Seeking Wise Financial Counsel

Where there is no guidance, a people falls, but in an abundance of counselors, there is safety. Proverbs 11 14.

I am Rob West. Those are wise words in any situation, but particularly when it comes to your finances. Are you seeking the safety of a wise financial counselor? Well, it's always great to have our friend Rachel McDonough on the program.

She's a certified financial planner and a certified kingdom advisor, and she's seen firsthand the benefits of getting outside advice on managing money. Rachel, great to see you again. Great to have you with us today.

Thanks, Rob. Happy to be here and have some outside counsel myself, even as a financial advisor. So this is a great topic. Well, you know, it's something we encourage advisors here at Kingdom Advisors to do. And I know you've taken that counsel and applied that in your own life and might be surprising to some folks to hear that financial advisors actually have financial advisors, but it's important for everyone.

So let's start there. Why is it especially important for Christians to seek wise counsel? Yeah, you know, any financial advisor who's competent can help clients achieve their financial goals, things like getting ready for retirement or deciding how they're going to pay for college planning. But a Christian financial advisor with a biblical worldview is really uniquely able to connect with a client and help them to make financial decisions in right related situations. And if we don't have a financial advisor with a spiritual worldview, then a person can't really deal with that kind of mindedness with God and with other people. So for an example, a Christian financial advisor is going to encourage clients to listen for and follow the voice of the wonderful counselor himself, the Holy Spirit.

And John 16 tells us that the job description of the Holy Spirit is literally to lead us and guide us into all truth. And that's just not something that you're going to find with, you know, a typical financial advisor engagement. Another great example of that right relationship is, you know, likeIK, this is a great topic. I think it's really important to recognize that financial advisors, this concept would come in our investing. A lot of Christian investors would like to invest in a way that aligns with their biblical values and not have profits in their portfolio coming from things like pornography or tobacco or industries that are generally harmful to people. So having a Christian advisor with a Christian worldview is just going to be able to connect with them on that level.

And then I would say the third thing, Rob, is that it's just a lot of fun. A lot of clients that I've met just maybe one or two times, a prospective new client that I've just met for the first time, there's already that spirit of unity and bond of peace. And I can't say that every time a Christian connects with another Christian there's going to be that magical moment, but I do know that it's happened way too many times for me to ignore or to chalk up as coincidence.

There's just something special about the family of God coming together, and that spirit of unity and bond of peace and the sweetness of that fellowship is really a treasure. That's so good and convincing as to why we should absolutely look for an advisor who shares our values and can walk with us with God's Word at the center. So then for those folks who are saying, all right, Rachel, what should I look for then in a financial advisor?

What counsel would you have? Of course you want to find someone with competence, and so that means even if they're a Christian, they still need to have some core competencies and be qualified to give financial advice. And unfortunately, Rob, the title of financial advisor can mean many different things.

There's a great variety of degree of education and competence that comes with that same title. So finding someone who has some quality professional designations, and then of course that Certified Kingdom Advisor designation is going to be the one that really allows us to know for sure that that advisor has been trained in biblical financial principles. The last thing I would say is also just trying to find someone, especially if you're the primary financial decision maker in your household, trying to find an advisor that your spouse can relate to.

Because sometimes it takes a certain candor and a certain type of competency from an advisor to get them to be able to connect to our spouses and draw out our spouses' priorities and goals and have those be included in the financial plan. That's so good. Well, Rachel, I know the time went quick, but thanks for laying out the case for why we should seek out a Christian financial advisor and what we should be looking for when we do so. I hope you'll come back real soon. Thanks, Rob.

All right. That was Rachel McDonough, Certified Financial Planner and Certified Kingdom Advisor. If you'd like to find a CKA to connect with, just go to our website, faithfi.com, and click Find a CKA. That's faithfi.com, and click Find a CKA. We'll be right back.

Stay with us. Great to have you with us today on Faith and Finance Live. I'm Rob West, your host, taking your calls and questions today on anything financial, 800-525-7000 is the number to call.

That's 800-525-7000. You know, as we think about our financial lives, we can often get really stuck in the fact that there are so many decisions and choices to be made. Our financial lives seem complex, and yet we can simplify things. If you think about it, everything you spend money on as a steward of God's resources can be boiled down into really four categories. The money we live on, our lifestyle, the money we give, the money we owe for debt and taxes, and the money we grow. So live, give, owe, and grow. The Bible speaks to all of them, but here's what I've come to experience is that lifestyle category, the money that you live on, is really one of the key areas that's so central to our financial success, and that is we've got to live within our means.

It's our biggest area of expense, and it's really the biggest barrier to contentment and ultimately long-term financial security. And so we have to guard against our expenses continuing to rise, because here's what I also have experienced over the years, that our level of spending will always rise to our level of income unless we protest to the contrary. We've got to say that as God continues to prosper me, I will figure out what enough is, and that margin gives me the ability then to pursue my goals that align with my values as a believer. Perhaps I want to be able to give increasingly, increase my giving over time. I want to be able to save for the future, eradicate debt, or help a friend or a family member. Well, our ability to do that comes down to our margin in our financial lives. So guard yourself against your level of spending, always rising to your level of income. Define enough for your lifestyle so that you have the ability to pursue those goals and dreams that really are central to who God has created you to be.

I hope that's an encouragement to you. All right, we're going to take your phone calls today at 800-525-7000. We've got a few lines open. Charles, standing by to receive your call today. We'll get you on the air quickly. Let's begin in Stuart, Florida. Hi, Ken. Go right ahead, sir.

Hi, Rock. Thank you for taking the call this afternoon. My question is during the COVID period of time, as a small business owner, I got behind on credit cards and got so far behind that they actually rode off the balance. I'd like to settle with a credit card company and they're giving me two settlement options. One is a discounted amount and they will give a settlement report to the credit bureaus, and the other one is a full pay option with a clear, all clear report.

I don't know which is better. I want to pay off the debt, but which is the better report to the credit bureau? Yeah, well as it relates to your credit report, it would be better for it to be marked paid in full as opposed to settled in full. Settled in full acknowledges the fact that they were willing to settle it at a discount. Now obviously, the damage has already been done on the credit report based on the charge-off, that R9, which is the revolving account. Nine status means charge-off is, you know, already affecting you, but as that gets older, it's gonna have a lesser effect on you over time. I think the key is that you get that balance down to zero. It would be slightly better for it to be paid in full versus settled in full, but the biggest idea here is that it gets to zero and that's gonna happen in both cases. So I think, you know, if they're willing to take a lesser amount and you get that in writing ahead of time and then you follow up after confirmation of the payment to ensure that it is in fact acknowledged that it's at zero and your credit report is updated and reflects that appropriately, then I would certainly be comfortable with that and I think, you know, that's not gonna harm you much more than you've already been harmed by going through the charge-off process.

So I would be comfortable with that, but if you want to do it in the best way to improve your credit score the quickest, paying it in full will have a slightly better outcome. Very good. I think that does it. Thank you very much.

All right, Ken. Glad you're getting on top of this and thanks for checking in with us on the program today. 800-525-7000 is the number to call. We'd love to hear from you today so we can take your questions, find out what you're thinking about financially speaking and help you navigate that. Hey, before we go back to the phones, phone lines are filling up as we speak. A quick email.

These come to us every day at askrob at faithfi.com and this one comes to us from Ella and she writes, thank God I refinanced my 30-year fixed mortgage before the interest rates skyrocketed. The balance is about $100,000. What's the best way to pay it off faster? I can't make two payments per month but I do have some extra that I could use.

You probably know a lot of ways. Thanks for your advice in advance. Ella, I think the idea here is to keep it simple. I would just take that extra money that you have assuming you don't have high-interest credit card debt and I'm assuming you don't because you didn't mention that and assuming you've already fully funded your emergency fund of at least three to six months expenses. If both of those are a yes then I would say take that extra money unless there's a short-term goal you're saving for like a car replacement or a down payment on a house although you already have a home and I would just send that as extra principal reduction. You're going to want to check with your mortgage servicer to find out how they would like you to apply that. Do they want you to send a separate check? Usually you can send it in one and you just notate that it is principal reduction. You're probably going to want to follow up on that just to make sure it is not being put on the back end but it's being applied directly to the principal.

It should be. This is pretty customary but I think the key is you know if you can just do that systematically and send that extra amount you know let's say that results in six extra payments a year. That's going to dramatically reduce the overall payback and the amount of dollars you spend toward interest over the life of the loan. So delighted to hear you're getting ahead on this Ella and you'll thank yourself when you get that mortgage paid off I can promise you that.

To Youngstown, Ohio, Kevin thanks for your call sir. Go ahead. Yes sir, I was interested in the idea of should we pay off our house now and or put a large amount in a CD and and I spoke to my CPA he said me I may lose the housing allowance if we paid it off now. And so it's kind of torn between that that question right there. Okay so you get a housing allowance are you on staff at a church?

Yes yes yes. Okay all right and give me a just a quick overview what is your age and how how much have you saved toward retirement? 60 and and probably about a hundred plus toward retirement. Okay and are you fun putting additional money in toward retirement every month out of your current pay? Right yes sir. Okay and what do you owe on the house?

130. Okay and could you pay it off all the way if with the amount that you're receiving? Yes yes okay yeah and you know I think the key here is obviously this housing allowance is a part of your compensation package so you don't want to lose that and clearly if they're only going to provide that so long as there's a mortgage on it have you verified that that is in fact the case?

Right yes. Okay so I think that's up to you I mean if you feel like you have a conviction that you need to if you have the ability to go ahead and pay it off I would. Are you planning to work for a good bit longer? Oh yes yes sir. Okay so if it were me I'd probably try to time the payoff of the house with your retirement and let's get that money invested for you since you know you've got a good start but you still got a good ways to go so I'd take advantage of this next decade while the market's down let's get this money invested and working for you and then keep paying on that mortgage perhaps accelerating it as you're able to and get it paid off by the time you retire. Thanks for calling we'll be right back stay with us. Great to have you with us today on Faith and Finance Live I'm Rob West we've got some lines open today for your calls and questions on anything financial will help you apply biblical wisdom to the decisions and choices you're making 800-525-7000 you know as I interact with callers every day on this program literally thousands and thousands of them every year what I've experienced is that really the way to free yourself from the financial fear and guilt that so many people face is to answer two questions the first is who owns it that answer clearly is a resounding God owns it all and then the second is how much is enough what is enough what is our financial finish line for lifestyle and accumulation so that we can give not only out of current income systematically but also sacrificially and really define really that enough point for us so we can continue to accelerate our giving because I really believe that's the good life you know most teaching on money including Christian teaching starts with this idea of providing for ourselves the problem with that is even though provision is biblical it can result in an endless list of needs and wants that we never get beyond and if giving is the good life being invited into a grander greater vision that we were created to live for something bigger than ourselves and that there's contentment and satisfaction and joy and giving that we won't find anywhere else perhaps we're missing out by getting caught up in a consumptive lifestyle and getting caught in the comparison trap think about that today as you consider your finances and see what God might be leading you to do we have a few lines open eight hundred five two five seven thousand to Orland Park Tim thank you for calling go right ahead yes I question about Social Security my wife is 67 she spoke taking a full or full payment at 1,200 a month I'm 63 currently working if I were to wait till my full term which would be at 66 and 10 months I'd be getting 3,400 so if she were to claim spousal at that point I believe she'd be getting a nice pump up in from 1,200 to 1,700 but my question is does she have to wait until I start collecting Social Security before she could claim spousal yes the answer is she does have to wait until you begin taking Social Security benefits before she can file for a spousal benefit now what will often happen is exactly what is going on here your wife will take her benefit in this case because she's older and enjoy that let your benefit continue to grow as you wait to take it hopefully close to full retirement age and then she'll have the choice at that point to take either her spousal benefit which is up to 50% of your benefit or continue to take her own benefit based on her own work record and she'll be able to take whichever benefit is higher but she won't have the option of the spousal benefit until you start taking your own benefits does that make sense yes it does and then if I were to start taking at 65 saying get 3,000 a month then if she took spousal it would be 1,500 is that correct yeah up to 50% of yours and if you take it prior to full retirement age you're gonna reduce that permanent benefit amount you know by about 8% a year that you take it early yep got it okay very good thanks Rob appreciate it all right Tim thanks for calling sir to Illinois hi Mary thanks for being on the program go ahead good afternoon my voice is a little gravelly so pardon me I'm just you look at script you think so thank you when you look at scripture I'm a little bit concerned like I just heard the gentleman say well something that you know what Jesus says take a first the kingdom of God and his righteousness and all this other stuff will be provided and then also as I read scripture what about the mass Adonia Church that gave out of their lack you know yes I mean they didn't have anything but they gave anyway and I'm thinking are we putting too much too much on our security our future security I'm just wondering about that well it's a great question Mary and I'm glad you raised it because we need to keep coming back to this you know we can get well here's the reality in my experience we can attempt to redeem greed in the name of the American dream if we're not careful the pastor and author Tim Keller wrote a book some time ago called counterfeit gods and he makes the point in there that you know as a pastor he's had just about every sin confessed in his office save one and that's the the sin of greed he says that he doesn't have people coming to him saying I think I spend too much money on myself I think my greedy lust for money is harming my family my soul and the people around me and the challenge is that if we get caught up in that we can miss God's best for us which I believe is holding what he's given us loosely so we can give it generously and you know we can find ourselves in the comparison trap where we're comparing ourselves to others and trying to keep up with the Joneses but I think there's something healthy about living in the tension and here's what I mean by that it's very biblical for us to save for the future Proverbs tells us that there's precious treasure and oil in the house of the wise the foolish man swallows it up so I think God gives us more than we need today and if he does he's given us a surplus we should save for the future the question is how much is enough and I think we have to each ask that question before the Lord honestly in prayer to say God what is right for me in terms of my lifestyle but also my accumulation and what might I be missing today that you want me to do with your money to help somebody in need in my local church on my path in my community in my neighborhood or a ministry you know taking the gospel to the ends of the earth halfway across the globe what might I be missing today that I should be focused on because I'm living a consumptive lifestyle and we've got to wrestle through that and here's the reality at least this has been my experience is that the process of working through that is one of the ways that God grows us up spiritually because as we live in that tension I think he can teach us a lot in the process give me your thoughts though well I don't know I think I hate I just think oh I hear I'm sorry I was born and raised Catholic and I I don't mean to bring that in but I hear um well I heard I was I can't remember but they were talking about let's do this I hate to interrupt you I've got to take a quick break if you don't mind holding the line I'd love to hear what you have to say and get your reaction to that we're talking to Mary in Illinois this is faith and finance live and we'll be right back stay with us great to have you with us today on faith and finance live we're taking your calls and questions with a few lines open eight hundred five two five seven thousand hey we're gonna be tackling some great questions coming up here in just a few minutes how do you retire and what's the right amount to live on what about an online savings account and even the pros and cons of a bi-weekly mortgage payment we'll talk about that in a moment but right now we're talking to Mary in Illinois just before the break she was really talking about the passage we read in 2nd Corinthians 8 when the account of Paul as he was encountering the Macedonians and out of their incredible gratitude to the believers in Jerusalem who had brought the gospel to them they were eager to help and so they gave as they were able but then they went beyond that and gave more than they were able and we see this incredible demonstration of giving out of their poverty and we see God really multiplying their gifts and just some incredible things happening and you're pointing us back to that passage Mary and saying perhaps we don't talk about that aspect of our financial management enough picking up where you left off what were you going to share with us well I don't know this is relevant and maybe it's not but I was listening to Janet partial day before yesterday and they were talking about abortion and all one program I can't remember but anyway um I remember the saying something about the church and it's a Protestant Church pardon me the only church I mean are they the church or what about Catholics I heard a program this is not completely relevant but it's been bothering me I heard a program long time ago you had a woman on on W MBI who was a commentator anyway her comment was our Catholic brothers and sisters and I thought well I mean to me that that said a lot it's almost as if there's a division to me in my mind between the Protestant Church and the Catholic Church and some of these issues and I'm thinking it shouldn't be that we're all the church and that bothers me so I guess I just I'm having a difficult time with some of that but yeah like I said I think the key here is and you bring up a great point is first and foremost it's about placing our trust in the saving knowledge of Jesus Christ who paid the penalty for our sin on the cross and through him we've been reconciled to the Father when we place our trust in him for the forgiveness of sins and now we're adopted into his family and at that point it's about stewardship it's about what are we doing with what we've been given because it all belongs to the Lord and I think clearly you make a great point that we need to look at not just individual verses in the Bible but we need to look at the big themes and what was on the heart of God and clearly in the New Testament we see that Jesus raises the bar you know it's no longer about the Mosaic law it's about taking our giving along with everything else to a higher level whole life generosity he gave his life as a sacrifice for us so when we talk about money we should give as we've been blessed and with that it shows a demonstration of our trust in God that his provision is more complete than our own it stores up treasures in heaven the Bible tells us it changes us it's a way of molding us and shaping us to be more like Christ which is our goal even though in our sinful state we'll never achieve that until you know we're in glory but we should take a portion of what he's entrusted to us even sacrificially and give it back so I appreciate you challenging us with that thought today and perhaps a good takeaway would be to reread that passage in 2nd Corinthians 8 about the Macedonian Church thank you for your call Mary God bless you Ohio Lisa thanks for your patience go ahead yes hi Rob appreciate your show love it and thanks for taking my call absolutely I just had a question I had read an article where a bi-weekly payment on your house payment was just as effective as doing a single one time a year payment and my husband and I have just recently refinance and we did find our lender will allow us to do that so I just I've never heard that discuss on your show and I didn't know if you had any pros and cons for that particular action yeah well the key is when that payment goes in I mean if you look at let's say take 2023 for example this calendar year if you were able to send one full extra monthly payment because you had surplus and sitting in a savings account that you didn't need at the beginning of the year you're going to come out better in the end just because with amortized interest now you're no longer paying interest on that principal balance for the rest of the loan because you've paid it off and so you've reduced the principal balance and therefore you're no longer going to pay interest on that portion that you've paid off the quicker you can do that the less interest you will pay now if you're unable to do that the idea behind the bi-weekly mortgage payment is you send half of a payment every two weeks when you do that there's 26 two-week periods which means you end up with 13 full payments over 12 months and that's one more than you would typically pay when you're just paying monthly because of course you'd have 12 and so over the year you would end up with one extra payment but you would not be as you know you'd not come out as well because it took you a year to do it versus paying it on the first day so I think the takeaway is whatever system works for you is the system that's the best because you're going to be able to do it but all things being equal if you had the ability to make the payment on the first day of the year you'd be better served than waiting to do a bi-weekly over 12 months does that make sense yeah absolutely yeah okay very good thank you so much you're welcome but let me just come back to this point Lisa's I love this idea of trying to send an extra payment a year a lot of people don't have an extra full payment just kind of sitting there unless they pull it out of their emergency fund and I wouldn't do that so if doing the bi-weekly payment a half a payment every two weeks is going to allow you to actually get it done then go for it because that's probably going to cut you know five years or more off a 30-year mortgage sending one extra payment a year thanks for your call today to Princeton Illinois Don you're next on the program go ahead hi Rob just had a question considering putting some savings some surplus savings into either an online bank like Ally where you can get maybe three or more percent interest versus a CD where the interest rates are not as great and it locks it up for a while and you can't get at it don't don't need that money it's not part of our emergency savings or anything like that I just wanted your opinion on the use of an online bank to try to gain a little extra interest yeah I like the online bank what is the time horizon on this money what is it earmarked for oh it's it's really just savings that is probably going to end up helping us in retirement I'm 61 right now not going to retire for five years or so so it's really just going to be able to sit there for a while yeah what about getting it into a Roth IRA and investing it well that's a possibility if that's a better way to do it with the stock market lately I was trying to go with something that might be more secure and sort of as a base for everything else sure and I can certainly appreciate that I mean you'd want as a part of your overall asset mix when you hit retirement you know part of that from stocks bonds and cash the cash portion you'd probably want when you're in retirement six to twelve months liquid and if this was a part of that then you wouldn't want to lock it up I'd use the CD or excuse me the savings account if you had let's say a one to five year time horizon on it that's where a CD could work although I'd probably stay 18 months or less and look at maybe a four and a half percent interest rate on that CD but if it is money that has a ten year time horizon certainly more than five I'd probably look at putting this in an IRA a Roth and letting it grow over the next decade here's the thing we always love to buy things that are on sale except when it comes to the stock market for some reason I'm not picking on you I'm talking to myself as well you know the you'd be dollar cost averaging into the market while things are down and even though it could go down a little further depending on what happens with the recession this year if you look out ten years I think you're in pretty good shape and you could get some long-term appreciation on this have a little bit more in retirement and offset inflation but I think either one would be a great option for you thanks for calling Don and we'll be right back hey thanks for joining us today on faith and finance live check out our brand new website at faith phi.com that's faith fi.com you can check out the faith by app while you're there jump into our community and post a question or a comment or jump into our learn section with all of our content articles podcasts and videos the very best in Christian finance for you to grow in your stewardship journey it's all on our website faith phi.com hey before we head back to the phones have you ever wanted to visit Israel I know I have Julie and I plan to go hopefully sometime in the next few years but perhaps you haven't and maybe it's just because the investment is a bit too much well what if you could go and it cost you next to nothing I've got an opportunity for you moody is taking a trip with dr. Michael Riddell Nick and dr. Joseph stole former president of the moody Bible Institute and they're gonna head over to Israel June 4th through the 15th now this trip is full it's completely sold out however moody radio is going to sneak two more people in and perhaps those two people could be you and a loved one so I would love for you to register to be able to go on this trip you can do that at moody radio org slash Israel again moody radio org slash Israel and do me a favor if you're picky if you're picked you got to let me know okay because I want to know that it was a faith and finance live listener all right let's head back to the phones Tuscaloosa Alabama home of the Crimson Tide hey Joe thanks for calling go ahead thank you I appreciate your ministry and you are a blessing my question has to do with retirement my husband and I are he's entering 65 almost 60 and we plan to retire this year we do believe in that three-legged stool savings we do have a guaranteed retirement benefit through our employment okay and then he will start his social security and of course I will you know when I'm eligible I think my question related to the ministry and wanting to give back more even sacrificially is really more along the saving side of how much is enough and something to keep in mind my husband and I cannot get life insurance due to our health issues nor can we get you know a long-term reach Karen facility care long term care insurance yeah yeah okay very good Joe well man you all are doing so much right here I mean you're out of debt you've got Social Security you've got your savings you've got your retirement benefit that's going to be coming your way you're wanting to increase your giving and and make sure that you're doing what the Lord has for you in that area and just trying to find God's heart and all of that honor him as a steward of his resources and yet be wise in your journey as a steward I think is a place that is really healthy because God can work on your heart and you know when we give sacrificially even in this season of life it can you know when we stretch to give a little bit more it can you know grow us spiritually and then all of a sudden we're depending on God and there's just a beautiful part of being invited into his story through our sacrificial giving but I think that's a good tension and I think it's a good exercise to go through to say how much is enough and being able to you know work into a way of calculating that makes a lot of sense so a couple of thoughts I mean the first step would be you know whatever the Lord leads you to do I would follow him that's number one regardless of what rules of thumb say or you know benchmarks say with regard to how much you need saved for retirement number two is I think you guys could probably benefit from sitting with a godly financial planner somebody who understands the heart of God and the idea of a financial finish line but could also bring a more academic approach to helping you calculate that while also kind of reflecting your desire to do some sacrificial giving at the same time and a certified Kingdom Advisor could I think do all of that and blend that together into some planning and you could find a CKA on our website at faithfi.com there in in Alabama I think beyond that I would look at what your expenses you expect them to be so go ahead and calculate your retirement budget keeping in mind most retirees live on somewhere between 70 and 80 percent of their pre retirement income because they don't need life insurance anymore and they're no longer saving for retirement and they're driving less and they don't need the work you know clothing budget that they had maybe they're not eating out as much as they were when they were you know working those kinds of things maybe the kids are off the payroll and they're out of debt so you know all these things just bring our lifestyle spending down well once you know what that number is at least to the best that you can calculate it then you can compare that against your known income sources social security for you and your husband once you start collecting it you know whatever guaranteed retirement income you're going to have and then you can back into what is the gap if any exists and then what assets would you need to be able to throw off that kind of income at a four percent withdrawal rate I mean that would be a typical way to look at how much we need for retirement and determine you know are we ahead on track or behind but then over all of that is this overarching idea of God are you calling me to do something more radical than that and you know I remember a story of Bill Bright the late Bill Bright founder of Campus Crusade for Christ now called crew and you know he and Vonette were compelled to give a whole retirement account away to build a school to teach you know English and to share Christ in Russia and you know that probably didn't make sense on paper and yet God led Bill and Vonette to do that and I don't think they would have looked back for a second in that process but that doesn't mean he's leading you to do that and so I think you've got to be on your knees asking the Lord kind of where you go from here but I've thrown a lot at you there give me your thoughts I love the idea that you just mentioned and we really do want to be able to give more to the kingdom but it is scary to let that go when you don't know what that future looks like I have calculated everything out you know you know after taxes what our net will be you know in the next year and two years down the road and you know calculated expenses it looks good on paper I think it's just that of savings you know when is it enough and when can we let go and that I think you're right at the end of the day it's what God's telling you today that's right and realize that your financial journey is one of the ways that God shapes your spiritual journey and you know you stretching yourself or you and your husband as a couple stretching yourselves to do more than you thought you could do I think is one of the ways that God just increases our faith and trust in him having an advisor to journey along with you would be great I think there'd be there's a ministry that I think would be a real blessing to you guys in this season as well if you've never heard of it's called generous giving you'll find it at generous giving org they do something that perhaps you could find where the next one's going to be maybe close to you it's called a journey of generosity it's a 24-hour small group experience that really is just all about understanding the heart of God as it relates to our giving but the key is you're surrounded by a community a small community of people and connecting you know even beyond that to a larger community of people who are just wrestling with these same things because you and your husband Joe will never give to your maximum potential unless you have a plan to do it unless you have relationships of people who are spurring you on active givers with active vision and you'll never be able to do it without a vision for your giving that's bigger than you all where you look at the heart of God and what's on his heart through the scriptures and you align that with your passions and you really begin to think about not the dollars and cents but the where and the why of the giving and the the life change and the kingdom impact that's being made and I think as you lean into that side of it the plan and the relationships and the vision I think God will do something really special in your lives I'd like to send you a book that perhaps could encourage you in all of this so you stay on the line we'll get your information and I'll send it to you and maybe you and your husband can work through it together but I hope this has been an encouragement to you perhaps left you with something to think about and we appreciate your call today God bless you guys to Florida hi Candace how can I help you hi I wanted to know if what your thoughts were so my husband and I currently own and we have about 13 years left on our mortgage it's a three bedroom my parents could potentially be moving with us so we wanted to know if it made sense to add an additional room like renovate or try to purchase somewhere else that was a little bit bigger but our mortgage is like $1,500 now but we didn't want to go yeah yeah so what do you owe on the property right now what do we owe about 140 okay what do you think it's worth today when we just deal it was like 350 okay and what is the rate on that mortgage 4.2 yeah okay so obviously that would go up you'd probably want to do a second mortgage good news is you have quite a bit of equity question is at this higher rate when you borrow against it you know would you be able to afford what it would cost to actually do the addition have you gone through the exercise of getting an estimate from a contractor to you know that that's really thought well thought out in terms of what it would actually cost you to do this if we want to like all the renovations we want to their property estimation about like 80,000 okay yeah I think the key is to make sure that that's a good number because you know a lot of times we go into it thinking yeah we know what this is going to cost and then it ends up being a whole lot more good news is a lot of the supply chain constraints that really you know pushed a lot of raw materials up a lot of that's coming down so this is a possibility the challenge with the new house is at that higher rate if you buy something a little bigger and the whole mortgage is now at a higher rate that's going to make the affordability lower so I think the key is perhaps just to step through this logically step one is how much do we like our house and do we really want to stay do we like the location do we like the home would we be pricing this home out of the market meaning versus the rest of the homes in your neighborhood if it has this $80,000 addition you know would would you be able to recoup that upon the sale a realtor could help you think about that that's step number one step number two is the affordability so I'd actually go through the process of getting that contractor in there to determine what this is really going to cost not just somebody's back of the envelope but what would it really cost with the plans and the design and really all the construction and find out what it's really going to cost you and then determine whether you can afford that and then look for comparable homes that you could all live in if you were to move and then see what that mortgage would look like at the current interest rates and I think when you get all the data and you think about it from kind of your you know from the perspective of is this where we want to be I think the answer will become clear to you thanks for calling today I hope that's helpful to you Candace god bless you well faith and finance live is a partnership between moody radio and faith five thanks for being along with us today so thankful for Tahira Jim Amy and Charles couldn't do it without them thank you for being here as well come back and join us tomorrow we'll see you then bye bye