Money Lessons for Young Adults

Train up a child in the way he should go, and even when he is old, he will not depart from it. Proverbs 22, 6.

I am Rob West. We all want our kids to mature and become wise stewards of God's resources. Younger generations need training to do that. I'll give you some lessons for young adults today, 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. Okay, some of the lessons we'll talk about today can be taught to younger children, but by the time they're adults, they should have all these down pat. It's sometimes too early but never too late to teach your children how to manage money wisely. So today I want to focus on teaching your older kids who are in or nearing adulthood because they may have missed a lesson along the way. Now this is especially important because a recent financial literacy survey by the TIAA Institute found that Americans age 18 to 29 scored the lowest of any age group.

Only about 40 percent of these young adults answered money-related questions correctly. That's disturbing, but your family doesn't have to be part of that statistic if you pass along several important lessons. Two of the most important are, first, that God owns everything, including ourselves. Psalm 24, 1 reads, The earth is the Lord's and the fullness thereof, the world and those who dwell therein. And second, God is our provider. Everything we have is a gift from him, including and especially our salvation. James 1 17 tells us every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the father of lights. Grasping those two truths will enable your child to trust in God to provide and to give cheerfully out of gratitude.

More on that in a minute. Now some lessons about managing money wisely and they begin with teaching the value of work, whether that's studying for school or earning money on a job. Work is not punishment.

It was ordained by God before the fall. Genesis 2 15 reads, The Lord God placed the man in the Garden of Eden as its gardener to tend and care for it. You never want to express the idea that work is punishment, but rather as an opportunity given by God to earn money. Children who've reached adulthood and are not still in school should work outside the home and contribute to household expenses. You probably aren't helping them by allowing them to live at home and not contribute. Remind them that all work has value and is profitable, that God is their real boss and that they should always conduct themselves in ways that honor the Lord. Now the next lesson they need to learn is that living on a budget is essential for wise money management. Everyone needs to budget and the less money you make, the more important it is to have a spending plan. Young adults should have zero trouble downloading the FaithFi app to help them set up a spending plan. They can just look for FaithFi in their app store.

That's Faith Fi. The next lesson is to ABS. Always be saving. A budget will help your young adult cut expenses or maybe increase income, so there's something left over each month. If he or she can't learn to live on less than they make, they'll always be in debt, which is our next lesson. Teach them that debt is not a sin, but that Proverbs 22.7 teaches that the borrower is slave to the lender. This lesson should not be limited to credit cards. Student loans are a huge problem for young adults entering the workforce.

They need to borrow as little as possible for college. Living beyond one's means and running up debt is presuming on the future that you'll have enough money later to pay it off. But Proverbs 19.21 warns, many are the plans and the mind of a man, but it is the purpose of the Lord that will stand. Debt may also be a sign that one is discontent with God's provision and is ungrateful. But Philippians 4.19 reads, my God will supply every need of yours according to his riches and glory in Christ Jesus. Now our last lesson for young adults, but certainly not least, is about giving. They may be just entering or new to the workforce or struggling financially.

I get that. But generosity is an essential part of Christian life and can't be ignored. So encourage your young adult to be a percentage giver to his or her local church. Giving is an act of worship. And as Jesus said, it's better to give than to receive.

Giving with open hands breaks the power that money can have over us and strengthens our relationship with Jesus. Okay, those are your lessons for young adults. I hope you find them useful. Your calls are next, 800-525-7000. I'm Rob West and we'll be right back.

Stick around. Well, thanks for joining us today on Faith and Finance Live. I'm Rob West, your host.

Our phone lines are open. It's time for you to get in on the conversation today with whatever you're thinking about financially. 800-525-7000 is the number to call.

It's 800-525-7000. Before we head to the phones, here at the end of the first month of the year, we'd like to invite you to be a financial supporter of this ministry. The work we do at Faith and Finance Live is a result of your listener support. So if you find benefit from this program, perhaps you listen each day or maybe you've just found us, but the information you've heard has been helpful to you and you'd like to be a financial partner, we'd invite you to do so as a one-time giver or perhaps as a monthly supporter of the ministry. You can do that quickly and securely online when you head to faithfi.com. Just click the give button.

That's faithfi.com. Just click give. You'll find the toll-free number to give over the phone or address to send a physical check, or if you'd like to give online securely, you can do that as well.

Thanks in advance. All right, to the phones we go. 800-525-7000. The calls are coming in, but we still have room for you at the moment, so we'd love to hear from you.

We'll begin today in Las Cruces, New Mexico. Hi, Sharon. How can we help you?

Hi, and thank you for sharing your insight and wisdom. I would just like to get clarification on the verse in Matthew 5 42, where it says, give to the one who asks you and do not turn away from the one who wants to borrow from you. Have a couple of scenarios in our family situation in that my husband has a relative who had come to him about a month or so ago and said that she wanted to borrow $500, and her situation is that she has a grown child living with her who also has not been living in a lifestyle that shows responsibility financially. And so wondering about that scenario and not enabling that to continue, that she would be in that situation, because I'm not sure how she is managing her money.

And then another case, also a grown child in an extended family member who is choosing to live a lifestyle in the homosexual, that may be also approaching for money. And so how do you handle that, since we're called to be good stewards of what God puts in our care, that we're not enabling others to do that, but then that verse says, do not turn away from the one who wants to borrow from you? Yeah.

Well, that's really helpful background. And I think it's a question that a lot of people wrestle with. So I'm glad we're going to tackle this today. And I appreciate you referencing this verse as well.

I think it can be confusing at first glance. And yet, if we dig into what Jesus was saying, and what he wasn't saying, I think perhaps we can get some more insight into how to respond to this particular scenario. Notice that he isn't saying give to him what he asks. He also doesn't say lend to him who wants to borrow from you. You see, God, the Father doesn't give us all that we ask for, nor did Jesus give his disciples all that they asked for. So I think the idea here is the verse means we should respond with kindness, not resentment to those who ask something of us.

And we should stand ready to give when appropriate. But I think we need to determine as to your point here, Sharon, what kind of help to offer and whether in each case giving money would help or hurt the individual based on where they're at financially and spiritually. Would money take a lifestyle that is moving away from the Lord and cause that to accelerate?

Would it reinforce poor financial decision making habits that we want to see corrected? Is there another way to help? You know, if we lived by the rule that we must give whatever anyone asks of us, we soon wouldn't have anything left to give. And to your point, we may actually be encouraging the wrong behaviors or outcomes. At the end of the day, we give unto the Lord, but we also should be wise in how we do that. And so if there's obvious reasons that we should withhold that gift, I think there are other ways to help. Or perhaps we put some guard rails around the giving that says, you know what, I'd love to be able to help you. And you know, I've found that without accountability and the right habits being developed, it can actually take you in the wrong direction.

So I'd like to connect you with a coach. And you know, once you go through and complete that process, then you know, I'd be willing to match every gift you make, you know, to a credit card or something that kind of reinforces the right ideas as opposed to just giving to someone that's demonstrated themselves not to be wise stewards that might inadvertently actually reinforce that negative behavior. Does that all make sense, though? Yes, it does.

Thank you so much. That really does shed a lot of light. Yeah, good. So I'd go back and look at the verse a little more closely and just kind of think and pray through that to see what it says, what it doesn't say. And then I think we need to take each matter up in prayer.

Yeah, we're not always going to get it right. But we can ask the Holy Spirit for discernment as we look at each situation. In some cases, we may be led to give as the Lord leads and as we're able, and it may or may not be used exactly the way we want.

And that's okay. That's ultimately between that person and the Lord. But obviously, if we see real indications that perhaps that gift could take them in the wrong direction, well, maybe that's a time to kind of hold back and say, Lord, what would you have me to do here? And is there another way that I can actually be helpful? And that may involve tough love and saying, you know what, I'm going to refrain from giving even though I'd love to help this person and this is someone that I care about. I don't want to be a part of the problem here.

And we could we could do that if we're not careful. Sharon, thanks for being a part of the program today. Eight hundred five two five seven thousand is the number to call. Let's quickly go to Florida. Unique, thank you for calling.

How can we help? Hi, good evening. How are you doing? Great.

Yes, I have a question. I bought a car last year. Right now, my payment is five ninety eight a month. And if I sell my car right now, because I want to get out of debt, if I sell my car right now, it will be ten thousand under.

Is there any thing you could advise me on? Yeah. So the car is worth ten thousand dollars less than the loan you owe on it. Is that right? Correct. OK. Yeah.

That's a tough situation. Unfortunately, we're seeing that more and more. And I'm afraid we're going to start seeing a lot of this just given how high car prices were in the last six months of last year.

They're starting to come down. But a lot of folks bought cars at a premium just because of the shortage, which affected both the new and the used car market. And now with the high interest rates combined with this recessionary environment, we're seeing car values decline.

And as a result, a lot of folks are upside down, more so than we saw in the last good number of years. So you've got really two options here. Unique one is you can take out a personal loan for the difference between what you owe and the price you can get for the car when you sell it. Not a great option, but it is an option and it would allow you to get out from under that and hopefully lessen the financial burden.

You would obviously have to have a mode of transportation with that scenario, so you'd have to work through that. The second option is you can continue to make the payments on the car until you have enough equity in it to sell it for roughly what you owe. That may take another couple of years and I realize things are tight.

So I might look at the first one and just see what options you have there. You could obviously just turn it in, but that's going to leave a deficit balance, which will really trash your credit. And we want to be good stewards and make good on our obligations. And we obviously made a commitment to repay, but we don't want you to walk away from that.

So I would explore those options, pray through it and see where you think you need to go from here. And I know this is going to be tough, but you'll get through it. And perhaps we can buy a car that fits the budget better next time. We'll be right back.

Stay with us. More to come on Faith and Finance Live. Great to have you with us today on Faith and Finance Live as we recognize God owns it all and therefore we want to be wise and faithful stewards of God's resources, wise stewards, but also generous sowers.

That's right. We should manage God's resources well, and that means faithfulness to God's word over a long period of time, recognizing money is a tool to accomplish God's purposes, but also generous sowers partnering with God, taking a portion of what he entrusts to us and giving it away so we can demonstrate our trust in him that his provision is complete, that we can give it away and hold it loosely because he'll continue to provide. And it's part of his design that we be partnered with him and participate in his activity.

There's real joy that comes from that. And I think as we get our money in the right context, it allows us to be that steward that we've been called to be in scripture. Hey, what are you thinking about today financially? We'd love to hear from you. We've got some lines open for your questions and comments today at 800-525-7000. Give us a call. Let's head to Indianapolis. Ife Dayo, thank you for calling.

How can I help? Hi, how you doing? Very good. Thank you. Thank you for picking up my call today. I have some great questions. I listen to you almost every day when I'm driving back from work.

I listen to you. So my question today is, I mean, what is the best way to, I know about a college fund, which is a 529. I have that one for my children already. But I mean, I know that one is mainly for college. If they have a scholarship, they might not, that one might not be useful.

So I don't like that. So I want to ask, is there any other way one can save money for college I was going through Ally Bank, they have something they call a UTMA, which is a Uniform Transparent Manual Account, and also someone mentioned something to me about IUL, IUL, which is India's Universal Life Insurance. Is that also an option to save money for children for college or some other things? Yes, very good. Well, those are great questions. Ife Dayo, I'm glad you're thinking about that. Now, let me ask you a question. The first thing we need to look at whenever we're thinking about putting money aside is to define the time horizon. So would you like this money to be available for the kids in less than three years, less than five years or less than 10 years?

What would you think? Like over 10 years. Okay, so this is money we're thinking beyond 10 years. Okay.

Yeah. But okay, and you know, keep in mind with the 529, you get the tax free growth if it's used for qualified educational expenses. If it's if they get scholarships and grants, you can take the money out without any penalty. And according to the new legislation that just came out, you can now roll over up to $35,000 from a 529 education savings into a child's Roth IRA, as long as the money's been in there for 15 years.

So that would be an option up to the limits. But if you just wanted to be more generally available, not for retirement and not for college, and you understand that you can get it back for scholarships and grants, then I think if we're looking to save money that has a 10 year plus time horizon, but you want it to be really available at any time. At that point, you're looking at either the custodial account that you mentioned the UTMA, or just a straight brokerage account in your name.

Now, here's the difference between the two. With the UTMA, if a day Oh, you have to recognize that that money becomes the child's asset at the age of majority in your state, which is typically 18. So at 18 years old, whatever you have put into that account, regardless of their spiritual and financial maturity, they have full access to those funds. And so you would need to be okay with that in order to open and fund this account. So if they were making poor financial choices, and they want to take that and buy a sports car, they could. So you need to understand that if you wanted more control over it to determine the right time and place to make that gift, then I would encourage you to open an account in your name or in the name of you and your wife.

And we can talk in a second here about how you would invest it. But then it would be growing, it would be earmarked for the child specifically, but it's still owned by you in an account that's titled in your name, so that it doesn't automatically become their asset when they turn 18. Does that make sense?

Yes, yes, yes, it does. Okay, which would be more comfortable to you, the UTMA custodial account where they get it automatically, or one that you control when it's dispersed? Either one of them is good. I mean, I really trust them to be able to make some better judgment when they grow up. Okay.

All right, very good. Then the only other consideration is financial aid. So if you think they may qualify for need based financial aid, that would be another reason why you wouldn't want to put it in the UTMA account because assets of the child work against you more much more significantly than an asset of the parent when it comes to financial aid eligibility with regard to need based aid. So that would be the only other consideration.

So let's say you said, No, I don't think we're going to qualify for need based aid, we make too much money. Well, then if you're okay with them receiving the asset at the age of the majority, the UTMA may be a great option, then we can look at okay, how do we invest it, I would probably use index funds, just high quality, low cost index funds, you could use a robo advisor like the Schwab intelligent portfolios, or our friends at soundmindinvesting.org can help with some mutual fund recommendations. But I would just use either high quality index ETFs or mutual funds, and just capture the broad moves of the market over the next decade or more, and let this money grow. You're going to pay some taxes on it as you sell each of these investments for a profit. But then, you know, you would have the money available for the child when he or she was of age, and then they could use it however they want. How does that sound?

Yes, I feel good. Okay, so I would go to either Charles Schwab or Fidelity to open that UTMA account, and then buy just some high quality mutual funds. Again, soundmindinvesting.org could be a resource, or you could visit with our friends at sound, I mentioned sound mind investing, or you could use the Schwab intelligent portfolios, which is the robo advisor solution.

I think either of those would give you what you're looking for some high quality, well diversified investments, you take a long time horizon, and you'll see some good growth over time. Thanks for calling, sir. Hey, we have two lines open today.

We'll get to those right after this quick break, and Bob Dahl later in the broadcast. The number 800-525-7000. We'll be right back. Great to have you with us today on Faith and Finance Live.

I'm Rob West. We're taking your calls and questions. 800-525-7000. Hey, have you checked out the FaithFi app?

We think it's the very best way to manage God's money and stay on top of your finances throughout the month using the tried and true envelope system in a modern, simple, digital form. If you'd like to check it out, head to our website faithfi.com, that's faithfi.com, and click app. All right, back to the phones we go to Chicago. Hi, Paris. How can I help? Hi, how you doing?

I'm great, thank you. Okay, so I'm kind of like in an issue. So my dad, he wants to buy a house, and he got applied for a loan, but however, the thing that's holding him back is he's paying for my mom's car note.

How can I explain this? So the person that told him about it, he tried to apply for a mortgage, and they said that the loan that he's on with your mom for her car is holding him back? Yes, and he asked me to co-sign for my mom so he can get completely approved for the mortgage. So I mean, I wouldn't mind doing it, but I have student loans, and then I'm trying to get my own place as well. So I don't know, I'm just kind of like don't know what to do with this situation. Should I go? Should I do it?

Should I not do it? Sure. Well, the Bible is pretty clear on this one, Paris. I mean, the Bible says we shouldn't co-sign is the bottom line. Now, that doesn't apply to a husband and wife, in my view, because we should join our finances in marriage. So God's goal for marriage is unity, and to become one flesh in every area, including our finances. So I wouldn't see that as a co-signing situation like the Bible is speaking to.

But apart from that, which includes family co-signing beyond the marriage, the Bible is pretty clear, we just shouldn't do it. And the reason is we're allowing somebody to buy something that really they can't afford. There's reasons why folks are unable to get loans.

And what backs that up is just the reality. The Federal Trade Commission tells us that 40 to 50 percent of the time where you co-sign for someone, you will have to step in and make those payments unless you want your credit to be trashed. So I would take a step back and say, why is it that the bank is concerned about this?

And if they are concerned, that tells me that your dad's trying to qualify for a loan that he really can't afford, because when when they're factoring what they call debt to income, and they're looking at this car on top of the house mortgage that he's wanting to get, they're saying the numbers, the ratios just don't make sense based on the credit that they want to extend and the income that your dad and mom have available, which gives me concern that you're going to essentially make this happen for them, but it's setting them up for failure because they probably really can't afford what it is they're seeking at the end of the day, which I realize is a hard conversation that you probably don't want to have. But at the end of the day, I think it's the right move. So the question is, how do you navigate that in love? Letting your parents know, hey, I'm here for you.

I want to do everything I can for you. But at the same time, the Bible is pretty clear that I shouldn't be co-signing. And so I think we need to find another way for you to go about this. Does that make sense? Yes. Yes.

Yeah. So I realize I'm not giving you the solution because it really isn't one just based on what we know today. We would need to get them to take a harder look at this and perhaps get with somebody like an advisor or some sort of financial coach, maybe at your church or at their church to kind of bring an objective third party look at this just to see how much mortgage are they looking to take on and why is it that the bank is not comfortable with that given this car loan and just help them navigate this in a way that's responsible and is manageable for them moving forward. Because the last thing we would want, Paris, is for you to help them get into a loan they really can't afford. And now all of a sudden, not only is your credit in jeopardy, but their financial life is in jeopardy as well. And even, you know, perhaps repossession on a car they can't afford or worse, a foreclosure on a home. So I would I would be hesitant for you to proceed here.

And I'd encourage you to either ask them if they would let you help to take a look at the situation or if they could bring in somebody else to look at and see exactly why the bank is saying no, and what steps they need to take to move forward here to get on a more solid financial footing. I hope that helps you. Thanks for your call today. We'll ask the Lord to give you some wisdom as you navigate this to Jody in Indianapolis. Hi, Jody, go ahead.

Hello, thank you for taking my call. I am 70 and retired. I have a little over $100,000 to my name.

I have a car note which is 14,000 and I work about three days a week to try to pay that off. But I was wondering, I live in an apartment. Is it wise for me to buy a condo with all this insulation and all these runaway prices on these houses and condos or should I just continue to live in rent and apartments, maybe like a size down one bedroom or something like that? I don't know what to do at this point because I don't have a great deal of money and $100,000 these days is just like heaven, $50.

Yes, I understand. This housing market has been wild. I will say though, Jody, first of all, age really isn't a factor in deciding whether to buy a house. In my view, you may find it's actually cheaper to own a home than to rent it as is in the case of some areas.

That's really the reality. You know, if you have enough for a down payment, then the only other questions are, can you afford the payment on the house you want to buy? And are you able to take care of the property? Obviously, there's less upkeep with a condo than with a single family home, but you just need to factor in all the other expenses that go into it to make sure that it truly fits into your budget. You know, usually we would look at this and say, okay, you'd need 20% as a down payment.

So that would be the first question. Do you have that much saved up for the type of condo you'd be looking to buy and the purchase price? And then would the payment, principal interest, taxes and insurance, all of those pieces that go to the mortgage company, could you keep that at under 25%?

No more than 30% of your take home pay. And because of what's been happening with rental prices, again, as long as you have that down payment, you may find it's a little more cost effective to buy here. But you're just going to have to count the cost and look at it. The only other thing I would say is we're entering into and really are in a much better environment for a buyer than we've been in the last several years. You know, we've come out of a raging seller's market where people were paying, you know, 20 plus percent premiums over market value to get into homes.

And now we've kind of flipped. And although I don't see the housing market declining significantly, it is more of a buyer's market in the sense that, you know, you can actually negotiate and you can have contingencies and you're probably not going to be paying the full list price, but maybe something slightly lower than that. So for all those reasons, there's actually an opportunity, you know, to buy right now and be in a better situation than you have been previously.

But give me your thoughts on all that. Well, I do get $3,500 a month. I think I get $33 now a month for my Social Security because I waited late to retire. So, you know, as long as Social Security is okay, stable, you know, I'll get that every month.

And then I do work three days a week. I do have the down payment. Okay. All right. Well then I think you definitely ought to take a look at it again because rental prices just go so sky high right now.

I'd get a realtor in your area to help you start to look at what your options are and work through the numbers and see how it fits into your budget. Hang on the line. We'll talk more off the air. We'll be right back. Great to have you with us today on Faith and Finance Live.

I'm Rob West. Hey, before we go back to the phones, it's Monday, which means we get to check in with our friend Bob Doll, Chief Investment Officer at Crossmark Global Investments. He publishes his dolls deliberations each week. It's an insightful and analysis on the market where we find ourselves based on the week prior and what Bob's looking forward to each week. And he joins us to unpack that.

And we'll do that today. Bob, a lot of data out last week. I know there was a host of numbers, all kinds of acronyms flying around in your dolls deliberations this week. The IPC, GDP, which one stands out to you?

All the above alphabet soup. Fourth quarter GDP, I guess, is probably the most important, Rob. It came out 2.9 percent positive, which was a little stronger than people thought.

But if you go inside the number, you find real final sales, which is the important number. We're up just 1.4 percent. Inventories build up and that's what got us to 2.9. So the economy is really growing one and a half percent. That's slower than where we were and slower than a lot of people thought. And I think just backs up the fact that if it's trying to slow this down with higher interest rates and it's beginning to happen.

Yeah, no question about it. I guess the question remains to be seen beyond this next meeting, which is probably most people feel like the interest rate hike of maybe a quarter point is already baked in. The real question is what happens beyond that? And I guess the Fed's notes from the meeting will be the best indication there.

I think that's probably right. And we'll get some of that tone from Fed Chair Powell when he has his news conference and talks about what's behind the 25 basis points, what he and the Fed are thinking. I suspect he will take a bit of a bow that inflation's come down some, but we'll then turn around and be very vigilant to say the job is not done and we have to stay firm and tight and therefore won't hint at any interest rate cuts in the back part of this year, even if they're able to do that, which I'm doubtful. I don't think inflation is going to get anywhere near 2 percent down.

Yes, but not 2 percent, which is their hope. Yeah, no question. Bob, you had some comments out this week just acknowledging the strength in a particular sector of the economy that had to do with aggressive stocks.

Talk about that. Yeah, we've had an unusual phenomenon, at least the degree to which it's happened, and that is the stocks that didn't work last year are working in spades this year and vice versa. By an amount we're not really used to, and those are aggressive high beta stocks. They tend to be a lot of those very high flying technology stocks, which got hit so hard last year and maybe if the bounce, we have to see, is it a dead cat bounce? Curiously, you asked the question today, those stocks got pounded again today after getting pounded all last year and then having a really good run up through last week's close. Lots of volatility for us to watch, discuss, and try to figure out.

No question about it. Obviously, all eyes this week on a busy week of earnings. What are you expecting as we go forward?

Pretty much soggy is a good way to put it. Let's put it in perspective. The earnings reports for the fourth quarter that have come out so far, relative expectations are the worst in 10 years with the exception of one quarter during the pandemic. So we're already seeing earnings weakness compared to expectations and that's causing analysts to slowly but surely bring their numbers for 2023 down. Two hundred fifty two dollars was the peak. We're now down to two twenty seven. And before the dust settles, my guess is it could be as low as two hundred. Wow. Wow.

Bob, last question. What's going on with the rest of the world? You know, is the rest of the world, at least the big economic powerhouses, are they mirroring what we're seeing here with this slowing in the United States or is there a different story? Well, for starters, as you know, foreign central banks got a much slower start on raising rates. And so that effect to slow their economy has not been very evident. Europe, for example, has had a much more mild winter than feared, thank the good Lord. And so their energy crisis has not been anything that people thought it would be. China is reopening as they lift the COVID zero restrictions, which is causing some improvement there. So you get some important parts of the world that are doing a little better than expected, which counterbalances the U.S., which is doing a little weaker than expected. Yeah. Well, we'll take it right. And I know you said at the start of the year that you expected international to outperform U.S. stocks.

So there's another good case for having an allocation that includes the rest of the world. Bob, we appreciate you stopping by, my friend. Hope it's a great week. Same to you.

Bye. All right. Bob Doll, chief investment officer at Crossmark Global Investments.

You can head to Crossmark Global dot com. Check out the funds he manages and sign up for the free dolls deliberations, his weekly investment commentary while you're there. All right. Back to the phones. Let's get to as many questions as we can between now and the end of the program today to Miami. Hi, Joyce. Thanks for calling. Go ahead. How are you doing? I'm great. Thank you for calling. We'll take it any time, Joyce. Go right ahead.

Two quick questions. My husband had a 401K. The company went out of business. How could we find it? I've been trying to find it. And, you know, he's divorced now.

He's married again. But he's still asking me to try to help him. So I was wondering how we could do that. And do you or if you're able. Sure.

Real quick on this. Do you or he have any paperwork from his old 401K? See if it shows the planned administrator, which is usually outsourced to a third party. And if you can find that, you could contact them.

If that doesn't work, you could go and it's going to be a little more challenging. But you go to the Department of Labor's Web site and look up the company's form 5500 5500 again at the Department of Labor's Web site. And it should list its contact information. Thirdly, you could look at the Web site unclaimed dot org. This is the National Association of Unclaimed Property Managers. And you could see if by chance there's a listing there. But those would be your next steps. Yeah, I tried that unclaimed, but I didn't get anywhere with that.

I tried it a couple of years ago. The next question, I wanted to go and purchase some bonds, but I heard you said in March it's going to do it's six point eight now and it's going to change. Is it going to go down very much? It will go down.

We don't know how much. But given that inflation is coming down because the Fed is so focused on slowing this economy to temper the inflation and it seems to be working, although, as Bob Dahl just said, we're not he's not expecting us to get down anywhere close to that two percent target. But yeah, clearly the direction is down on inflation and CPI, which is going to affect those bonds. Now, if you go and buy ten thousand, let's say, or up to it of bonds today, you'd get that six point eight, nine percent for a full six months. At that point, it would adjust to the new rate that we'll know in May. And it's clearly going to be down. I would say it's going to be somewhere around the fours.

I would expect that would be my best guess. Remember, you got to leave this money in for a year. And if you take it out in less than five years, you're going to pay a three month worth of interest penalty on it.

But it's still going to be a decent rate. Five years, you know, because that will be to help my daughter because I'm 74. You know, so I instead of buying insurance, I wanted to use that five thousand dollars, let it go. And she could take care of business, you know, when I'm OK. Yeah, very good.

Treasury direct dot org. And you can add her as a beneficiary. Thank you for calling Joyce to Susan in Florida.

WKZM. Go ahead. Oh, hello.

Hi. I just wanted to ask a question about home equity line of credit. If it is a good idea for a backup to have in case one would need some money. I mean, I have a savings account that includes my emergency fund and I don't have any debt per se, but I'm just a little hesitant about it because I don't like to have any debt. And I know it's not debt. It's a line of credit.

But then if I had to use it, it would be debt. It would be. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

I'm not having peace about it, but I'm I'm also not wanting fear to get in the way of of decision. Well, I would reinforce that idea. I would stay away from that. I mean, even if you had to use it, I'd rather you find another means to fund whatever it is that came up. It's going to be a variable interest rate, which I don't like the fact that you're going to set it up. Even if you don't use it, there's going to be costs involved in you setting up the loan, even the line of credit, even if you don't tap it. And if you got into a real bind, I wouldn't want you to put more money against your house. I'd want you to, you know, really buckle down so you could keep your house, not, you know, put more money against it, which is going to, you know, increase the the amount that you owe each month just by servicing that line of credit. So I think as long as you've got a fully funded emergency fund, you've got some stable income, Susan, I wouldn't look at that house. Equity is burning a hole in your pocket.

I'd be glad you have it. And let's look to get that thing paid off. Not look for ways to tap into it.

Does that make sense? I don't. Yeah, but I don't have a mortgage.

I don't have any. Okay, so you own it free and clear. Yeah. Yeah.

And I think that's a great place to be. So here's the thing. If something got, you know, really out of whack and you had a major expense, I wouldn't like to put that against the house anyway, because that's going to, you know, that's secured now to your domicile. And if something happened and you were unable to pay it, now you're putting your home that was free and clear in jeopardy. So I would be completely comfortable with you just owning that free and clear, not having a line of credit on it, not bearing the cost of opening that line of credit, because I wouldn't want you to use it even if you had it.

So I'd probably pass if it were me. Okay. Um, what about, um, I have a car that has, are we out of time? We are, but let's do this.

Uh, yeah. Uh, love to have you call back to the program sometime in the future and let's talk about that car. Thank you so much, Carla and Muncie.

I'm sorry we didn't get to your question, but I'd love to tackle it tomorrow. If you hold the line, we'll get your number and see if we can get you back on the air tomorrow. Thank you for calling folks. So delighted you were along with us today. It's always my privilege to serve you and to explore the scriptures as it relates to your finances. On behalf of my team, Amy Rios, producer, Dan Anderson engineer, Ryan Hansen, our call screener and Jim Henry providing research. I'm Rob West faith and finance live as a partnership between faith by and Moody radio. Have a great day. We'll see you tomorrow. Bye bye.