our website MoneyWise.org and it's critical this time of year as we press toward year end to try to meet our annual goals for this year as well as planning for next year. And so if you have the ability beyond the giving to your local church to support this work, we'd certainly be grateful.

MoneyWise.org, just click the give button and thanks in advance. All right, 800-525-7000. Looks like we have two lines open right now.

Las Cruces, New Mexico. Georgeann, you're next on the program. Go ahead. Yes, sir. Thank you for taking my call and for your program.

I really enjoy it. I have a friend, I have a friend, she and her husband are in their mid-70s and are in pretty bad health and they receive very little money from Social Security and they own their home. And I know you've talked about, I don't know what the program is called about, where you can, I guess you sell your home to some, I don't know if it's a bank or a charity or what. Anyway, they pay the person up front, but they allow them to live in their home until they pass away.

Can you tell me more about that? Well, you're probably talking about a reverse mortgage, essentially where you would continue to live in the home and you'd have to keep the taxes and the homeowner's insurance paid, but you're essentially systematically removing either through a lump sum payment or a monthly income stream, you're systematically pulling the equity out of the home. So folks that use this typically are in a situation like you're describing. They're sitting on a large asset, their home, they have greater than 50% equity in the home, meaning the amount they owe on it, if they owe anything, is less than 50% of the value of the home and they don't want to sell it and downsize, but they need income to cover their bills. And so they do what's called a reverse mortgage where they start to pull that equity out of the home in the form of an income stream and that allows them to stay in the home and meet their obligations. The downside, which is why it's not my favorite tool, is they're expensive. So the interest rates tend to be a bit higher than even what the prevailing rates are.

There's a lot of fees on top of that as well. And it does create a situation where if you wanted the home to stay in the family, let's say as an inheritance, the heirs would have to be able to satisfy the mortgage on a home that might otherwise be free and clear at their death. So is that the kind of thing you're looking for though, Georgeann? Yes, sir.

The house is free and clear. She inherited it from her mom and she doesn't want to leave it to her heirs. Yes. Okay.

Yeah. So at that point, as long as she's got that equity and you're saying she owns it free and clear, generally what would happen is the lender would pay a specified amount each month based on the value of the home and her life expectancy and she could use that to supplement her income. So what you would want to have her research is, again, what's called a reverse mortgage where she's essentially, instead of the typical way, you get a mortgage where you borrow an amount of money and then you pay it back one month at a time over 20 or 30 years. In this case, you're getting a mortgage but there's no payment due.

They're paying you every month and as they pay you out plus the interest and fees, that amount becomes owed back to them at your death or at the death of you and your spouse and it's satisfied through the sale of the home at your death based on the proceeds of that sale. So that would be what they would want to look into and I would look for somebody who really specializes in that to help them find the best reverse mortgage for them. Okay? Okay.

Well, thank you. Now, let's say that home is valued at 200 and some thousand. Would they give them the bank or whoever, would they give them that amount upfront? You can get it upfront but typically what you would see is somebody would get it over one month at a time.

So for instance, they could get, depending on what they're looking to do, they could take a lump sum upfront or they could get a monthly income stream coming out through that reverse mortgage which would allow them only to incur the debt as it's paid out but really solve for what they're ultimately trying to accomplish which is just to have a supplement to their income to be able to meet their obligations and that would generally be the way I would recommend that they go rather than trying to get a lump sum all at once. Okay? Okay. Okay. And they would take out, like the bank would take out the interest fees or whatever each month? Yeah.

So it would all be added to the balance that's owed through the reverse mortgage, the interest and the fees would be added on top of that. Okay. Okay. Well, thank you so much.

I appreciate your help. Okay, you're welcome. Thank you so much for calling today.

God bless you. 800-525-7000 is the number to call. That's 800-525-7000.

Let's head to Clearwater. Anna, you're next on the program. Go ahead. Hi, thank you for taking my call. I have a question. My mom had a funeral insurance and after she passed away, I called to claim this money for funeral and I saw that my mom gained like $2,000, around $2,000. And I asked if I don't have to pay taxes.

And somebody told me when I called that yes on that $2,000, somebody said no. Okay. So this was a life insurance policy, what is essentially called a burial policy? Yes.

Yes. So life proceeds of insurance, of life insurance is not taxable. So that would be paid out on her death and the idea is that that money is then to be used for the funeral expenses which if you had something left over, that would not be taxable. It would just be a part of her estate and then would be distributed according to her will and that inheritance until you get up into the multi-millions of dollars would not be, there is no estate tax right now so there wouldn't be any kind of tax due on the inheritance either.

But there's really never a tax due on life insurance proceeds. Okay. Thank you. Okay. And I thank you for your call today.

To Hendersonville, North Carolina. Hi, Rita. Go right ahead.

Hi, Rob. I was wondering, a few years ago, I had put my money for my 401k in bonds and now I haven't lost anything until very recently. I've lost a little.

Now I want to reinvest back into the stock market and I'm not sure how to go about deciding what to invest in. I'm 61 years old. I will probably work up until the luncheon at my funeral. Then after I help clean up and go with the Lord, I'll stop working. Okay. Got it. All right.

And so you're still there. You've got this money in the 401k and it's currently all in bonds. What have you accumulated roughly Rita? Roughly around 55,000.

Okay, great. The simplest way to go would be what's called a target date fund, which is basically where you pick your expected retirement date, which you'd have to pick a number given that you're planning to work for the rest of your life because none of us know when the Lord would call us home. But let's say you picked a date out 15 years from now at age 75 or even 80, 20 years from now, you'd kind of look at maybe a 2045 fund. And then the allocation of that investment would be geared towards someone who's retiring in 2045. And in that case, because that's such a long time horizon, it would be largely stocks and very little in bonds. And you could begin to move it maybe systematically, maybe 25% every three months or something out of the bonds into that target date fund. But I think ultimately it's going to come down to just given what you want to set as your time horizon, 10, 20 years or more, what stock and bond allocation do you have right now?

That's 100% bonds. Do you ultimately want to be in 60% stocks and 40% bonds? Do you want to be at 70% stocks, 30% bonds? The more you have towards stocks means you have the greater potential for volatility and loss, but you also have a better potential return as well. And then once you decide on that allocation and which investments inside the 401k you're going to use, then I would say over, let's say the next six months, maybe you start to systematically move out of the bonds and into that ultimate allocation that you're looking for. If you need some advice on that, then I would connect with a certified kingdom advisor there in North Carolina and basically just pay somebody not to manage this on an ongoing basis because you have a limited universe of investments, but they could at least advise you on, number one, what is the right allocation?

And then based on that, which particular funds, mutual funds inside your 401k would be the most appropriate based on their risk adjusted returns and historical performance to use to execute that plan. Does that make sense? That makes sense. Thank you so much. Yeah, you're welcome. Appreciate it. And congratulations on not losing any money. You're going to be moving into the market at a great time, especially since you're basically flat and you can take advantage of the recovery whenever that happens.

And that may be still a ways off, but nevertheless, it's a great opportunity for you. We appreciate your call today. Folks, thanks for being along with us today.

It's always a privilege to come alongside you and explore your questions and apply God's word to what you're thinking about today financially. Let me say thanks to my team today. Clara Segar doing a great job handling our phones today. Tahara Haynes, our producer today. Dan Anderson, our engineer, and Mr. Jim Henry providing me with great research. MoneyWise Live is a partnership between Moody Radio and MoneyWise Media. We'll see you tomorrow. Bye bye.