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Have you ever wanted to read through some of your favorite books? Are you prepared to make the new year a better one?

I am Rob West. Of course, this is when a lot of folks make new year's resolutions, usually about how many pounds they plan to lose. But why not make a special resolution to become debt-free in 2023?

I'll talk about that. Then we have some great calls lined up, but please don't call in today because we're pre-recorded. This is MoneyWise Live, Biblical wisdom for your financial journey. Okay, so making new year's resolutions has become a big thing for society as a whole, but did you know that the origin of this exercise in self-improvement is really a Christian tradition? It might explain why folks do it at the start of a year when really you could make them anytime.

It's a tradition going back centuries in the Western world and probably has its roots in so-called watch night services held at the end of the year. by some Christian denominations. The idea is for believers to reflect on the past year and resolve to do better in the new one. God's Word encourages this type of renewal.

Let's go to Romans 12 to where it reads, Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect. There's also evidence that you're more likely to keep your resolutions if you make them at New Year's as opposed to other times. That could be because choosing the first day of the year is like drawing a mental line in the sand, out with the old and with the new. People want to make a fresh start. But do we really stick to our resolutions or has this become just an empty tradition? Different surveys reveal different outcomes depending on how they're worded.

But here's one that seems reasonable. About 30% of us make resolutions each new year. By March, only about 30% of them are still following them strictly. By the end of the year, only about 10% have kept their resolutions. Now, that ends up being a pretty small number, but the experts tell us you can greatly improve your chances of keeping your resolutions for the whole year by using the acronym SMART.

That's S-M-A-R-T, and it stands for Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Realistic and Timely. Okay, so all of this brings us back around to the resolution we hope you'll make in 2023, and that's getting out of debt. I'd like to start with a word of encouragement. For many people, just the thought of getting completely out of debt can seem overwhelming, so they don't try, or they give up too easily. But you don't have to think of it that way.

Instead, think of it as a journey, and you're taking one small step at a time. We're not talking about your mortgage here. That's a subject for another time, just consumer debt. And if you can't envision being out of consumer debt by the end of the year, just think about making some amount of progress instead. The first thing you need to do is write down all your debts and their amounts. Gather up all your credit card statements, auto loans and outstanding bills, then total it up.

That might be depressing for a lot of people, but it has to be done. You have to know how much you owe. Now, once that's totaled up, make a plan to pay it off. Start by figuring out where you can trim spending from your budget to create margin.

That's money left over after all necessary spending. Of course, if you're not on a budget, you need to draw one up. The MoneyWise app will help you do that.

Over 37,000 people are now using its digital envelope system, and you can choose from one of three options depending on your management style. Get it wherever you get your apps, or go to MoneyWise.org and click App to get started. Once your budget's set up, you need to know how much you have to attack your debt each month. While still paying the minimum due on each debt, take that surplus money and put it toward the smallest debt each month. When that's paid off, take all the surplus money and start paying off the next smallest debt, and so on. This is the snowball method because it picks up speed as you go along. As each debt is paid off, you have more and more money to apply to the remaining debt.

It snowballs. But there's a second part to your New Year's resolution to get out of debt. You must also resolve not to take on any new debt.

Otherwise, it'll just wipe out your progress. So don't use your credit cards, and if you have to, cut them up. Oh, and one last thing.

Remember the SMART acronym? Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Realistic, and Timely? Choose an amount that you can reasonably expect to pay off in the next 12 months. That may not be all your debt, but set a goal you can meet.

You want to be in the 10% who keep their New Year's resolutions. Hey, this is a reminder that we're not live today, but we do have lots of great information coming up in the rest of the program, so please stick around. You're listening to MoneyWise Live, and you can find us online at MoneyWiseLive.org. However, today we're not live, so if you hear that phone number, please don't call. But do stay with us. There's lots of great information ahead. We'll begin today in Missouri. Hey Russ, thanks for calling.

Go right ahead. I have previously had employers who offer 401k matching, and they've had it where you can choose different funds. You don't get to choose what companies I don't believe, at least I don't know how, that the money goes to. So I am hesitant to contribute to those funds because as a Christian, I want to make sure I know exactly where my money is going. I don't want it to go to the company.

That's not biblical. So if you maybe help me, how do I invest my money through these employer matching programs, but also know where it's going? Yeah, that's a great question. The good news is Russ, there's more options than ever. It still may not be perfect, but there are more options than ever to take advantage of. So if there's matching, I'd love for you to contribute to that 401k.

But you're right. If you want values aligned investments, you're going to be limited either to the investment selections inside the plan, and hopefully they've added some faith based investment fund families. That would be the first thing.

We'll talk about that in a moment. Or second, you could see if they have what's called a brokerage window, which is an option offered in some 401k plans where the investor has the ability to buy and sell investment securities on their own through a brokerage platform. It might also be known as a self directed option. If they have that, then you would be able to buy individual securities still within the 401k. If not, then you'd be limited to the fund families that are there. And so I would look to see what fund families are present that might be faith aligned.

So are there, you know, funds from Eventide or Praxis or ETFs from Inspire or Guidestone funds or Crossmark, you know, many of the fund families we talk about and you'll find on our website at MoneyWise.org. These are faith based investments, really with a mandate to either avoid companies that are misaligned with your Christian values and or embracing companies that specifically are promoting human flourishing or even having a kingdom impact. And then thirdly, many of them engage as owners of companies on behalf of their shareholders to express the values of believers with company leadership and the investor relations department. And so through avoiding, embracing and engaging, they can build portfolios that are faith forward, more faith aligned. And hopefully, as a believer, would give you some confidence that, you know, your portfolio is aligned with your Christian values.

Have you looked to see whether there's any of these faith based fund families present in the mutual fund options that you have, Russ? Previously, I believe I did. I it was like I didn't know where to look. Yeah, but I don't I kind of didn't really I didn't really didn't really get anywhere.

So anything that would help me know what to ask or where to look. Very good. Yeah. So I might start by going to our website MoneyWise.org and you'll see many of the fund families, the faith based fund families there. If you click on the show at the top of the page at MoneyWise.org, you'll find a listing of all of our underwriters and many of those fund families are listed there. So One Ascent Investments, Guidestone, Praxis, Inspire, Eventide, you know, those would be great fund families. And then you could call the, you know, investor.

Well, the plan administrator of the 401K. So whichever toll free number you would call to access plan information and questions and just say, I'm looking for fund options that are coming from these families. And if none of them exist, then you can encourage them to add some faith based fund families. You could also probably do the research on your own just by logging into your 401K and looking and searching for, you know, any one of these mutual fund families. Secondly, you could explore again this option of a brokerage window and then have an advisor help you make the selections of the investments that again are faith aligned. And that's where a certified kingdom advisor could help you. You could do a search for a CKA there in Missouri on our website again at MoneyWise.org.

Just click find a CKA. So, you know, I think these are great options. The other option is to try to do as much of your investing outside of the 401K as you can. So you could open a Roth IRA. And if you're married, you and your wife could each put in seven sixty five hundred.

I believe it is for twenty twenty three. If you want to go ahead and fund this year, you can as well up to your tax filing and that would give you unlimited investment options. So you could very most certainly seek out these fund families with the the IRA investments. Does that make sense? Yes. Well, they still match.

No, no, no. That would be an individual account. So an IRA is is just your account only. It has nothing to do with your employer. You would set it up outside of your employer and there would be no matching. So that's where you want to go on families. Will they match for the fund families that you were talking about?

Oh, yeah. So the the the matching occurs for your 401K as you make the salary deferred contribution. So it comes right out of your check and you make a contribution to the 401K.

The matching happens at the same time. That's irrespective of which then investments you select from within the plan after the contributions and the matches are made. So the matching is separate from the investment selections you make inside the plan. Okay, so the money basically you're basically saying the money would go that could put choose those matching funds to go to the Christian investments also. Oh, absolutely.

Yes. So as long as a fund is available inside your plan, any of the contributions whether it comes from you or your employer are available for any of the funds that you make. So you're directing the investments, but it's limited to the investment universe inside the plan.

So they either have to add it to the plan or not. And that's really what you're going to be looking for. Okay. All right.

I will look into these in from these these areas and thank you for your help, sir. I'm happy to do it. God bless you, my friend to Texas.

Hi, Kristen. You're next on the program. Go ahead. Thank you for taking my call.

And I was, I'm driving right now. So I don't have anything in front of me. I'm just kind of going from recall, but I was trying to get on the website to apply for a purchase and I've on and it was asking for like a tax ID number, I believe. And I, of course, do not have have that. So I just kind of got stumped and was wanting to see if if I was on the right track there or Yes.

So U.S. taxpayer identification numbers include a Social Security number, which should be issued to individuals or an EIN, an employer identification number, which is issued to individuals or entities. So if you have a social, you could use that in that place. OK. OK. That's what I needed to know. Yeah.

Very good. Treasury direct dot gov. And, you know, that website has been in the past. It's been difficult to navigate. They've recently updated it. It was overwhelmed with traffic back in October.

But it seems at least as of late, I've been hearing that it's been running a little bit more smoothly. So hopefully you won't have any trouble getting that account set up and then transferring the funds in. But Kristen, thanks for your call today. Before we take our next break, let me take this opportunity to remind you that in the final moments of this year, there's an incredible opportunity to support this radio ministry.

That's right. We're still working toward our goal to meet our obligations for this year, as well as make our ministry plans for next year. And we can't do it without your faithful support. So would you consider a gift before December 31st? If you would, we'd be grateful. Just head to MoneyWise.org and click Give.

And again, if you do that by the end of the year, that would be incredibly helpful. Thanks for your generosity. And we'll be right back.

Stay with us. Thanks for joining us today on MoneyWise Live, biblical wisdom for your financial decisions. You know, when we recognize God owns it all and then we live within our means and avoid debt, set long term goals, have some margin and give generously.

At that point, we've put ourselves in a position to experience God's best as stewards of his resources. Well, here on this program each afternoon, we explore the scriptures and try to help you apply his principles to your financial decisions and choices. Now, don't call in today because we're away from the studio, but we've got some wonderful folks that we lined up in advance. Before we head back to the phones, let me say a special thank you to some of our faithful financial supporters. Grateful for Aaron and Hagerstown, Peggy and Brentwood, Debbie and Aiken, South Carolina, Kelly and Bainbridge, Georgia. Thank you that you recently gave along with Bill and Montgomery and Ernest and Brandon, Mississippi. We're grateful for your support here at MoneyWise Media. You know, this is a critical time for us as we press toward year end to try to meet our giving goals as a listener supported ministry. Our goal to close out the year $250,000 in support. We're well on our way and we'd love to invite you to give this week in particular as you help us close out the year strong and plan for our ministry activities here at MoneyWise Media in the coming year. You know, if you value the biblical message of MoneyWise and want to help expand this message, your tax deductible gift is a direct way to help build and strengthen the kingdom of God as we share these timeless principles. So to give, just head to MoneyWise.org and click the give button.

Again, MoneyWise.org and click give at the top of the page and we'll thank you in advance for that. To Wisconsin we go. Hi Ed, thanks for calling, sir. Go ahead. All right.

Thanks for having me. My question is, I had a 401k with a previous company and since there was no more contribution since I left that company, I took that money and put it with Fisher Investments and that was last December and since then I've lost about $130,000. And that kind of hurts and my thought is, I'm thinking about an annuity and there's a couple annuities out there that pay 8% a year guaranteed and I would at least like to recover my losses and I'm just, I don't need the money. I'm 62 years old. I have a military pension. I'm still working and my wife collects Social Security. So my question is, do I stay with the investment because history tells us it's going to come around or do I go with a guaranteed 8% for the next 10 years and go with an annuity? Yeah. Well, I guess that the question is, first of all, how is that 8% calculated and is it truly a guaranteed 8% and what about withdrawals and how does that play into it?

These are very complicated instruments so I just want to make sure you understand exactly what you're getting into. The only other consideration is that you'd essentially be locking in what I assume is unrealized losses at this point by converting over to the annuity. I mean, perhaps once this market recovers and we've obviously seen some strength as of late, it could head lower, no doubt, especially if we hit a full-blown recession next year. But our high of 36,000 on the Dow, we're already back to 34,600 today with the market up 400 points. Again, that doesn't mean it's not going to be down another 2,000 three months from now, but eventually we will get to the other side of this.

The Fed will start lowering interest rates and the trillions of dollars on the sideline of this market will come rushing back in because the U.S. is still in the strongest position economically on the world stage. And I don't see that changing anytime soon. So for that reason, I think I would prefer, and ultimately you need to of course make this call, that you kind of wait out these declines, see that recovery and then decide, okay, going forward, am I comfortable continuing to assume the risk to get the full benefit of the return that comes with that? Or would I rather transfer that risk to an insurance company and then, okay, what product am I getting into? Because again, these are complicated, somewhat tend to be expensive, these annuities, there's all kinds of complexities as to how the return is calculated and what portion of the upside do you get in exchange for the downside protection and just kind of all of these considerations that you need to make sure you understand before you make that decision.

Does that make sense though? Yeah, yeah, I kind of understand the annuity and the surrender charges and the death benefit and all that. But I guess I was looking for the confidence that you kind of reflect what, I've talked to three or four different investment advisors and you reflect how they look at things. And of course the annuity guy reflects, hey, 2023 is going to be a recession, you need to get out. So I appreciate that you're kind of in line with who I've talked to on the investment side.

So that's very helpful, I really appreciate it. Okay, well I'm glad to hear it and I think getting a couple of other opinions just so you understand exactly what's going on here. I mean in some cases where they say it's a guarantee, there are some catches in terms of it doesn't guarantee the annuity's actual return, it guarantees the growth of what's called an income account value by an optional rider and that's not money you can withdraw. And so by buying that lifetime income rider, it creates the income account value which grows at a higher rate.

But there's just a whole host of complexities that come with that. So I think perhaps getting a couple of opinions before you make that call and then settling on this bigger issue of, do I really want to lock in those losses right now and make this change or is that something I'd like to do to get more conservative down the road once this account fully recovers? So you think and pray through that Ed and we appreciate you calling today, God bless you sir. To Texas, hi Donna, you're next on the program, go ahead. Hi, how are you doing?

I'm doing real well, thanks. Good, you know this is about insurance, it's about whole life insurance. And she is a life broker and she took a look at what I currently have and she suggested something else. Now I'm trying to be biblically responsible and she says that I have royal neighbors, Aetna and foresters before my birthday. All right, let's do this. My apologies Donna, the clock got the best of me. I got to take a quick break but you stay there, we'll tackle your question just on the other side. Hey, this is a reminder that we're not live today but we do have lots of great information coming up in the rest of the program. So please stick around. Delighted to have you with us today on MoneyWise Live. Our team is away from the studio so don't call in but we've got some great questions that we lined up in advance.

And just before the break we were talking to Donna in Texas, Donna I apologize we got cut short there. You were saying you're really looking at some companies that you have whole life insurance with and wanting to know in particular whether they align with your Christian values, is that right? Well I don't have them yet but these are the choices that the life broker gave me because she was looking at my property that I currently have and she thought it would be. And I agree with her to add like an accidental death and accelerated death benefit and she gave me some choices and my birthday is tomorrow. She encouraged me to do it before I turned 71 and those companies are Royal Neighbors, Aetna and Foresters Financial.

And my question for you is, one question, is do you know anything about them being biblically responsive? I don't unfortunately. There are some tools out there that you could use.

One is on the web at InspireInsight.com. As long as it's a publicly traded company you could do some research and look at how they use their corporate profits and what issues they support that may or may not align with your values. So that would be one way to go. I would question just whether or not you need this life insurance at this point. Is there somebody that's depending upon you for your income?

No. And I already have life insurance and I've had it for about 10 years with Transamerica and it's enough and I've got in place final expenses taken care of and that type of thing. So I already have life insurance.

Do I even need to change? Well I guess that's my question and I'm also questioning just how expensive this policy is. Are you continuing to pay the premiums on the policy that you have or is it already paid up? No, it's not paid up and what we were looking at was changing over to another policy that really is similar. It's quite similar in terms of the premium and the benefit, that type of thing.

But the one she was offering adds just a little more with the accidental. I guess I'm just wondering what the purpose of it is. Where is this money going to go when the Lord calls you home and is it a necessary expense for you or would it be better to pull out any cash value, use that to shore up your assets that you have and get this out of your budget so you're not continuing to spend money on a policy that you don't really need? Okay, well now I'm living with one of my kids and her family and so I am paying the life insurance but they're paying the cremation expenses and then the benefit will go to them when I pass. And so you're using this kind of as a part of the inheritance you'd like to provide? Yeah, exactly.

Okay, alright. Well I just think you need to be clear on what the purpose is. Typically we use life insurance to offset a risk where if we have a dependent like a spouse who's counting on our income or a minor child who's counting on our income and if the Lord were to call us home and that income goes away that would create a hardship. Not necessarily to use it as an inheritance, I'd rather you save outside of an insurance product or policy and then pass on whatever assets the Lord has blessed you with at your death as your inheritance as opposed to trying to fund life insurance which as you age is going to get more and more expensive. And especially with you continuing to add more costs through additional riders and so forth, there's a lot of benefit for that to the insurance agent.

I'm just not sure that really is necessary for you. Yeah, well I did talk to a CKA and her yesterday and her company is Primerica and she was saying you might as well just save your money. The thing is, like I said, now my kids they've been, I've been with them for about five years now and so I'm scheduled to move next year. But since, you know, my granddaughter was born, but they are paying the cremation and so we have agreed that when I go they would get the inheritance.

Well that makes sense to me. I think to your original question I wouldn't be able to weigh in on kind of these particular companies in terms of faith alignment so you could do that research, but I would probably concur with that CKA and again I don't know a whole lot about your situation so you need to make this decision with these professionals. But I'm just not sure it's necessary to replace anything or add a lot of additional riders at this point.

That just sounds like more expense to me that's not necessary. But hopefully that gives you some additional thoughts, Donna, as you make this decision and we appreciate you checking in with us today. God bless you and we appreciate you being a part of the program. Let's head to Kentucky. Caleb, you're next up, sir.

Go ahead. Hi, I was calling about my wife and I bought a boutique last year and we were I was I was thinking of, you know, hiring my kids as you know their young toddler and a new and a one year old hiring them as like clothing models for the boutique and what it would be like what percentage you would pay them towards like a Roth or savings out of the amount you can pay them a year. Yeah, so what are the ages of your kids? My oldest, my son is three or he'll be three in January and my daughter is one.

She just turned one back in November. OK. And so the you know, I think the key is you need to make sure that they're doing legitimate work because, you know, if you're going to obviously they can only, you know, make contributions to a Roth IRA if they have earned income, you can do it on their behalf. And they have to be a legitimate ploy where the compensation makes sense and can be justified. The key is you don't want to do anything that, you know, would conflict where the IRS could challenge it. And so you probably want to check with your CPA.

Do you normally use a CPA? Yeah, we have one. He hasn't got back to me yet. And I was just kind of getting a couple different perspectives possible. OK. Yeah.

So, I mean, here's the key. They have to do real work. You've got to comply with employment laws in terms of age and hours and all of that. Follow the child labor laws. You've got to give them real wages that are reasonable. You've got to separate family and work jobs and then withhold taxes appropriately. You know, got to deposit the wages and then file a tax return depending on, you know, how much they earn. But then, you know, if you do that in the right way and your CPA is on board with that, then if they have earned income, you could absolutely begin funding a Roth IRA up to that earned income. And I think that's a great idea because the earlier you can start getting that tax free compounded growth, the better. I think the key is you just need to do some homework and make sure that, you know, you're doing everything the appropriate way.

For instance, with the child labor laws, you can check with the U.S. Department of Labor and get all of those details on what you need to know along with the other issues I mentioned. OK? Yep. How much of a percentage would you put? Would you put all of it until they're, you know, 16, 17, they start using it? I think the key is kind of how do you want to approach this? Like, so, for instance, the other major expense would be college. How do you want to handle that? And do you want to take, you know, a portion of this and put it into a 529? Or are you going to save for college separately? And this really is for the long term.

I'd probably split it 50-50 so they have something they could use more currently when they're ready and then have something for the long term. Caleb, thanks for your call today. God bless you, my friend. We'll be right back on MoneyWise. Stay with us. Thanks for joining us today on MoneyWise Live.

I'm Rob West, your host. You know, we see in Luke 12 the parable of the rich fool, which concludes by talking about the fact that we should be rich toward God. He says to this rich fool, What does that mean? Well, I think it's managing our money in such a way that it's apparent that God is our ultimate joy and affection, not our things.

We've got to reorient our hearts and our minds toward how we handle God's resources so we can, in fact, not be rich toward the things of this world, but rich toward God, where he is the object of our affection. Well, that's what we try to do each day on this program. By the way, our team is away from the studio, so don't call in. We did line up some great questions in advance, though, so you enjoy. Back to the phones, we go to Arkansas. Hi, Glenda. Thanks for your patience.

Go right ahead. I'm calling regarding my granddaughter, who is 16 right now, and she lives in California. I'm in Arkansas, but I want to put something aside for her. She doesn't really have a lot of family and all that she can count on. And I wondered what might be a good thing to put. Well, I'm thinking $100 a month if I can sock it away somewhere, whether it's a savings account. I don't know what all the things are.

What would you suggest? Yeah, let's try to get a little more specific on how you would want to ultimately give this to your granddaughter. At what age and for what purpose? Well, I'm not sure of 18 or 21.

She may need it at 18, and the purpose would be whatever she might need, because she may just have a need to have some money to live on. Yeah, and what is her age now? 16, and I'm like retired. I'm 73, so I may not be around. You never know.

Well, it doesn't sound like the Lord's quite done with you yet, so you may be here quite a while, Glenda. So somewhere between two and perhaps five years is what you're thinking, correct? Yeah, that's about right. Okay, and are you wanting to have control over when she gets it, or do you automatically want her to get it at 18, for instance? I don't think that matters. I just don't want her to get it before that.

Okay. Yeah, the only reason I ask is if you put it in a custodial account, which would mean that it becomes her asset at the age of majority, you just have to recognize that if that's 18 in your state, and let's say you felt like she wasn't quite ready for it at that point, you wouldn't have any control over that. Whereas if you keep it in your name, then you get to determine the time and place that you transfer this money over to her. But I think for right now, what you could do is look at the I bonds, the inflation bonds. You'd only have to leave that money in for a year. You could buy up to $10,000 worth.

And right now they're paying 6.8%, and there's no risk on it because it's backed by the US government. And you could open the account in her name, or you could put it in your name and make her the beneficiary if you were to pass away. And then any time after 12 months, you can redeem it, and you'd be credited the interest that goes with it.

So that would be one way to go. You'd buy the I bonds at treasurydirect.gov. You could set up an account, and then you could buy $100 worth a month if you want. Given that the time horizon is less than five years, I probably wouldn't put it in the stock market.

So what I would do is either use the I bonds that I mentioned or just put it in a high-yield savings account in your name, like at Marcus or Capital One 360 or Ally Bank, and then just set up an automatic transfer every month of that $100 from your checking into that high-yield savings account that's going to be paying about 3% right now per year. But the key is it's safe, and it's earmarked for her, so it's separate from your other money. And that way, whenever you're ready to give it to her, whatever you've accumulated over the next couple of years, up to five years, it's sitting right there.

You don't have to worry about the stock market being up or down or sideways. And then you could just pull it out and give it to her. Does that make sense?

Yeah. Now, do I have to pay taxes on this? You would. And that's where it comes down to whether it's your account or hers. But if you keep it in your name, you would pay the taxes. If you decided to put it in a custodial account, then she would. Okay. And the custodial account would end whenever, like I said, when she was 18 or 21, whichever I chose or whatever.

Is that correct? Well, so with a custodial account, it's based on the age of majority in your state, which is typically 18. So that's why I'm thinking you probably don't want to do that if, in fact, you wanted to hang on to this money until she was 21. With a custodial account, you wouldn't be able to do that.

And so then you'd keep it in an account in your name, but then you would be responsible for the taxes on the interest that you receive. Getting back to the I-bonds, I thought that it was kind of not good to do something with the government nowadays. But if you look at it, Glenda, we're still far and away the strongest economy in the world. You know, despite our challenges, the full faith and credit of the United States government is about as good as you can get from a soundness of money standpoint. So I wouldn't have any trouble over a five year time horizon for you having U.S. government backing. You're not going to find anything stronger than that anywhere in the world, in my opinion.

Oh, yeah. Well, I think that used to be at nine percent right now. Now it's at six point eight and it will continue to come down with inflation. I'm just looking at investment options that don't have any risk of loss since your time horizon is potentially as low as two years. I don't want you putting that in the stock market. And then all of a sudden we're in a recession and you were ready to give her the money and it's down 30 percent. So that's why I'd like for you to either put it in a savings account or I bonds where you don't have to worry about the principal loss.

No, I was too. I thought you had to put a minimum 10,000 in. It's a maximum of 10,000 per year per person. So up to 10,000. So I can put a hunt. I mean, I guess I could put in 100 and I could add it each month or whatever. Sure could. Yes, ma'am. Yep.

You just create an account at Treasury direct dot gov. Hey, you sound like a wonderful grandmother and grateful to talk to you today, Glenda. All the best to you. To Indiana we go. David, you'll be our final caller, sir. Go ahead.

Yes, I'm 72 years old. My ticker is kind of been winging out, but I think God's healing that. But I had money in the stock market and it kept going down and down and down. And I had a great adviser, but I was talking to him and all of a sudden he pulled me out of the stock market and just sent all the money to me because he thought I needed it to be available. It's about 100,000 bucks and I don't know what to do with it.

Yeah. Well, tell me kind of how you're thinking about this money and what you'd like to do with it. Do you want to take some risk with it and try to grow it? Do you want to try to hang on to it and just at all costs, make sure it's protected?

What's your thinking? Well, I was thinking about pulling it out of the bank because I have no faith in the government either necessarily. But you just said that it was going to be OK, otherwise it was going to be in a mattress or out back in the tin can buried. So I don't know exactly what to do.

That's why I'm calling you. I want growth because it's the money that I have to live off of, obviously. I'm only making about 800 bucks a month on Social Security and I try to live on that a month, which I do pretty well at. I'm pretty frugal, but I still responsibly, I need to be responsible with the Lord's money and want it to be growing. I do give to the Lord regularly. So here we are.

Yeah, very good. Do you have an emergency fund separate from this roughly $100,000, David? No, no. That $100,000 is all I have.

OK. So what I would do, if it were me, is I would say, let's take six months worth of expenses at a minimum and put it in a high yield savings account with an online bank that's FDIC insured that's paying you three percent a year. And that's going to be continuing to head up with interest rates.

And then I'd take the balance and I would, you know, if it were me, I probably wouldn't have pulled it out of the market. And I would probably say with the right advisor that has the right investment mix, you know, where you've got probably somewhere between 30 and 40 percent in stocks, maybe closer to 30 if you want to be conservative. And then 60 to 70 percent in bonds, especially as we get to the kind of the top end of the rate increases. And, you know, we got some higher yields and now the bond prices aren't falling. Now all of a sudden you've got a solid portfolio that you're not looking at over six months or a year.

But you're saying if the Lord tarries and I'm in, you know, the Lord heals me with my heart issue, then I could be around for another decade or two, you know, doing whatever God has called me to. And I want to try to overcome the effects of inflation because this money is losing purchasing power every day when it's not earning anything. And so I'd probably have that 70, 30 stocks to bonds portfolio for the portion that's not your emergency fund that's guaranteed at three percent. Then you don't have to worry about selling something when it's down. You can take a long term perspective and you'll know that at least I've got something that's earning some income that I can feel good about pulling and not depleting all that I have.

And I wouldn't worry about a collapse of the U.S. government or the banking system in the next couple of decades if it were me. So that's my best advice for you, David. But I appreciate your calling today. You're the steward.

So pray through that and see where the Lord leads. And I'm confident he'll give you some wisdom. Thanks for being a part of the program, sir.

God bless you. Well, we're about out of time today, but before we wrap up, let me remind you, as we head toward year end, we could use your assistance and support as we close out the year financially. We rely on your listener support here at Money Wise Media.

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