Preparing For Your Financial Future

Want to know how to get more money and prepare for your financial future? Sound interesting? Hi, I'm Rob West.

We'd all like to have more money and there's nothing wrong with that if we have the right motivation. I'll talk about that. Then it's on to your calls at 800-525-7000.

We'd love to hear from you, 800-525-7000. It's great to have you along today on Faith and Finance Live, biblical wisdom for your financial journey. Well, every few weeks on our Monday program, we revisit the five things you can do with money.

Here they are. You can earn it, live on it, give it away, owe it to someone or the government or grow it for the future by saving and investing. So again, those five and they're easy to remember, earn, live, give, owe and grow. Today, my focus is on the last of those, growing your money for the future by investing.

Now, don't think this doesn't apply to you. If you have a 401k at work or an individual retirement account, you are an investor. I want to emphasize two things. One, I've already mentioned having the right motivation and the second is learning what you need to know about investing.

Let's talk first about motivation. If your reason for investing is to get rich quick, I have a warning for you. Actually, Jesus has a warning for you. He said in Luke 12-15 to be on guard against every form of greed. Greed takes our eyes off God and puts them on ourselves. The drive for more, more, more, for me, me, me is spiritually dangerous and it's also likely to be a recipe for unhappiness. Ecclesiastes 5 10 says, anyone who loves money never has enough.

Anyone who loves wealth is never satisfied with what he gets. That said, investing for the future, if you have the right motivation, is commended in scripture. Proverbs 21 20 says there is precious treasure and oil in the home of the wise, but a foolish person swallows it up or as the living Bible puts it, the wise man saves for the future, but the foolish man spends whatever he gets. So this is the right motivation. The desire to be a good steward, preparing today as best you can for the needs of days and years to come.

So how do you prepare? Well, you could stash money in a savings account and you should for shorter term needs and for an emergency fund, but savings accounts, even the highest paying ones, will not keep up with inflation. Money put in a savings account will lose value over time. So to keep pace with inflation or to out distance it requires putting your money in things that tend to grow as the economy grows. For most of us, that means investing in the stock market and you can do that in a way that is balanced, not reckless. That brings us to learning what you need to know about investing. We have guests on this program regularly who talk about wise approaches to investing, so I won't go into detail about that now, except to say that it's essential that you have a long term plan and a set of guidelines that inform your decision making. In other words, think long term, not get rich quick and don't make decisions based on hot tips or financial talk shows.

Now be a good steward. You also need to understand the various investment vehicles that may be available to you, such as a tax advantaged 401k or 403b at your workplace. You also should learn about individual retirement accounts and how those can help you save for the future in a tax smart way. A great resource that explains such accounts and many other things about being a good steward as an investor is the sound mind investing handbook by our friend Austin Pryor.

It's been around for 30 years and has helped many, many people and listeners of this program in this area. One more thing, making your money grow for the future will involve some risk. That is the nature of investing. So the actual investments you choose should be appropriate for someone of your age and overall financial situation. Younger people can afford to take higher levels of risk than older people because younger folks have a lot of time to recover from market downturns.

So to sum it up, invest with the motivation of being a good steward and take the time to learn what you need to know to invest wisely for the years to come. All right, I'm Rob West. Thanks for listening today. By the way, if you have a question about anything money related, we're as close as your phone. You can give us a call even now. The number, 800-525-7000.

That's 800-525-7000. By the way, if you haven't checked out our brand new website, you can do that right now. You'll find it online at faithfi.com.

That's faithfi.com. We'll be right back. I'm thankful you've joined us this afternoon for Faith and Finance Live. I'm Rob West, your host. We're taking your calls and questions now on anything financial.

Whatever you're thinking about, we'd love to chat about it. 800-525-7000 is the number to call. Again, 800-525-7000. The lines are nearly full, so let's dive in.

We'll begin in Fort Lauderdale. Hi, Shay. Thanks for calling. Go right ahead.

Hi, Rob. I am 38 years old and I have been working in the mental health field for the past 13 years. My company that I work for has a revenue sharing 403b. I'm thinking of retiring or resigning from the position there.

I wanted to figure out what the best steps would be as it relates to getting either the payout of the money that they have in the account or rolling it over into either a traditional or a Roth IRA, which I've heard you talk about, but I would like some more information on that. Yeah. I'd be happy to, Shay.

Did you say you're 38 years old? I am. Okay. And what are you planning on doing next?

If you were to resign from this particular job, would you stay in this industry or move to something else? I will. Right.

I will remain as a mental health therapist, but just with a different agency. I see. Okay. Yeah.

And have you picked out that particular agency or would you do some job hunting as the next step? I have. I have. I already have something lined up. Yes.

All right. And do you know if they have benefits available, including a 403b? I'm not sure, but I think they do. I'm like 80% sure that they do offer a 403b that is employee provided, like employee paid for.

My current company is only employer. Interesting. Okay.

Yeah. With a 403b, it would be there would be an employee portion and then an employer portion. The employee can do a salary deferral into the 403b and then the company would choose whether or not they match any portion of that.

What I would recommend here, Shay, because you're young, you've got time on your side. I mean, if you are going to work for the next 30 plus years, you have a lot of time for this to grow. And rather than creating multiple accounts because when you separate from the company, you can roll it out and you certainly can roll it into a traditional IRA. I wouldn't roll it into a Roth unless you did that with intentionality because that's going to create a taxable event. All of that amount would be added to your taxable income for the year and then you'd have a steep tax bill to go along with that that you'd have to pay. But if you roll it to a traditional IRA, it would not be a taxable event. You keep it inside that tax deferred environment and then you would have to redeploy it into the investments. But rather than with this smaller amount of money, I mean, it's not insignificant, but when it comes to thinking about what you ultimately amass over your working career between now and retirement, this will just be a small piece of that. I would actually recommend you think about rolling it into your new 403b with your new employer and then you can just start contributing to that out of your own salary deferral and add to it. But the nice thing is it keeps it fairly simple.

You have this limited universe of investments to choose from inside the 403b. You've got everything in one place. You're not having to keep up with multiple accounts and statements and documents and so forth. And it just keeps everything pretty simple, which is a good thing when it comes to our finances. But give me your thoughts on that. And did you have something else in mind in terms of how you would use the money?

No, I think that's a great idea. I wasn't sure because I was, my only debt right now are my student loans and my condo. I've paid off my car. I don't carry any credit card debt. I pay things off at the end of every month. So just wanting to figure out, do I roll it over and just put like a lump sum on my mortgage, which I have about $90,000 left on my condo to pay it off, or do I roll it into additional adjustments? So those are my two major questions.

Yeah. And I would rather you not pull it out because number one, you're going to pay a 10% penalty if you take a withdrawal in addition to the fact that everything is going to be added to your taxable income. So that's a pretty steep cost for you to access this money. And the whole idea behind you putting it in there in the first place was for it to be able to grow over a long period of time. And the compounding effect is going to help you build this up into something substantial, of course, plus what you'll add to it over the next 30 or so years so that you have a pretty significant nest egg in retirement that then could supplement social security and cover your bills as you move on to whatever God directs you to next.

So I like the idea of you keeping it there. If you needed to free up margin to be able to accomplish other more pressing goals like paying down debt, I'd maybe think about backing off what you're contributing moving forward in terms of new contributions into your new 403b before I would be looking at taking money out that you've already contributed. So I would roll it into this new 403b if your employer will allow you to and you'll need to ask them and then decide whether you have enough margin to pay off the student loans in the time frame you're looking for or whether you need to back off new contributions to be able to increase that margin to do more. I'd probably think about that student loan in terms of what would I need to send every month to pay it off in 10 years. Now, if you had a conviction to pay it off less, great, do that.

But I think if you had a 10-year plan to get that completely paid off and you're still contributing to your retirement plan and taking advantage, especially now while the market's down, being able to buy in at a discount and then grow that over a long period of time, I think that makes the most sense. Okay. Awesome.

Thank you so much for the advice. All right. Thanks for calling today. God bless you.

We appreciate it. 800-525-7000 is the number to call. It's 800-525-7000.

Quickly to Chicago. Hey, Sheldon, how can I help you? Hi, gentlemen. Good afternoon.

Let's just say I know a person, i.e. me, that's on Social Security disability, okay? The government says you cannot save more than $1,300 in the bank. I already give to Moody and the church like I'm supposed to, but I'd like to save some money for myself. I was thinking gold coins or something like that. Since I can't save more than $1,300 in the bank, what do I do with my surplus every month when I get paid?

Because I've got more money than I do with bills. Yeah. Well, there is that limit which we need to comply with and we certainly don't want to try to hide anything from view of the government. I mean, those asset limits are there for a reason. So with regard to SSI, it has a $2,000 asset limit. Now, is it Social Security disability insurance that you're collecting? It's disability because I have a condition called diabetic gastroparesis that I got like 10 years ago. You know, if you have more than $2,000, they'll cut you off, your benefits off, is my only concern.

Yeah. Well, I would check into that. My understanding is that supplemental security income, the SSI, is what has that $2,000 asset limit when that's not the case for the SSDI, Social Security Disability Insurance. But the bottom line is I'd call the Social Security Administration, talk this through with them, and if you end up having a surplus every month, then you should be able to pick up more of these expenses. I think the key is in good faith, we want to honor the laws and the regulations that are set out before us and not try to get around that with any kind of creative maneuvering of our finances. I think the key is taking a step back and saying, what do I really need to live on?

How much do I have coming in and can I cover my bills on my own? And if so, that's great. That should be the way that you proceed. If you need to fall back on this and you comply with the asset limits, then obviously you're perfectly entitled to it. Sheldon, thanks for checking in with us. All the best to you, sir. This is Faith and Finance Live. I'm Rob West and more of your calls and questions just around the corner. Stay with us. We'll be right back. Great to have you with us today on Faith and Finance Live. I'm Rob West.

Got one line open, 800-525-7000. Hey, coming up in just a bit, you know, as believers, we're called to be generous people because God has been incredibly generous to us. But what does Christian generosity look like? Well, the Bible sets the standard for all kinds of giving from volunteering to general charity to supporting the Lord's work within the church. But what kind of giving takes priority?

Well, I'll weigh in on perhaps a model for thinking about what your giving priority should be. This comes from the late Larry Burkett. So we'll talk about that in just a bit. Also, later on the program, Bob Dahl will stop by with his market analysis. As we begin a new week, we'll hear what Bob's thinking about and watching this week in the stock market. That's all ahead. And by the way, all the market index is green today, so probably a good day to be talking investing. All right, let's head back to the phones to Grand Rapids.

Hi, Mona. Thanks for calling. Go ahead. Yes, I was calling because I have my mortgage loan and I have took out in 2019 an equity line of credit to pay off some credit cards.

All right. And when I did do that, the bank was saying probably in a year or so, I can combine that equity loan with my mortgage because my mortgage appraises for almost double what I owe on it. And when I went to refinance to try to combine it, the bank said I wasn't going to be able to do that. So because the job I'm in, I've been there 28 years, but they just don't pay a lot of money. So they said based on that income, and I do do Avon, another independent job, but they wouldn't count that.

So I guess what I'm asking is I got some offers. I've never been late on my payments. And I was at like 750, 760 from our credit score. Now it's like 720. So I got an offer where they offer me a personal loan for like $25,000.

That would be like 370 a month. And so my question was, I'm wondering about checking into that personal loan to possibly pay off the equity line because right now the interest rate, it just went up the highest ever and it's 172. So I'm thinking- Well, a couple of thoughts here, Mona. Let me ask some questions first though. Do you have credit card debt again or are you still out of credit card debt?

Yeah, no. I have credit card debt again. Okay.

Yeah. And so this is the problem. So if you would have called me before you took out the equity line of credit and said, Rob, I've got some credit card debt. I've got this opportunity to take out a low interest rate home equity line of credit. I would have said, Mona, don't touch that because number one, you're taking unsecured debt and you're securing it to your house. So now if you default on that payment, they're going to take your home. Number two is a variable interest rate. And I would have said if rates were to rise in the next year, which obviously they have significantly, that's going to get more and more expensive all the time. But number three, and this is going to be the biggest reason that you're probably going to call me six months or a year from now and say, guess what, Rob? The credit card debt's back, except now I have the equity line of credit on top of it and here's why. And I'm not picking on you, Mona.

I mean, this happened so many times and we're all guilty of it. But unless we solve the underlying issue, we're never going to make real changes because we're just treating the symptoms. And so the real issue is spending beyond your means. So you've got to have a budget. We've got to be honest about what it's going to take to fund your lifestyle. And if you can't pay the bills, what are we going to have to cut back on so that we don't end up with more credit card debt because we've got to break the cycle once and for all.

Are you able to cover all the minimum payments on the credit cards plus the two mortgages today and still have enough to pay your bills? Yeah, I've been making it a bit short sometimes, but there's a little fact to me that I pay my tithes faithfully. It usually works itself out that usually I have bigger Avon sales because, like I said, they didn't count my Avon because that's, you know, that's based on people ordering it. So that's up and down. But I've been an Avon representative for 18 years.

So sometimes when I get kind of tight, it makes up the difference. I have bigger sales. And then also I'm a traveling notary and just happen to be, I might have more notary sales. So here's the thing, you know, the reason they told you that you can combine that, I mean, anybody can combine loans as long as you can qualify. So what they were saying is, hey, take out this line of credit down the road. If you want to refinance, which means starting the whole process over new closing costs, you know, not to mention the underwriting where you've got to prove that you have the income and all of that didn't materialize because as you said, a lot of your income is through, you know, self-employment type activities. And they're not going to count that because it's not W-2 income.

And maybe you don't have enough of a history on that. I think even though I don't like the interest rate you're likely paying on that home equity line of credit, I'd stay put. I would get connected with my friends at christiancreditcounselors.org to take care of this credit card debt. They'll get those interest rates reduced.

They'll close the accounts, which I think is key. You've got to get to the place where you're breaking the cycle of using those credit cards to fund your expenses. And we've got to build up an emergency fund of at least three months expenses.

It might take some time, but we've got to get there because that's the only way you're ever going to be able to break this cycle of getting to a place where the unexpected comes and it always does, or you don't have enough income, you know, one month because things didn't materialize the way you wanted. And now we're defaulting back to the credit card. So I'd put those credit cards in a credit counseling program. They are going to be closed, but the interest rates will come down. You'll have one fixed monthly payment to start making some progress. Good news is that home equity line of credit interest rates should be coming down over the balance of this year.

It'll be slow, but it will start to come down, I think. And, you know, I think the key for you moving forward is to just really right size this budget. And that may mean making some hard decisions as to what you're going to cut out and cut back on. It may mean, you know, selling this home and downsizing. I mean, I think we've got to get serious about what it's going to take to right size your spending plan to match the income that you have and not the income you're hoping for in the very best month, but really the realistic income that you can count on based on a conservative historical perspective. What have you actually made in additional income through Avon and other sources, you know, over the past 12 months averaged for a single month. So I think that's the next step.

I wouldn't go with that personal loan. If we can help further, though, along the way, give us a call back and we appreciate it. All the best to you, Mona.

I know this isn't easy, but you can get there. Thanks for calling. We'll be right back on Faith and Finance Live. Thanks for joining us today on Faith and Finance Live. Coming up in the next segment of the broadcast, Bob Dahl stops by with his market commentary. We'll take a look at what he's expecting in the way of economic data and market movement this week.

That's coming up in just a few moments. Before we head back to the phones, I was sharing a moment ago, you know, as believers, we're called to be generous with all kinds of giving. The question is, what kind of giving takes priority?

Well, Colossians 1 16 says, for in him, all things were created, things in heaven and on earth visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities, all things have been created through him and for him. Well, in light of God's complete ownership of everything you already have, what should your giving priorities be? Well, here's what the late Larry Burkett, financial teacher and author, used to say about giving. He would list three levels of giving. He would say the first is to support the church. That's often called the tithe, modeled after the Old Testament principle of the tithe, which means a tenth.

The second is offerings. And the third is sacrificial giving. So your financial giving should start at your local church, God's plan A. The Bible emphasizes this responsibility, of course, in Malachi 3 10, bring the whole tithe into the storehouse. Well, how much money should you give to your church? Well, Deuteronomy 16 17 says, every man shall give as he is able, according to the blessing of the Lord your God, for he has given you. And again, in 1 Corinthians 16 2, it reads on the first day of every week, each one of you should set aside a sum of money.

Here's the key in keeping with his income. Setting aside on the first day of the week means that your church giving should be set aside first before other expenses. And what we're seeing here is this idea of proportionate, systematic giving that we should build in right off the top, I believe, starting with our local church. Now, beyond that, the second level of biblical giving is offerings. God will give you many opportunities to meet needs in your community and around the world. I would say this giving is over and above your financial church giving and can involve money but also time and talents, depending on the need.

The key attitude here for offerings is readiness. 1 Timothy 16 18 says, be rich in good works, be generous and ready to share. After tithes and offerings, a third level of giving, according to the scriptures, is sacrificial giving. This is where you give up something you want in order to help someone in greater need. Hebrews 13 16 puts it this way, do not neglect doing good and sharing, for with such sacrifices God is pleased.

On a final note, it does matter how you give. You see, God sees your heart and he loves a cheerful giver, the Bible tells us. God is pleased with our sacrifices when our heart is right and the eternal benefits are significant. You'll remember the treasure principle, you can't take it with you, as Randy Alcorn said, but you can send it on ahead. So we're storing up treasures in heaven. So here's the idea, as we make our plans for this year related to giving, perhaps we ought to start with supporting our local church according to our income, systematic giving, then be ready to give our extra time, talent, and treasure where it's needed. Finally, we should be ready to give sacrificially above and beyond that, perhaps where we give up something to help someone else, and of course we should give cheerfully to those with a greater need.

Well, I hope that helps you as you think about your giving this year. 800-525-7000 is the number to call. Let's head back to the phones.

Cleveland, Ohio, Agatha, thank you for calling. Go ahead. Thank you, and thank you for all the information you just shared with us. There's been times when you've given it at the beginning and I wish you would have repeated. We all need to hear that.

We all needed to hear that. I'm 71, I'll be 72, and I am retired. I have a TSP. I have an IRA with my insurance company, Primerica, and you know, nothing's doing really too good, and I haven't done anything because I don't know what to do. I listen to you every day, and I listen to Burkett, and I got some of the stuff, and so the thing, my question was, I know I got to do some kind of withdrawal when I become 72 in November, but I was just one, and I don't know how to really access my TSP because I forgot the answer to the question, so I'm not doing anything because I don't know what to do, but I would like for you to just suggest to me, I have like maybe $105,000.

I didn't contribute because I guess I didn't really understand. Well, I needed my money to live, and you know, I get retirement, you know, SSI and Medicare, and so thank you. Okay, yeah, very good. So you're fully retired, Agatha, and what are you living on now? I have worked since I was 16, retired at 69. I get Medicare, not Medicare, I get SSI and whatever that check is. I get two checks a month, and it's good. It's almost as good as working. Okay, and so that covers all your bills? Sure, it does. Okay, great. I help family.

Yeah, I love that. Well, you're living modestly and following biblical principles, and that's the reward that comes from that. And then you've got this TSP, and is it still in the Thrift Savings Program? It still is. Okay, and what's the balance on that, roughly? About $105,000. You know, it came down a little bit, so when they send it to me, I do look at it.

I don't try to be courted because it's not that important. You know, it changes, that changes. Yes, very good. Okay, and have you considered rolling that out and having somebody manage that for you? Yes, I want you all to manage it, but the other time I ever got to speak with you, I keep remembering what you call them, and I live in Cleveland.

I know you said that. Yes, ma'am. Well, so here at FaithFi, we don't actually manage money, but we do trust the Certified Kingdom Advisor designation. That may be the name you heard me say in the past, Certified Kingdom Advisor, and there's CKAs all over the country.

There's 1300 of them, Agatha, and there's plenty of them. I know there's some wonderful CKAs there in Cleveland, and they'd be delighted to assist you. What you'll do is you'll head to our website. Are you comfortable using the internet? No, I'm illiterate.

I wasn't interested. My son takes care of all that for me. Okay, very good.

Yeah, so write this down. Tell him to go, and you can do this together. Our website is FaithFi.com. That's FaithFi.com, and what you would do is you and he together would click on the button that says, Find a CKA, Certified Kingdom Advisor.

You could do a zip code search. You'll find a listing of Certified Kingdom Advisors there in Cleveland, you and your son, and you can pick two or three. Give them a call. Let them know your situation, and you can interview them in person or over the phone or a video call and decide who you believe is the best fit, and then what would happen is that TSP, Thrift Savings Plan, you'd roll that out to a traditional IRA, so that's not going to be a taxable event, and once it's in there, then that money would come in in the form of cash, and then it could be invested, and it could be invested as conservative as you would like it to be, but the idea would be that it has the potential to grow because you've lived so modestly. We want this money to be available down the road if you needed it for long-term care or some other expense, and the best way to overcome the effects of inflation is to get that money working for you, to get it growing, and so I think a Certified Kingdom Advisor would be a great choice for you in terms of helping you to think about how it should be invested and then actually doing that for you, and that's where the WISE Council comes in.

So tell your son that you need some help. Go to faithfi.com, click Find a CKA, and you guys can take it from there. If we can help further along the way, Agatha, please give me a call back. Thanks for your kind remarks.

Grateful for your considerate remarks today about the program. Folks, we're going to take a quick break and we come back. A lot more to come. We'll be talking about whether you should invest in gold and about claiming Social Security.

That and much more right around the corner. Stay with us. Hey, great to have you with us today on Faith and Finance Live.

I'm Rob West. You know, when it comes to managing God's money, we've got to start with who owns it. So we know that God owns it all, and therefore that changes everything, right?

Because we know we're created in the image of God. We're image bearers of God himself, and he's a generous God, so we should give generously. And we know that our financial decisions is one of the key ways God shapes our spiritual journey, because our tangible expression of money management every day is one of the ways we work out our faith and demonstrate where we've placed our trust and what's important to us.

And so that's a big idea. But then beyond that, there's the practical principles and ideas of how we manage God's money. And one of the key foundational ideas is that we have to live within our means.

We've got to live within God's provision so we don't run up dead, and we can save for the future and fund our longer-term goals. Well, if you need help with that piece of your financial plan, perhaps we can help. The FaithFi app was designed for that purpose. It's what I believe is the very best money management system out there. You can handle your money, set up your spending plan, download your transactions automatically, and at any moment during the month using the envelope system that was proven out from our good friend Larry Burkett, but now in a digital, beautiful, simple interface, you can see what's left and make course corrections and make plans, and it's all right there.

If you'd like to download it, you can head to our website, faithfi.com, that's faithfi.com, and just click the app button to learn more. All right, before we head back to the foes today, it's a Monday, which means our good friend Bob Dahl stops by with his market analysis and what he's looking at for the markets and the economy this week. He's chief investment officer at Crossmark Global Investments, where investments and values intersect. And Bob, I don't know what you did, but the market's all green today. A beautiful thing. It's been green most of the year already, as you know. U.S. stocks are up 4% and we're barely mid-January, Rob. It's been a nice start to the year. And the ironic thing, as you and I talked earlier, is the stuff that did the worst last year is doing the best the first few days of January and vice versa.

So you had to change your portfolio if you wanted to do well both in 2022 and the start of 2023. Very unusual. Yeah.

Is that surprising to you, Bob? Well, it's, you know, it's called the dash for trash. I know some portfolio managers, very quantitatively oriented. They literally, toward the end of December, almost reversed their portfolio, trying to capture exactly what it is we're talking about. It's a function of the market. You know, you get through one year and, well, I guess I'm tired of those stocks that did so well.

Let me move on to the ones that didn't. It usually fades and it's not fading yet, but we could see that fade before time goes by. What would have to happen economically for these stocks to continue to do well would be for the economy to take off in a positive way.

And I don't quite see that. I think the Fed's rate increases last year of almost assured a slowdown, perhaps a mild recession. Yeah. Bob, obviously, as of late, it seems like, especially in the tech sector, we're seeing a lot of announcements about layoffs. I know the job market remains strong.

Is that a leading indicator, perhaps, of what's to come? So tech and a few other industries that have had more than their fair share of layoffs and get so many headlines are among the sectors that employ the fewest people. So the big employers, retailers, restaurants and the like, they're not having a whole lot of layoffs. In fact, they're looking for people to work. So when you put the whole thing together, the job market is still strong. Labor market is strong.

Jobs available, wage rates. This is part of the frustration of the Fed trying to slow everything down to bring inflation down. Labor market, they can't slow it down.

Yeah. So with the market higher and as you said, we've seen a good bit of that since the 1st of January. Investors are trying to project the Fed's rate path. And apart from the labor market, they are seeing some encouraging signs. And this is ironic about the weakness of the economy that might actually help us understand that the feds may be closer to the end than they thought a few months ago.

Is that right? You know, that's definitely what's going on in the consensus, thinking about the Fed, that they have another one or two, most likely 25, not 75 basis point increase in rates. We'll see most likely that first the first week of February and that will carefully monitor what they have to say. But the economy is slowing. Inflation is coming down. So that does take some pressure off the Fed. The debate now, Rob, is how long will rates stay as high as they are? All of the feds start cutting them before the end of the year. That's the big debate on Wall Street these days.

Yeah, no question about it. Bob, obviously one of the other big headlines we're seeing right now is related to the debt ceiling. What do you expect will happen there? Just more of the same? A lot of noise, a lot of consternation, a lot of fingernail biting, a lot of finger pointing to the other side. And in the 11th, 12th, maybe 13th hour, they'll come to some agreement. That's the typical pattern. But we may have to hold our breath for a little while, Rob.

It's very dicey. Both sides, I think you will agree, are guilty of spending way too much money and that's what's causing the debt ceiling to have to be pushed up again. These deficits and debt we're running in our country, we're borrowing from the future and that's not real healthy.

No, it's not healthy at all. One last thought, Bob, just looking at your commentary for this week. I know one of your predictions this year was that active managers would outperform the passive indexes and you had a comment that really illustrates that pretty well related to the financial sector. Yes. Recent day, Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley both reported their earnings. Morgan Stanley's were good, Goldman Sachs weren't, and so the difference in performance between those stocks was over 10% on one day. And the point is security selection in this flat sideways volatile market is going to become more and more important.

So you've got to be in the right stocks and avoid the wrong ones. That's easy for me to say. It's hard for all of us to do.

Yeah, no question about it. All right, Bob, we appreciate your insights, my friend. All the best to you this week and we'll talk to you in a week's time. Have a great week. All right.

Bob Doll, chief investment officer at Crossmark Global Investments. If you want to sign up for his weekly dolls deliberations, I look at it each week. You can do so. It's no cost to you.

Just head over to crossmarkglobal.com. All right, back to the phones with our final moments here in the broadcast today. We'll get to as many questions as we can.

Heading west to Spokane. Hey, Jenny, thanks for calling. Go ahead. Hi, yes.

I want to know what your thought is on investing gold and specifically high-grade coins, gold coins. I'm retired. My husband's retired and we have some extra cash around $25,000 that he wants to invest in it and I'm wanting to know if that is a good investment or not.

Yeah. A question, Jenny, what would this $25,000 represent of your total investable assets? Oh, just a piece.

We have 401s and stuff that we're not taking from and we're basically living on our social security right now. Okay, very good. Well, I'm delighted to hear that you have the ability to do that.

That's great. It means you're positioned really well. You know, typically we would say don't put more than 5% in precious metals, certainly not more than 10%. The reason is it just doesn't perform as well as a properly diversified stock and bond portfolio over the long haul. It tends to be more volatile. You know, you've got the, if you're taking physical possession of the gold, you've got this security and storage issue, you've got the premiums on the buying and the selling if you're using a dealer.

It doesn't generate any income, so it's not income producing. But one of the more simple ways to take advantage of just having an allocation to gold in your overall investment portfolio just because it's an uncorrelated asset and can do well when the market's lagging would be to buy one of the tracking stocks that tracks the price of gold and then you don't have to take physical possession. But if you wanted to, I think the key is just making sure you're not highly concentrated for the reasons that I mentioned just because, you know, over the long haul the performance just isn't there compared to a stock and bond portfolio.

But if it's a relatively small piece of your overall portfolio, there's nothing wrong with it and I think for the reasons your husband wants it, it's probably a, you know, a good allocation for a small part of your overall investment mix. Does that make sense? Yes, it does. So you're saying five to ten percent of the portfolio? Total investable assets, yes ma'am. Well, right, right, okay.

And you said the ticket, the other paper one? Yeah, so like for instance, GLD would be one of the tracking ETFs that tracks the price of gold. So essentially you would own that in your portfolio and it moves with the price of gold but you don't actually have to take physical possession of the precious metal. So now you're not buying it through a dealer and having to put it in a safe and, you know, all of that, but you still benefit from the rise of gold if the underlying precious metal increases in value. Oh, okay.

All right. And where would I buy something like that? Just through a broker? Any brokerage firm, yeah, Fidelity or Schwab and there's plenty of them out there, that's just one of them, but you would be looking for an ETF, an exchange-traded fund that just tracks the price, in this case, of gold. There'd be another one for silver, they've got ETFs that track just about everything. So that would be one option.

Now, your husband may see the value in having the actual precious metal in his physical possession and that would certainly be one way to go. This would just be one alternative. Jenny, thank you for calling and for listening to the program today. God bless you. To Akron, Ohio.

Hey Liz, what can I do for you? Hi, thanks for taking my call. I live on social security income. My husband died a year ago, so I'm a recent widow and I sold some property earlier last year and it was out of state.

So it was in New York and the lawyer who handled it paid New York state tax and he said that there would be a voucher involved so that when I paid Ohio state tax, unless Ohio was more, it should more than cover that. And then I was wondering how I go about handling that. Sure. Unfortunately, I'm out of time. The clock got the best of me. Generally, you pay capital gains in the state where the property was sold.

Beyond that, I'd check with a tax preparer. Thanks for your call today. Faith in Finance Live is a partnership between Moody Radio and FaithFi. Have a great afternoon. We'll see you next time.