Drawing Closer to God

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Hi, I'm Rob West. We need the bonds of family and friends to help us thrive in this world, but they pale to the significance of your relationship with the Lord. Today, I'll give some practical ways you can draw closer to God, and then it's on to your calls at 800-525-7000.

That's 800-525-7000. This is Faith and Finance Live, biblical wisdom for your financial journey. Well, I know what you're thinking. What's my relationship with God have to do with finances? Because this is a show about money, right? Yes, but it's also about our faith. And for Christians, faith and our finances have everything to do with our relationship with God.

And the Bible gives us three principles to connect the dots. First, God created everything, and therefore, He owns everything. Colossians 1 16 reads, For by Him all things were created in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities. All things were created through Him and for Him. Second, God gave us everything we possess. James 1 17 tells us, Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change. So God owns everything, but He's given us resources to use temporarily as His stewards. Last, God is not distant and detached.

He wants a close relationship with you. James 4 8 reads, Draw near to God, and He will draw near to you. We draw near to God by obediently following His law. With over 2300 verses in Scripture about money and possessions, God has made His desire quite clear. He wants us to manage money according to His principles. Our friend Howard Dayton points out that wisely managing money and the other resources God has blessed us with deepens our fellowship with Christ. Having a close relationship with Jesus is another way to describe what the Bible calls true riches. In Luke 16 11, Jesus indicates that God uses money as a test. He says, If then you have not been faithful in the unrighteous wealth, who will entrust to you the true riches? Jesus is saying that how you handle money affects your spiritual life. If you manage it well, according to biblical principles, you'll naturally grow closer to Christ. If not, your fellowship with the Lord suffers. So biblical money management is a very practical way to improve your spiritual life. But sometimes things get in the way of that. There are two kinds of disobedience that keep us from handling money God's way and growing closer to Him.

The first is passive. It's just plain laziness. Some people don't want to take the time to organize their finances, make a budget, and track their spending.

Doing those things might only take a few hours a month. Still, it's just too much to bother with. Worse, that same person will spend more time than that watching TV every night. As a result, intimacy with God suffers. Another person has a different obstacle to growing closer to God.

It's an active or willful disobedience. For that person, money and possessions compete with Christ. Jesus tells us clearly how that will turn out. In Matthew 6 24, He says, No one can serve two masters, for he will either hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and money. Then there are people who think they can surrender every part of their lives to Christ except money. They might be quite good at making money, paying their bills on time, saving and investing, but they refuse to give Christ lordship over their finances, to follow all of the Bible's teachings. Maybe they stumble over tithing or other giving to God's kingdom.

They have the resources, but they don't want to do it. Again, their intimacy with Christ suffers. Finally, there's the person who's not following biblical financial principles, but thinks his relationship with the Lord is just fine. To him, we might say, what you don't know will hurt you.

What are you missing out on? You might think finances aren't interfering with your relationship with God, but how would you know? If that's you, perhaps you should commit to the Lord in earnest prayer and then follow through managing your money and possessions his way. You'll find what you need to get started by downloading the free FaithFi app. It will not only give you three ways to set up your budget based on the envelope system, it also has the best Christian financial content out there to help you grow closer to God by following his principles. Do that for three months and see if your relationship with the Lord is more intimate.

We'll be right back. So what does your money have to do with your faith? Well, that's where we started today. You see, all behavior is the product of what we choose to think or believe.

So when we change our behavior, well, that ultimately happens by changing what we believe, because unless we change what we believe and therefore think, we'll never produce any lasting results. You know, think about the 12 spies Moses sent into the Promised Land. You'll remember 10 returned terrified of, quote, giants, while Joshua and Caleb said, we must go up and take possession of the land because we can certainly conquer it. What was the difference between the 10 and the 2? Well, the difference was perspective. You see, 10 believed in the strength of the opponent, 2 believed in the strength of God. When we change our belief system and our perspective, it ultimately allows us to change how we make decisions day to day, and that's certainly true in this area of finance.

When we're rooted in biblical truth with an eternal perspective, understanding our proper role and the role of money, according to a biblical worldview, well, it changes everything about how we go about each day and handle God's money. And that's what we want to encourage you to do on this program each day. We're so glad you're along with us. We're taking your calls and questions today at 800-525-7000. We've got some lines open. 800-525-7000. If you have a testimony you'd like to share with us today about God's activity in your life as you've applied these principles, perhaps over decades. Maybe you've been listening all the way back since the late Larry Burkett, who we hear his name still often, even though the Lord took him home in 2003.

You'd love to give testimony to that. Well, give us a call. 800-525-7000.

Let's begin in West Palm Beach, Florida, just north of where I was born. Marie, thank you for calling. Go right ahead. Yes, hi.

Thank you so much for taking my call. Yes, my question is that I have a $42,000 balance for my mortgage. The interest rate is only 4.25.

And they say my maturity date is 2033. So I wanted to know if it's wise for me to take that money out of my 401k, which I have available, to pay off the mortgage and replace that money within five years? Or should I just send extra toward my mortgage and pay it off in five years? Yeah, you wouldn't be able to replace that money in your 401k because the only way you can do that is through salary deferral unless you're saying that you just continue deferring a portion of your salary in there to replenish, I guess, what you took out. You could do that.

The reason I would probably avoid doing this is because, really, the benefit of that 401k is to keep that money in there and let it grow on a tax-deferred basis. Now, I'm all about, Marie, you paying off that mortgage because I'd love for you to be debt free and enjoy the freedom and flexibility that comes from being unencumbered. But let me ask you this, how far away are you from retirement at this point?

Probably another 10, 15 years. I'm not 50 yet. Okay, very good. And so you have 42,000 left, but it's still 10 years away from paying it off if you continue on the certain current track, is that right?

Correct. Okay, so in the current trajectory, the current plan, it has you paying off this mortgage about the time you might be considering entering retirement. Now, I realize things can change between now and 10 years, so obviously we have to be flexible there, but at least at a high level we think these two things will line up.

I think that makes a lot of sense. Unless you have just a real conviction from the Lord of being completely out of debt, and if you do I certainly understand that and I would say go for it, but if you're comfortable with this debt hanging around until retirement, I kind of like the idea that any prepayment of this mortgage would come out of current cash flow. And what that simply means is you'd continue to live modestly, living below your means, so you have a surplus and that that surplus could go to your mortgage. So let's say you had a goal of sending maybe one extra payment a year, well that would cut down that 10 years to maybe eight years, and that would be great because now a couple of years before retirement that mortgage is gone and then you're entering retirement a couple of years later and that biggest expense in your financial life has been taken off the table, and that means that you just need less in the way of income to cover your obligations. That feels good to me because then we can preserve everything you have in your 401k today and we're not selling out of any of the investments, especially in a market like we're in today where stock prices are down because we've gone through a difficult season coming off of the pandemic and all of this easy money and we've got sky-high inflation and interest rates shot up and now we're looking at a possible recession. All of that has put pressure on the market and that's brought the value of your account down. Well that's considered an unrealized loss until you sell something which is what would happen have to happen for you to take anything out and so now you're going to miss the recovery of that portfolio and given the fact that time is still on your side 10 years plus away from retirement, maybe even as much as 15, I'd love for that money to be able to recover and then grow to new highs so that you've got a nice nest egg available to supplement social security in retirement and without doing anything you're going to have that mortgage paid off by the time you retire and we could even shorten that payback period from 10 years to maybe eight if you could figure out how to pay maybe an extra payment a year out of your current cash flow. So that would be my best recommendation except if you just really had a conviction that you wanted to be out of debt as soon as possible. Does that make sense?

No I just yes that that makes sense. I wanted to save on the interest so that's why. Yeah okay yeah and I think you'll benefit more I mean you know it's four and a half I mean that's a good rate it's better than anything you could get today you know there's some people that have mortgages in the twos right now so I realize it's not as good as it could be but it's still a very attractive rate and I think what you'll benefit from in the growth of your 401k will outpace that and you can have the best of both worlds being debt free in retirement and having a nice nest egg to fall back on if you just keep going the way you are. So thanks for calling today Marie.

Hey by the way look for some other ways to reduce that mortgage along the way for instance if you get a tax refund this year a little bigger than you expected maybe that's a way to drop a thousand or two thousand you know on that mortgage anything you can do will help to save interest over the life of that loan. Thanks for being a part of the program today. Hey we've got a few lines open perhaps one for the question you've been thinking about at 800-525-7000. Let's head to Marshall Texas.

Thurston go ahead sir. Yes sir thanks for taking my call. A quick question I had I have a flexible adjustable life insurance with extended guarantee optional index feature paying about 170 a month. I heard in your program somebody called in wanted to call to find out after I called one company they said well it's not good right now to do it because of the market and inflation so my question sir do you know any companies I guess that was similar to like Coventry Direct that I could cash in and cut that reduce the payment for the life insurance and pocket some of the money or is that wise? Yeah so what you would be looking to do is pull the cash value out replace this death benefit with a term policy and then invest the difference is that what you're considering? Yes sir I don't think I need to pay 166 a month for life insurance if I can reduce it and get some cash or restructure it or if that's wise. Yeah I mean I typically like term insurance you don't want to cancel this until you have something to replace it with but that adjustable life is basically a hybrid of term and whole life it allows you to adjust the period of protection the face amount and the premiums at your will and then it has a cash value that earns interest at a guaranteed rate but those are usually modest I'd rather you have the ability to grow that fully even though you're taking on some risk I'd rather you do that in the stock market so I'd reach out to a life insurance agent who's independent who could shop this around or you could use you know one of the online tools like select quote to find a term policy that's equal or higher in death benefit you probably need 10 to 12 times your income that's pure insurance then take the cash value and invest that for a better return long term we'll be right back stay with us on faith and finance live delighted to have you with us today on faith and finance live I'm Rob West your host you know it's a big week next week that's right spring share is just around the corner bold for the gospel we're so excited to tell the story of moody radio and invite you our faithful listeners to support our great work and if you hear if what you hear on moody radio is making a difference in your life and perhaps you've never given to moody radio before I'd like to invite you to do that today as a first-time donor to moody radio and as our thank you we're going to send you a copy of the book know your bible moody scripture calendar a special edition of today in the word devotional and a free moody enrich online course we're delighted to be able to send you that as our gift and we'd love for you to make a pre-share gift even now and you can do that online at moody radio.org you'll see a bold for the gospel banner right there on the home page and a button that says give now or you can simply call if that's easier the number to call is 800-600-9624 it's moody radio spring share next week but you can give right now again moodyradio.org or 800-600-9624 it's a huge encouragement when we have folks come in early and start uh they're giving to uh to our spring share so when we kick off next week we're already starting with some wind in our sails and we're excited to be able to celebrate what God is doing as lives are being changed literally around the globe through this incredible ministry and you're a part of that we want to say thanks in advance all right let's head to the phones uh 800-525-7000 is the number to call if you have a question for our program today we're going to head to Fort Payne Alabama hi Mike thanks for calling go ahead hey thanks for taking the call uh about 13 years ago my wife and I got custody of my great nieces the oldest was fixing to be sick the youngest was fixing to be one the six-year-old now is 19 uh fixing to go into the military and was looking at ways of creating a uh better uh you know the uh I'm pulling over right now uh she's looking for ways to create a uh it create a uh credit rating for herself okay and uh we bought a car uh to get her better gas mileage to get her back and forth to uh military training things like that uh her name is primary so she's getting credit for that my wife is secondary so that she can get a better rate at the bank uh her she's on her insurance as primary driver so that helps so what are we missing that could help her out yeah a couple of thoughts number one is I would just be careful about co-signing the bible is pretty clear not to do it not in a husband-wife situation but in every other situation and the reason is the borrower becomes a lender slave and despite her best efforts and desires to be able to make that payment if she's unable to obviously you all are going to have to step in that could provide some relational damage and if you don't on a timely basis it's going to damage both of your credit so just be aware of that mike and you probably go into that going into that with your eyes wide open but I at least wanted to call it out I love the idea that you're thinking about building her credit you certainly need to do that and when you're just starting out it's not a matter of having bad credit it's a lack of credit that hurts you which can keep your score down in the same way so yes this car loan in her name if uh she's an on-time payer every month will be reported to her report you're right that will help beyond that a couple of thoughts number one is you could add her some people do this as an authorized user on one of your credit cards you don't even have to give her the card and maybe the understanding is she's not able to use it but as an authorized user your credit history would be reported for that account to her report as well and the same is true though if you had a missed payment so if you had a late payment that was more than 30 days and that you know dinged your credit it would ding hers too so you just need to be aware of that but as long as you're paying on time and that doesn't concern you that's one way to start to build her credit the other is what's called a secured credit card so she could put two or three hundred dollars on a credit card or excuse me down on deposit at the bank they would issue a card against it with a limit up to the amount on deposit because that's the collateral so they have no risk and then basically she would just set up an automatic recurring charge for a budgeted item so something she's already planning on paying maybe it's a you know a media streaming service that she subscribes to she's already planning on spending that money instead of you know it being going on her debit card it goes on the secured credit card she pays it off in full every month and that good credit history is being reported to her credit report i think having different types of credit is key and you would have with revolving and an installment loan installment is the credit card loan revolving is the credit card that would be good you want a good credit mix but you also want low credit utilization which would be the case here with this secured card meaning let's say they give her a limit of 300 and she's only charging 12.95 a month and then paying it off obviously the credit utilization is very low that's a good thing and then the most important thing is that she's an on-time payer every month so those are a couple of other ideas is that helpful yeah she's going to be going to basic training and ait so she's going to be gone for almost nine months as soon as she gets her ship date so so if we do a secured card and her payroll goes on to that secured card and she pays her car payment out of that secured card is uh is that double dipping is that gonna be good or is this something we need to just keep separate well her payroll is not going to go onto that card so this would take of this like a credit card so the direct deposit for income would go into let's say a checking account and then she would just have to have a way if if she's allowed to pay the car payment with a credit card she certainly could and then pay it off and that would be one way to go the key is just to make sure that she has some timely payments going to that credit card to pay it off each month so there's no interest but also so that she's collecting that good good payment history okay that's good that's exactly what we needed to know all right very good mike and then that authorized user approach is another way to go where you guys would add her as an authorized user perhaps to one of your more active accounts that you're already using so then she just automatically inherits your good credit as a part of that process that's one other way to go tell her thanks for her service we're delighted to hear that and we appreciate your call today my friend it looks like we have one line open at 800-525-7000 you know when it comes to managing god's money wisely we want to be really careful about the use of debt it can allow us to spend beyond god's provision that's not something we want to do and we're going to take a quick break and we come back more of your testimony and calls and a little later in the broadcast our friend jerry boyer stops by we'll be right back on faith and finance live stay with us delighted to have you with us today on faith and finance live i'm rob west your host all right let's head back to the phones we're going to go to norton ohio hi jamie thanks for calling go ahead hey guys thanks for taking my call appreciate it sure absolutely so my question is um concerning uh thrift savings plan i'm a federal employee yeah and um i've been been doing that for 25 years now and been fortunate enough where i'm i'm going to be uh getting close to 50 years old here god willing in another year and a half and i'm learning about these catch-up contributions um when you turn 50 it's i i think you're allowed up to 30 000 a year that's right my question is yeah what uh should i be putting a high value on this as another aspect is i'm kind of leaning leaning in closer to retirement i can retire at 57 so i would have at least uh seven years of that maximum contribution and i'm just wondering um i've never really started looking at that until you know obviously i'm getting close to being 50 now i'm just curious uh kind of a two-part question just your basic opinion on what you guys think of catch-up contributions and then kind of how do i determine what i think is a reasonable amount to increase yeah yeah well i think and for both parts of that question it starts with planning jamie uh and really having a good handle on what is my ultimate savings goal for retirement uh you know what do i need to have to maintain whatever lifestyle god has called me to so uh you know you've established a lifestyle to this point assuming you're going to maintain that typically in retirement we live on 70 to 80 percent of that the kids are off the payroll maybe the house is paid off we're no longer saving for retirement so all that money that you know we're we're deferring into the tsp is now you know that's money we don't have to plan for on a monthly basis because we're already in retirement now so we're no longer saving for it and all of those things together plus maybe less commute and work clothes and that kind of thing uh you know has us living on 70 to 80 percent so i think the next step is to say okay how am i doing in order uh in terms of building up enough in the way of retirement assets so that i can generate what i need when i supplement social security to ultimately solve for the the monthly expenses that i'll have and you're either on track ahead or behind now the reason the catch-up provision exists at age 50 and beyond uh is because most folks are behind when they do that calculation and so this gives them the a window of time between 50 age 50 and when they retire to put in you know a good bit more money as you said from 22 500 the 2023 contribution limit to 30 000 if you uh are over age 50 so i would do some planning and if you haven't done that perhaps you'd engage with a certified kingdom advisor there in ohio you can find one on our website at faithfi.com just click find a cka and uh just engage that individual for an hourly planning session just to do retirement planning and that will tell you whether you need to take advantage of it uh i mean it's great if you need it but you don't want to necessarily over accumulate either because you may have things you want to do right now additional giving or you know whatever it might be and so that's why we need to define this financial finish line but if you're like most folks and you get to the end of that planning process and you say i'm a little bit behind then taking advantage of the ability to put away an extra 7 500 a year between now and retirement's going to be really helpful does that make sense yeah yeah do we have a second for testimony real quick oh absolutely go ahead sir yeah so i'm fortunate enough i got to go through the financial freedom course at our church several years back probably eight ten years ago and that really set us on a trajectory of you know just understanding god's wisdom for you know not only our lives but our finances and really um it's such an undervalued part of our christian walk that i'm just thankful that i was able to do that and realize that you don't give our our money to our church tithe and and see how you can go from basically you know terrible finances and then you're actually giving more money to church and god is blessing you another way so i'm just really thankful for my career and thankful for for god well and you took the step early on jamie to really learn god's way of handling money which you know is not what the world teaches you know the world's system of money management is based based on spending all that you can and the idea of discontentment so that we need to respond by trying to buy bigger and better and newer because it's going to provide some sort of satisfaction or fulfillment you know it's built on greed and even fear and you know that obviously is not god's way of handling things you know our identity is not in our money it's not an end it's a means to an end and that it is most powerful when it's something other than us our ability to be generous and provide for our families and all the things that we see in a biblical worldview of money management where i where our identity is rooted in christ is our creator and provider and sustainer and now money's a tool to accomplish his purposes and then there's these principles that you've been living out in your financial life that allow us to live with freedom and contentment and you're giving testimony to that today so listen god bless you thanks for sharing that that's an encouragement i know to those that are out there that are saying man i really want that well the way you get that is to go back to god's word and really renew your mind with a biblical perspective focused on the eternal not the temporal god bless you jamie thanks for being on the program today to chicago hi julie go right ahead hi there so thank you so much for this ministry we love it love listening to it um my situation with my husband is that we have for a long time used the envelope system and so we have checking and then we have savings so for money that we don't need ready access to we have just got some virtual envelopes and put them in our savings so we are now at the point now where our savings is just crossed over 100,000 we um we have a 403b we have no credit card debt no car debt we're giving we have maybe 150 or so in our home to end mortgage so we're just thinking you know besides having um money accessible for stuff like vacation our emergency fund different envelopes that we have there is some money you know maybe 30 or 40 grand or more of that that is is just in our savings now that maybe we were thinking we could use maybe set up a short-term investment or something so we're just looking for your advice on that yeah i think you know this is a great opportunity julie as you all have really applied these principles from god's word and you're in a really strong financial position with clearly some surpluses for you all to step take a step back and just say you know what are our values and our priorities as believers where is god taking us what does he want to do in our life what do we want to be known for just in terms of how we're ordering our lifestyle and perhaps living simply and investing in other people and relationships and yes it's saving for the future and putting this money to work because if you have the gift of making money there's just you know more resources that you can do more good with so that's you know i think it's just a matter of you all really clarifying to make sure that you've defined enough so you know ultimately what are your your accumulation goals so that if you're on track to reach those now all of a sudden you say well lord i want to hold this loosely and how might you direct me toward greater generosity to the extent you're looking to still accumulate and build wealth i think you could look beyond you know the asset classes of stocks and bonds and cash toward perhaps real estate that would be another option for you to consider precious metals would be another option so you can look at diversifying among asset classes as another opportunity to be able to consider as you you know grow what god has entrusted to you but don't miss the planning side of it where you take a step back and just take maybe even a couple of weeks just you and your husband maybe separately and then coming together pray and say lord give us a vision for where you're taking us and how you want us to use your money because it's all his for your purposes part of that is saving for the future and being prudent part of that is being lavishly generous with whatever the lord leads you to i'm excited as you explore that we'll be right back stay with us we're grateful you've joined us today for faith and finance live i'm rob west let's head back to the phones lowell indiana hi rachel thanks for calling go right ahead hi thank you for taking my call um my question is in the past i have um transferred money from one institute it's an ira um i've transferred and it's it's a roth ira i've transferred money from one institution to the other but i've never had to do the paperwork the institutions have handled the paperwork now i've run across oh yeah looks like we lost rachel there let me uh hopefully you can still hear us rachel even though uh the line dropped um you know the the only way to do a transfer is with a direct rollover in some cases the advisor if you're using an advisor that's receiving that rollover will fill out that paperwork for you essentially uh to initiate that roller rollover often you will need to do it yourself so i think the key is so long as you've established that ira at the end of the day you're going to be able to do so i think the key is so long as you've established that ira at the new institution where you want that money to go then you would just request the rollover paperwork basically you would indicate what that institution's name is and the the routing number and the account number it would go back office to back office through what's called the eight cat system and you know that money would be deposited in the new institution in the account that's already opened that's titled the same way your name comma ira and that would just initiate that process and it's not taxable at that point because you're not taking a distribution it's just being rolled to a new institution whether or not they initiate that and do the paperwork on their end or you do it yourself it's the same process so i would just ask as long as that account's been open i would ask your current custodian for assistance with completing that they'll provide you the documentation either electronic or paper document that you'll complete and then turn that back in and that should initiate it so if i understood the question correctly that should get you going in the right direction we appreciate your call today if there was something else you wanted to know feel free to give us a call back let's see the villages florida brenda go right ahead hi thanks for taking my call rob i appreciate love your program we live in villages we feel like we're on a vacation every day we have 300 000 our 401k we have 480 in an annuity that's coming up due in the fall our mortgage is 50 000 on our home here and at 2.85 percent interest we are live on social security and my husband owns farm ground which is about 30 000 a year income from that and wondered what we should do with that money that's coming due in october we do have a financial planner and he's kind of talking real estate but i'm kind of not sure in this situation with our country that's in sure and the the portion that's coming due is that the the annuity or something else yes yes the annuity all right yeah and and how has that annuity been growing has that been is that a fixed annuity or a variable or index it's been a big it's been a fixed at four percent and we've had it in there for five years okay and what is your desire with this money i mean are you wanting to keep that in a really stable environment and try to roll it over into a new fixed annuity at higher rates well i'm not really sure what to do with that we live comfortably we always live below our means we live comfortably on social security and the farm income i don't know if we should pay our home off just for that security we're okay every month we go on vacation we do what we want to do so you really haven't been taking anything out of the 700 000 between the 401k and the annuity yeah we do we take 1500 a month out to pay for our house payment our insurance taxes all that that has to do with this house and where does that come from that comes from the 401k from the 401k okay gotcha yeah so i mean the good news is even at 300 000 i mean i would say that you know we ought to be looking at at taking four percent a year that'd be a thousand a month obviously you're taking more than that uh so you're taking you know about what about six percent out so it's a little higher than i would typically expect although you've got this annuity that's been growing and you're not touching that so really in the aggregate uh you know you have 700 000 and four percent of that would be twenty eight thousand um and you're certainly not uh taking 2300 a month so i think you're in a great spot here because you don't need this money and this money can just continue to grow and you've got roughly you know a little less than half of it at the risk of the market in the 401k which you could roll out to an ira um i think if you wanted to stay on the most conservative end of the risk spectrum you could just do a new fixed annuity um and take advantage of higher rates because they're higher than what you know the one that you had that you got five years ago um but i'd probably sit with an advisor who can look at all of this i mean you're in a great spot here brenda with plenty of assets you've got good income that's you know you can depend on you guys are living modestly it sounds like you're just enjoying not only where you live but doing some traveling that's great um but i think as you lean into this with an advisor what you could do would be one of two things you could just take this money pay off the mortgage which further reduces your expenses and then just invest the whole thing you could roll that annuity that's coming to into the ira if that's pre-tax money um and then roll the 401k out so you'd have a new you know one portfolio with 650 000 um after you paid off the house or you could roll that you know annuity portion into another annuity at a little bit higher fixed rate without any risk and then you know just continue drawing from the 401k which i would probably roll out to an ira but i think in either case i'd get some wise counsel from an advisor who could look at the whole thing advise you on that new annuity if that's what you want or take responsibility for the whole thing and manage the 650 after you pay off the house does that make sense it does i appreciate that and so at our age of i've always lived below our means and i'm like i you know i'm planning on living till we're 90 i've had cancer twice and the lord's left us and yeah i'm living till i'm 90 so okay i want to make sure is that going to be enough money for us to live and you live like we've always been used to just doing what we want it doesn't what is the farm portfolio but it's great sure is the farm income passive income or does that take some effort on your husband's part to keep that going no it doesn't take any effort at all okay so that could continue into perpetuity for all intents and purposes right yeah yeah okay so basically you all have for you know for the most part you have guaranteed income that's covering more than your lifestyle so if you were to say rob if if our income is covered uh apart from 1500 a month for a mortgage would but you would now pay it off because um you know you take the 50 000 and pay off the mortgage now you got 650 left what would your expenses be what would you need to pull from the 401k at that point if the mortgage was gone if the mortgage was gone i'd not very much i mean okay you know with social security and the farm income you're pretty much there we'd be we'd be good okay so then you're then you're saying well my bills are covered we we are living modestly but within our lifestyle that we feel like god has called us to we're traveling and enjoying life and on top of that we've got 650 000 that we don't need is that going to last us the rest of our lives absolutely i mean ultimately our trust is in the lord could it all be reduced to rubble yes um you know but at the same time you've done everything you can possibly do and you've got plenty of assets way beyond what your need is so yeah you guys are in great shape so i think if it were me i'd probably uh certainly pay off the mortgage and get your expenses down you know where your passive farm income plus social security covers everything and then i would either turn the 650 over to an advisor to manage very conservatively or i'd roll that into a new fixed annuity if that gives you more peace of mind and then consider an advisor managing the 401k but yeah you're in great shape all right and the fixed annuity is that is five years like a minimum thing or is there different ones yeah there there is different we're still working right no i think that's probably the right length and there are different lengths but i think you know that would be typical okay i appreciate you thank you so much appreciate it absolutely and brenda if you need an advisor you can head to our website faithfi.com and click find to cka thanks for calling today all right hey uh it's friday which means jerry boyer checks in with us uh jerry is our resident economist he's a columnist at world opinions he's president of boyer research and jerry good afternoon to you sir good afternoon that was a great call if if if if we were a country filled with brendas if only we were a country of brendas that's so true and and maybe uh our nation's leaders could learn a few things from brenda with regard to how to uh uh operate fiscally at the same time brenda and mr brenda whoever he is that's exactly right well jerry uh in that regard i know we're gonna you're gonna give us a quick update on what's going on with corporate engagement in this earning season and as these shareholder meetings are cranking up but before we do give us a quick thumbnail sketch of what's happening economically well the big news today obviously was the employment report that almost always moves markets and it's consistent with the major themes of the week the other big news is chairman powell gave testimony before the banking committee as he is legally required to do um and you could just see the way you know the thinking is going on which is well the economy is doing better than expected so we got to do something about that because that's that's the phillips curve that's games in economics the economy is growing faster than expected in january uh so we better slow it down because they think the way to solve inflation is to slow the economy down i know that i've said that you know every week and one of the reasons i repeat it so often is because i meet people who think no that can't possibly be true no one can you can believe that read the testimony that's what they believe look it up on wikipedia phillips curve that's their way of thinking so when you have good economic news like a good you know the jobs market uh or when you have uh manufacturer surveys etc doing better than expected markets say okay the fed's going to try to slow it down they're going to hit the brakes and that's why markets went down this week um and including today on good market news uh it's great well it's a great helpful overview you do because it was it's not you it's me i went too long and we're out of time so we're going to hold the corporate engagement update to next week you have a great weekend my friend thanks for stopping by you too all right faith and finance is a partnership between moody radio and faith five thank you to charles dan amy and jim have a great weekend we'll see you next week on monday bye moody radio spring share event has come and gone but there's still more work to be done this year we want to be bold for the gospel in encouraging teaching and empowering you our listener to do this we need your help see our impact and learn more about moody radio's new initiative at springshare.org