A New Year’s Resolution for Our Investing

If Christmas is the most wonderful time of the year, you could call these few weeks after Christmas the most introspective time of the year. I am Rob West. This is a time when we can resolve to live with greater faith and purpose, and this should include our investing. I'll talk about that today with Jason Meyer, and then it's on to your calls at 800-525-7000.

That's 800-525-7000. This is Faith and Finance Live, biblical wisdom for your financial journey. Well it's always great to have Jason Meyer on the program.

He's the executive director of the Eventide Center for Faith and Investing, an educational initiative of Eventide Asset Management and an underwriter of this program. Jason, great to have you back with us. Hey, good to be with you again, Rob. Thanks. Jason, in the spirit of the new year, I understand that you have a personal reflection and even a goal setting exercise for us today, which I'm excited about. Is that right?

That's right. You know, one of the things I'm really thankful for is just new cycles of time and life that allow us fresh vision for our lives. And I think about Lamentations says, the mercies of the Lord are new every morning. And if they're new every morning, how much more are they new with each new year that we're granted life? So I hope everybody's just filled with fresh hope and encouragement at the brand new mercies of God on offer today. Amen. All right, so why don't you dive in?

What do you have for us? Yeah, so I'd like to take advantage of the new year for some personal assessments and goal setting. Now, I don't know if you've ever done one of these new year assessments, but if you have, you'll know that many of the tools out there kind of encourage us to break down our lives into different categories for reflection. So maybe a finances category, a faith or spirituality category, an area to think about our work goals, our family life, our health, et cetera. And breaking things down like this into separate categories can help us in isolating those parts of our lives for closer examination and reflection. But it can also create divisions between our faith and these other parts of our lives, which are not really separate.

So, for example, we can assess our finances separate from our faith, which can lead us to mess, of course, the ways in which financial decisions can have very real moral and spiritual dimensions to them, which I know is something that you talk a lot about here on the program. Well, that's exactly right. So faith should really be the lens through which we consider all areas of our life. Would you agree? Absolutely.

Yeah, that's exactly right. We need to have faith be the guide through this whole process. And in my world, which is investing, that's really where I want us to focus today. But it's an area that is, I think, especially resistant to this kind of faith examination. Just to give you an example here, if we were to ask the typical person to kind of make a personal assessment of how they think their investing is going, I think most people's minds would go to really just questions like, am I saving enough for the future for retirement? That's the question we're always hit with in education today.

And I know we all probably feel behind and bad about that. And that's not a bad question, of course. It can sometimes fail to get us beyond the superficial to really examining some of the hard issues that are there. Now, of course, investing does require diligence and sacrifice and planning.

So there are some spiritual dimensions there, but hopefully you get my point. Now, I think even when we do bring the spiritual questions to bear on our investing, we can still stay at a very high level. So if I were to ask, how would you do a spiritual assessment of your investing?

A lot of people there consider questions really about greed and just how much they've given themselves over to kind of the distorted vision of retirement and the American dream and living only for ourselves and things like that. And while that's also important, really what I'm hoping for is that we can press beyond that and to ask something even more fundamental about the very companies that we're supporting in our investing. Yeah, it's really helpful, Jason. And the good news is there are more opportunities than ever to allow your faith to be aligned with your investments, your deployment of capital, isn't that right?

Yeah, that's right. And there are many faith-guided, faith-based investments on offer today that can help us on the back half of such an assessment. Well, after this break, we're going to dive into that and perhaps look at a better way to assess our investing that gets us deeper into the hard issues. Jason will actually unpack this process that you can apply to your own investing. We're joined by Jason Meyer, executive director of the Eventide Center for Faith and Investing, an educational initiative of Eventide Asset Management. Much more on Faith and Finance Live just around the corner. Stay with us.

We'll be right back. Thanks for joining us today on Faith and Finance Live. I'm joined today by executive director of the Eventide Center for Faith and Investing, Jason Meyer.

We're delighted you're with us today. We're talking about a process that you can use to reflect and perhaps even evaluate your investing in light of your faith. You know, so often when we think about evaluating our finances, we might think about a numerical evaluation.

How are we doing toward our goals? But what about faith alignment as it relates to our investments? Well, Jason is going to help us dive into this particular area with a process, perhaps, Jason, a better way to assess our investing that gets us deeper into the hard issues, right? Yeah, yeah, that's right. And what I want to share with you is actually an investing examination that came to me by a person named Ben Nica, who's one of the contributing authors at the Eventide Center for Faith and Investing.

I just really like his framework. And so here's the way it goes. I'll describe it to you. At the end, I'll give you a link to a worksheet you can fill out.

But it's very simple. It starts by first writing down all your investments, your stock investments, bonds, cash, whatever you have, real estate, and the rough percentage that you have allocated to each. And then next to each of these categories to write down a sentence just detailing the rationale as to why you have that investment composition that you have there. Now, just to give you an illustration of this, I'm going to use Ben Nica's responses that he gave me from a prior year where he did this.

So listen to his if you think about your own. So he has an investment in cash, 20%. This is held at Synchrony Bank, which is convenient for him, and he says pays high interest rates. And 20% allocation of cash may seem high, but he's rather skeptical about the markets these days, and he's also saving up for a down payment. So next category, stocks, 40%. And he holds these in low-fee index funds. And the rationale here is in his thinking that index funds have generally been shown to outperform most active asset managers when you consider fees, and they're recommended by people like Warren Buffett. Bonds, 20%.

Hold in mutual funds. This allocation is, again, perhaps a little high for Ben's age, but again reflects his skepticism about the markets these days. And finally, he has a cash balance pension plan for the final 20% of his investments.

Ben's a very fortunate person to have such a benefit, and his employer very rare, and he really has no idea the way in which that pension plan is invested. So that's part one. Yeah, that's really helpful as a breakdown.

What else can we glean from this, though? Yeah, one of the things that I think you can see is just most of the time when we're thinking about our investing, the logic is pretty straightforward around just our thoughts on the macro environment and the health of the economy and our own appetite for risk and our need for a return. Now I want to just move on to part two of this exercise, which I think will bring greater clarity, and it's to make a second list. So we've got our investing list. On the second list, what you do is you write down all of your philanthropic investing, including the rationale, just like you did with your investments.

And again, I'm going to use Ben's list for illustration purposes. So 70% of his giving goes to his local church. His local church plays an irreplaceable role in his family's life and the lives of other families.

He's very proud of his church. 23% of his giving goes to the disadvantaged and unfortunate. So he gives to a couple of ministries, Open Hands Legal Services, which does some legal representation in New York City, a city he has connections to, and it pushes back on law abuses that exploit the needy. He also gives to Jericho Ministries and Community Emergency Service, which is in Minneapolis, another city he's connected to, and they provide services for the needy, both materially and spiritually. 7% giving goes to an area called Practical Theology, which is some Christian counseling resources from people like Dr. David Paulsen. And finally, he gives some miscellaneous gifts, ad hoc from bonus and tax returns and things like that, and that goes to a few ministries, both in New York and the Minnesota area. Now, the introspective question is to compare the two lists and to ask yourself, what do you notice when you're looking at these two lists and the motives as to why you're allocating dollars in those directions? Yeah, and it's clearly a very different thought process for each list, right?

That's right. So for Ben's philanthropic investments, he has a very detailed... actually, he left out a lot of detail... a very detailed understanding of the activities of each organization he supports and morally approves of them, even is very proud of them, and he believes they contribute to the flourishing of society and to justice in our world. And if these organizations were to turn from their core convictions and commitments, Ben conveyed to me that he would immediately cease his investments. Now, if you contrast that to the investing side of the ledger and the stocks and bonds, etc., there he has no knowledge of the companies that he is supporting through his investments, much less their activities.

Of course, why? Because he's using investment products, things like index funds, which are a very passive approach to investing. He's really handed over the responsibility of choosing those specific companies, and he's really aligned with just the broader success of the market generally. Ben notes that his approach to investing is also morally passive in that it entails a kind of simple indifference to the moral quality of the work performed by the companies that he's investing in, the companies inside of the investments. So his investment strategy is really only about risk, return, convenience, and one of the comments he made to me is that if he stayed invested this way, he will have supported these unknown companies for nearly 50 years without truly knowing or engaging in the inherent good or bad of their products and services, how they impact customers, employees, suppliers, communities, environment, etc. Now, Ben's investments here are pretty typical, I would say, in the sense that most of us really don't know what's going on inside of our investments. And I think it can highlight to us the way in which we might need to consider how to bring that into the picture. This is all really helpful, Jason. So how can our listeners use this assessment as they step into a new year?

Yeah, hopefully, you'll do the exercise. And hopefully, this exercise reveals to you the way in which you choose your investments and the way in which you give your money, and the way in which the motivations there should share some commonalities. While it's certainly appropriate and essential to consider the risk and return for our investing decisions, this exercise also highlights a common blind spot, I think, in investing today, namely that we often fail to consider the impact that our investing is having on the world with very real and moral, very real moral and spiritual dimensions there.

And so this investing exercise, I think, should just lead us to ask a basic question in this new year. How can my investing choices be guided more by my faith? And really, the goal is to consider the ways in which our investing dollars are already having an impact and how we can do that to an even greater degree that aligns with with God's vision for business and the world. Yeah, to this point, it seems like to most investors that this area of our financial lives was just off limits. There was nothing we could do to really align it with our faith.

And what you're telling us is there's an entirely different opportunity. So how can folks get more information about faith guided investing, Jason? They can go to faithandinvesting.com slash faith vie. There you'll find the worksheet and resources for faithful investing. That's great. Again, that's faithandinvesting.com slash faith vie.

That's faith F I. faithandinvesting.com slash faith vie. Jason, thanks for being with us today, my friend. Thanks.

My pleasure. We'll be right back. Stay with us.

Much more to come. It's time to turn the corner. Let's take your calls and questions today on anything financial. We'd love to hear from you. The number to call today with lines open is 800-525-7000. That's 800-525-7000. Give us a call.

Let's start in the Bronx, New York. Karen, thanks for calling. Go ahead. Hi, Bob.

I'll try to make this as fast as I can. I'm 71 years old, but I helped my daughter through school, finished one mortgage, but to help her, I had to refinance. After I refinanced and she got through, we sold the condo, and now I'm looking to buy a house out of New York. And I have former military service, but I'm going to do a conventional loan. Okay. And I'm still actively working, and I just want to know, is this feasible? I don't have a lot of savings.

I have $10,000 right now at present. Okay. All right. So you've got $10,000 in savings, and that's all you have, including what you would use as a down payment to buy the home? Yes.

I've already been pre-approved for over $250,000, and I would only have to put 5% down. Okay. All right. But that would take all of your liquid savings, is that right? I would say it would, yes.

Yeah. I guess that's my only concern, is I'd love for you to go into this with a bit more down and still have an emergency fund on top of it. I love the idea of you owning a home.

What I don't love is you stretching to buy it without any reserves to fall back on. And because you're going in with such little down, one of the things we're expecting this year is to see the housing market pull back a bit. So nationally, they're expecting the housing market to pull down 5% to 6%. That would potentially eat up, depending on how quickly you do this, all of the equity that you have. And let's say we're to hit maybe a more severe recession where we saw housing prices lose 10% or more in certain pockets of the country. And I guess that's the challenge, is that you could find yourself upside down in this home. And if the unexpected comes, and it typically does, then we don't have any liquid savings to fall back on.

So now all of a sudden, we're into credit cards or something like that. So I guess my preference would be that perhaps you, you get relocated, especially since you're going to another state, make sure you know where you're wanting to settle down. If you're moving to be in your family, obviously, that may be, you know, a foregone conclusion, which part of town you want to move to, but perhaps you, you know, getting there, settling in, and then saving a bit more, you know, could give you a little more cushion.

So you could put a little more down, but at the very least have at least some liquid savings to fall back on, you know, for the unexpected. But give me your thoughts on that, Karen. Karen I, well, first of all, God has been beyond awesome. I'm providing for me in a way you can't even imagine. I still, I still donate and I support two children, you know, outside, I mean, they're not mine, but through mission, through missions or compassion and also world evangelism, I support two children.

And even with all that I'm doing, I'm able still to make this meet and to command a very decent salary as a registered nurse. So I feel that I agree with you. I don't disagree.

I agree with you. But I just, I need to leave from where I am, because I, I'm really miserably unhappy. And I really want to go out Midwest.

So Yeah, yeah, well, and you could still do that. I mean, I don't want to get in a binary trap where we say, you know, buy a house or not, in the sense that, you know, you could go ahead and move and, you know, without buying a home and rent, you know, get a feel for the area, make sure that is in fact where you want to settle down. Let's see what happens. You know, with regard to the recession, if we have one, how deep is it? What has what happens to housing prices get to a place where mortgage interest rates, you know, come down a bit, we've seen them, you know, they crested around seven and a half, you know, we're seeing rates now in the fives, I'd love for that to get down quite a bit more, which is going to make the home more affordable for you, especially with you borrowing as much as you are. And I guess I would continue to come back to Yes, we ultimately trust God for his provision.

He is our provider. But we also see clearly in Scripture that we're to be savers, and we should, you know, not presume upon the future. And I think having something, you know, there and liquid to fall back on really is the key. You know, so I guess that's where I would feel, excuse me, a lot better with a few of these uncertainties kind of being worked through a bit more, and you having some reserves that you could lean on at that point. So I'd probably at the very least, delay the purchase, even if you don't delay the move, just so you can, you know, wait out a few of these things.

And, and hopefully, with the work that you're doing right now, start putting some money aside that you could build up a, an emergency fund that would be there beyond what you're having to put down on the house. Do you follow all that? Oh, absolutely do.

Absolutely do. I really stretch myself in, but I thank you so very, very much. Well, you're welcome, Karen. Appreciate your program. Well, thank you very much for that. And I'm delighted about this next chapter of your life and seems like God is leading very clearly you in another direction, and we'll pray that he has something really special for you in this next season.

But you give it some prayerful thought before you make that decision. If we can help further along the way, don't hesitate to reach out to us and God bless you. Well, folks, we've got some lines open today. We're taking your calls and questions, 800-525-7000. That's 800-525-7000. Hey, if you haven't checked out our brand new website, I'd love for you to do that. Faithfi.com. That's faithfi.com. You can listen to broadcast archives, you can create a free account and jump into our MoneyWise, excuse me, faith and finance community, where you can post questions along with others that are posting questions every day and getting responses to their questions from others on their stewardship journey. You can also download the new Faithfi app there on the website. Just click faithfi.com and then click the app button. Finally, you can search for a Certified Kingdom Advisor.

Just click the button that says Find a CKA. Much more to come on the broadcast today as we take a quick break and back with your questions. David and Gilda, come on your way next. Stay with us.

We're so thankful you tuned in today to Faith and Finance Live. I'm Rob West. We're taking your calls and questions.

We've got some great ones, but a few lines open, 800-525-7000. Let's head to Chicago. David, you're next on the program, sir. Go ahead.

How are you doing, brother West? I'm glad you're taking the call. I appreciate the light leadership that you, your sponsors and your guests provide. Well, thank you very much. I appreciate it. Absolutely.

I have a quick question. With respect to investments and people who are looking to get a return on an investment capital, but don't want to risk some of the things that can happen in the stock market, what's your opinion with respect to some of the indexed policies and annuities that are now available in the life insurance industry? Yeah, I think they do serve a purpose for just what you're describing. You know, if you want to transfer the risk to an insurance company in exchange for perhaps a slightly lower return and a little bit more complexity, and then, you know, perhaps one of the bigger issues is just losing access to your capital without surrender charges and penalties, then they can serve a great purpose.

They're not my first choice for those reasons. I think, you know, if you're willing to assume a bit of risk that you're going to do better over the long haul investing outside of an insurance product, but if you're looking for a floor on your investments and willing to give up a little bit of the upside, or you want a guaranteed rate of return, you know, over the long haul with some tax deferral and you know, that gives you peace of mind or perhaps it helps you solve for an income gap and would give you a guaranteed income to make up maybe a gap between the income sources you have and your expenses and knowing that that's covered for the rest of your life or the rest of your life plus a spouse, you know, can give folks enough peace of mind to say that's worth it. I don't have to wake up thinking about what the stock market's doing or anything like that. So again, it's not my first choice, but I think it certainly is an option to be considered. What would be the alternative? Well, it would be building a portfolio that takes a commensurate amount of risk to the return you're expecting.

So if you're willing to settle for 4 or 5% a year, then you can be fairly conservative in your investment mix with perhaps the lion's share and fixed income type investments, maybe some more income oriented stocks that are paying a healthy dividend, and then maybe a very small portion to a growth oriented stocks just to provide some growth component to the portfolio. But you do have to take a long term perspective and recognize in any quarter or year or two, the portfolio could be down. And you know, you have to take the risk that comes with that.

But give me your thoughts on that. Is that helpful? That's very helpful.

I'm just searching my wife and I actually broke our brokers for several insurance companies. And one of the things that we were finding is that for those people who, you know, wanted to have a floor with a cap on their gains, they were finding these index products, you know, suitable for what they were looking for. Sure. And I would concur with that they absolutely do that, you know, they tend to be a little complex. So I think it's important to have somebody like you who can help somebody understand exactly what they're getting and you know what it looks like to access their money.

And is there a period of time they need to wait in order to do that? But yeah, having that added peace of mind for somebody who really is concerned about downside protection. That's where these products shine. The other is if they're trying to make up for lost time, not by getting more risky in their investments, but by putting more away, they may reach the cap on what they can put into their company sponsored retirement plan. And, you know, using an insurance product like an annuity to do additional savings that's tax deferred for the future, you know, can make a lot of sense as well. So I think that's where these products come in is again, as long as somebody understands what they're getting into.

What they're getting. Awesome. Well, I appreciate your feedback. Thanks very much. Have an outstanding day. All right. And you as well, David, God bless you.

To Brandon, Florida. Gilda, thank you for calling. Go ahead. Good afternoon, Mr. Bob. I just want to thank you for picking up my call today.

Yes, my name is Gilda and I'm 41 years old and I'm currently employed. And however, my employer don't have 401k and I'm looking forward to start on my retirement plan. I wanted to know what's the best way to go? What's the best option out there for me and how to start on that? Yeah, well, you know, using an individual retirement account would be a great start. You know, if you have the opportunity to contribute to the Roth, and you don't make over the income cap, you could put as a 41 year old person here in 2023, you could put in $6500 into a Roth IRA. And, you know, that would get some money going toward your future, you still got time on your side. I mean, let's say you're thinking 25 years down the road, if you were to do that, systematically, you know, and use the Roth where you pay the tax now and then you've, you've got that full amount that full, you know, $6500 working for you and then what you add to it over time into the future, and then you get to access it or pull it out in retirement, completely tax free, which is just a huge benefit.

So that would be the starting point. If you were to max that out, and you said, you know what, I'm going to put in a, you know, $6500 and I've got more margin, I'd like to put away even more than that. Where can I go?

What can I do? If you're not self employed, you've got a couple of options, you could look at something called an individual 401k, an individual K, which is similar to a 401k through your employer, but it's offered to individuals, that would be an option. You could look at also an insurance product, similar to what I talked about, to the last caller, where, you know, either you've maxed out what you have available at work, or you don't have something and you want to save through an annuity. But I would start by just opening a Roth IRA gilda and, you know, start systematically contributing to that over time. And then if you bump up against the limit on that, then I think that's the time to look for some other options.

Thank you so much, Bobby. What's the limit for that? I'm sorry, say that again. What is the what? What what's the limit for the Yes, ma'am. So you can contribute $6500 for 2023. Now, here's the thing, Gilda, if you haven't filed and I suspect you haven't still early enough in January, if you haven't filed your 2022 taxes, you can go ahead and contribute, you know, for 2022 into, you know, last year, before you file your taxes, so you can put in 6000 for 2022, you can put in 6500 for 2023.

So if you have the ability to go ahead and put in as much as you can have that 6000 for last year, that would allow you to do up to 13,005 or excuse me $12,500 between last year and this year. When I pay that will that be before tax? Just depends on whether you're doing the Roth or the traditional if you go with the Roth IRA, it would be after tax contributions. So you you pay the tax on it in the year that you earn it, but you go ahead and make the contribution and then it grows tax free. And all the gains you get between now and when you pull it out in retirement, you're going to pull that out without any tax.

If you want to use the traditional IRA, which you could use either one, then you go ahead and take the deduction for the amount you're contributing, and it grows tax deferred, which means when you pull it out in retirement, you're going to pay income tax on it as if it was income earned in that year. Does that make sense? Yes, that does. Thank you so much. All right, you're very welcome.

Absolutely. You could use Fidelity or Schwab would be two great options to open that Roth or traditional IRA. You could use their robo advisor, the Schwab Intelligent portfolios if you want more of a hands off approach.

If you want to be a little more proactive, our friends at soundmindinvesting.org could help with some mutual fund suggestions. Thanks for your call today, Gilda. Much more to come on faith and finance live just around the corner. Stay with us. Great to have you with us today on faith and finance live.

I'm Rob West back to the phones we go to Minnesota. Hey Tom, thanks for calling, sir. Go ahead. Tom, are you with us? Hi there.

You're on faith and finance live. Go ahead, sir. Yes, I got a question for you. Uh, I've retired from the VA about three years ago. I have a DSP account that I haven't touched. Okay. And, uh, I really don't need it.

I'm 100% service connected. Plus I get social security and I'm wondering, should I put it into like a Roth IRA or into one of those I things that you're talking about? Yeah, you wouldn't be able to do either of those. Um, you know, retirement money can't go into I bonds and uh, you would have to pay the tax on all of it cause this is pre-tax money in order to put it into a Roth. You can roll it out to a traditional IRA.

Um, you know, you don't have to roll it out of the thrift savings so you could leave it there as well. Uh, what do you have roughly in this TSP account, Tom? About 20 grand. Okay.

About 20,000. Uh, and are you happy with how it's been doing there and the investments you picked or would you like to have some other options, maybe a little more control over it? Um, I just, I didn't do anything with it. I let them deal with it cause I didn't know anything about it. I don't know anything. When I got started at the BA, I didn't know anything about the stock market or nothing.

And since then I've been listening to you and watching a little bit what the stock market's doing. I told them to put it into low risk so it didn't gain much money. Sure, sure. Yeah.

And I think that's perhaps your next step is to really think about how you want this money invested because given the fact that you don't need it, I assume this is money is just there in case something comes up unexpected down the road or to pass on to a loved one. Is that right? Right. Yeah. I live pretty comfortable on the income that I have now. Yeah.

Okay. But I think the idea here is that if the Lord Terry's and you know, you're in good health, this money could need to last a long time because you may need to tap it down the road for something unexpected. Um, but if not, obviously we just want to grow it and try to outpace inflation so that there's something there to leave on, leave behind, whether that's to give to a ministry that's on your heart or to pass along to a loved one. So I think there's a good case for getting this invested even if it's on a conservative basis.

Now there are options inside the TSP to be as conservative or aggressive as you want. You can, you know, there's the G fund with the government securities, there's the bond fund. Um, there's also the, the domestic and foreign stock funds, uh, the C, the S and the I. So you've got plenty of options there where you could perhaps, you know, use a traditional, uh, retirement type allocation where you'd have maybe 60 or 70% in bonds or fixed income that would provide some income, some more of a stable type return and maybe 30% or so in the stock portion that gives you a growth component over time. And you know, you wouldn't look at this thing over a quarter or a year. You'd take more of a longterm perspective so that even if the market's down a good bit more this year, which it absolutely could be, you're not looking at it that way. You're, you're taking the long view and you're trusting that, you know, you have the right allocation given that you don't need the money and you're able to just let it continue to grow. Now you can do that inside the TSP by leaving it right there, or you could roll it out to an IRA, an individual retirement account. Uh, again, you wouldn't be able to put it into the I bonds and I wouldn't recommend moving it to a Roth cause it would all be added to your taxable income in the year of the conversion. So you'd, you'd have a pretty big tax bill on that. Uh, what do you think you would be most comfortable with? Would you rather leave it there in the thrift savings or would you rather roll it out?

Huh? And here's the thing, Tom, I think it's ultimately going to come down to the investment mix, but go ahead. I guess I would just leave it there or I would try to get in touch with one of those kingdom advisors.

Yeah. The, the challenges with 20,000, it's probably below what the minimum investable assets will be for most advisors. Uh, so I think the next option would be either leave it in thrift savings and perhaps move it out of, you're probably all in the G fund, the government, uh, fund, which is, is not paying a whole lot and you'd probably ask them to help you move it to maybe 60% in the bond fund and maybe the other, you know, 40% or 30% in a mix of the domestic and foreign stock funds. And that would at least get you, you know, positioned so that as the market recovers, whether that's this year or next year, have the ability to grow that money. The other option is you roll it out to an IRA and I'd probably use either the Schwab intelligent portfolios, the robo advisor solution, or you could contact our friends at sound mind investing.org and they can help you with some investment options there. But I think one of those two would probably be the best way for you to go. So you have the ability to grow it, but again, you'd have to take the long view on that and not, you know, react emotionally if we were to see this market take another leg down here. Uh, because you don't want to, you know, sell as the market's falling, you want to just kind of trust your strategy, take the long view on it and recognize that this money is not money you're depending on for your income.

So you have the ability to let it grow over time. Hopefully that's helpful to you, Tom. Thank you for your service, my friend.

We are very, very grateful. Uh, Bellevue, Ohio, Lynn, thanks for calling. Go ahead, sir. Hi, Rob.

Thanks for taking my call. I heard your spot earlier about faithful investing in my 401k at work. I have, uh, clients administered by Fidelity and trusting their management better than me.

I authorized them to manage that account for me. Yeah. Um, how would I go about, or what options are there out there if it's managed by, you know, like a fidelity, um, to, you know, invest in, yeah, yeah, very good. Yeah.

Yeah. The good news here, Lynn is that there are more options than ever for you to have investments that have a faith based approach, uh, where either they're avoiding companies that are misaligned with the Christian values or they're embracing other companies that really are, uh, you know, promoting a kingdom impact or at least, you know, human flourishing, um, and, or, uh, engagement where they're using your position as an owner, uh, to reflect Christian values by voting proxies and engaging company leadership. Uh, if you head to our website, faith fi.com and click on the show, you'll see a number of our sponsors. There are these face faith based investing fund families, uh, including even tied, uh, guide stone funds, praxis, mutual funds, uh, one ascent investments. I mean, these are some great options with some world-class fund families and as well as light point portfolios where they're specifically investing for a good return on investment, but also where they're pursuing, uh, values or faith aligned investments. And what I would do is contact the advisor, the person who's responsible there for your account at fidelity and just say, listen, here's the approach I'd like to take. I'd like for you to look to see whether you have access to these fund families and if you could help me move this portfolio to something that is more aligned with my faith and values as a Christian. And if they can, you know, perhaps you consider making a change to a certified kingdom advisor, but they probably could help you do that. And, uh, as I say, the good news is there's world-class investments now that are specifically operating with a mandate around faith and values.

Okay. Um, and just a quick followup with the investing that way. How does that compare with, uh, like the normal investing the world does as far as return on investment? In terms of returns, uh, there's been studies done, uh, that are really fascinating that really show you don't have to give up anything in terms of the way of return to invest this way. And you would expect that that would be true because if they're investing in God honoring companies that are following biblical principles with everything from, you know, the board structure to how they're operating their business to, you know, the fact that they're not taking advantage of people in their supply chain and, you know, slave labor and all of that, you would hope that they would be better performing companies over the long haul.

And I think that, uh, you know, the, the data says you don't have to give up anything in terms of return to invest this way in the past, as there was limited investment choices, that would have been the case. Uh, that's not the case today. Okay. Fantastic. All right.

Thank you for your help. All right, Lynn. Appreciate you calling and listening today. God bless you, sir. Uh, to Waverly, New York, Ted, you'll be next up, sir. Go ahead.

Yes. Um, why, uh, I'm in charge of, um, some finances for my father. He's 98 years old.

He's in a retirement nursing home. He may have, um, a sizable amount of money, uh, for a few years to pay the bills, wealth preservation for someone like that. Um, what might be a better choice or should he continue to have his stocks, bonds, mutual funds? He does have a few CDs and he does have some liquid cash.

Is there any suggestions to either stay the course or move it into something different? Yeah. Ted, what is the value of the portfolio and how much do you need to pull out to support his expenses each month? Uh, we need to pull out a 6,000 each month and probably a total of 600,000. Okay. So you've got 600,000, you're pulling out a 6,000 a month.

Did you say 6,000 a month? Yes. Okay. Yeah.

And what is his age? 98. Okay.

Yeah. So I mean, the good news is you've got quite a bit of a nest egg. I mean, typically we'd say to maintain this portfolio, we'd like to limit it to 4%. You're obviously pulling a good bit more than that.

You know, you're up at around 12%, but, uh, obviously he's up in age. If he's in good health and the Lord Terry's, uh, you know, he could live a while, but the good news is you've got plenty of assets here. So I think this, you know, the, the idea would be to maintain this as best you can, uh, would probably be to stay on the most conservative end of the spectrum.

So I'd have very little in the way of stocks here and really just have really just some solid fixed income type investments for the bulk of this portfolio. Is somebody overseeing this for you, Ted, or are you making the decisions? Uh, I guess I'm making it, but I do have consultants. Yeah. Yeah. Okay.

Well, let's do this. I'm out of time today, but if you stay on the line, we'll talk a bit more off the air and see if we can help you get to where you need to go. We appreciate you calling it. Thanks for looking after your dad there and for checking in with us today. God bless you.

Well, faith and finance live is a partnership between Moody radio and faith five grateful for my team today to hear a Gabby, Amy, and Jim. We'll see you tomorrow. God bless you. Bye. Bye.