No Need for Title Fraud Insurance

You've heard the ads on the radio. Identity thieves can take your house unless you buy title fraud insurance. Hi, I'm Rob West. You've also heard that home title fraud is a growing type of identity theft, but is the answer really another insurance policy or can you protect yourself? I'll talk about it 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 decisions. So here's how it's supposed to work. A lender notifies you that they're about to foreclose on your home. That's news to you because you haven't taken out a new mortgage or other loans on the property. The type of fraud that kicks off that scenario can take several forms, but all of them start with identity theft. There's even a very sophisticated version involving wire fraud that has the FBI's attention, but it's pretty rare. Today I'm talking about a much simpler and more common variety that we'll just call title fraud and it works like this. The thief walks into your county deeds office and fakes your signature on what becomes a fraudulent deed transfer in your name, giving the property to someone else. The thief then takes out a home equity loan or refinances with cash out and skips town.

After a few months of non-payment, the lender then begins foreclosure proceedings. All of this is happening without the real homeowner knowing anything about it until it's too late. Now many companies today are advertising that they can protect you from this type of fraud, but what exactly are you buying with title fraud insurance that may cost $15 a month or more? First you need to understand that this isn't what's typically known as title insurance, which by the way you should always get when you purchase a property. As it turns out, title fraud insurance really isn't insurance at all and it doesn't lock your title as some of the names imply.

Real title insurance protects you against any claim involving the validity of your ownership of the property and it's a one-time purchase, usually several hundred dollars. Title fraud insurance is a completely different product and it won't protect you in the very unlikely event that a scammer forges your signature and transfers your title. Title fraud insurance products will usually just monitor whether your deed has been transferred out of your name at the county records office. That might be helpful if you're able to react in time and challenge the deed transfer at the county records office before the scammer takes out a new loan, but that's a big if.

And there's no way to actually lock a title in any state. There's nothing to stop a scammer from forging your signature and transferring a deed out of your name, but you can monitor yourself whether a fraudulent transfer has occurred. Most counties allow you to view the status of your deed online and some counties even allow you to sign up for automated alerts involving deed changes. So by now you're asking, if I don't monitor the status of my deed all the time, how do I protect myself from home title fraud? Well in theory, you don't really need protection against it because no matter how the scam plays out, it's still fraud. If someone forges your signature, transfers your deed, and then takes out a loan on the property, you're not responsible. The con artist didn't legally own your property, so the lender doesn't have a legal claim to it. If they tried to foreclose on you, it would be wrongful foreclosure and wouldn't hold up in court. There's another reason that the bank or mortgage company wouldn't come after you. They would, as a matter of course, require the scammer to pay for lenders title insurance at closing, protecting them against any loss.

There would be no reason for them to come after you, even though, as I said, they'd have no case against you. But you can take further precautions. Get out your title insurance documents from when you purchase the property.

Look to see what it covers and does it. It'll always protect you from legal claims against your ownership and possibly, but not necessarily, against fraud. If it doesn't, you can purchase a title insurance policy that protects against fraud, even if you bought the property years ago. And of course, that means if you didn't buy title insurance when you first bought the property, you can still get it. It will not only protect you from a loss, but will also cover any legal fees involved with defending your ownership. In most cases, the title company will actually provide an attorney to represent you. So the bottom line is title insurance, always a good idea.

Title fraud insurance, probably not worth the money. As Matthew 10-16 teaches, be innocent as doves, but wise as serpents. All right, your calls are next, 800-525-7000. That's 800-525-7000. I'm Rob Weston. You're listening to Faith and Finance Live, biblical wisdom for your financial decisions.

Much more straight ahead. Grateful to have you with us today on Faith and Finance Live. I'm Rob Weston. All right, it's time to take your calls and questions today on anything financial. We'd love to hear from you, 800-525-7000 is the number to call. Perhaps you're wrestling with your investments. Maybe you're wondering about paying down debt or giving more effectively and giving wisely. Maybe you're thinking about your credit score, how to balance your budget in the midst of these challenging times. Well, we'd love to help you with any and all of that, help you think well, which means we have to begin with God's Word and really understand the big ideas, the themes that we find in Scripture, the principles that we can apply to our financial decisions today, so that we can have God's thinking coming to bear in light of the choices we're making today.

That's what we want to help you do on this program each day, and we'd love to tackle those questions here on a Friday afternoon. The number to call again, 800-525-7000. We have a few lines open. Let's dive in today to Sandusky, Ohio. Jim, you'll be our first caller.

Go ahead, Spencer. Yes, I was wondering what is happening with the lack of a better way. Is it the cryptocurrency the federal government's trying to and Fedcoin?

What is actually happening with that? Because I keep saying that it's going to be starting to change over this July, but by what the President put an executive order, it wasn't supposed to touch anything yet, but seems to be moving faster than I thought. Yeah, let me clarify a couple of things, Jim. It's a great question. We're actually going to be tackling this with an opening topic here in the next week or so, but the short story is there's two things that are happening, and they're being conflated together, and it's causing some confusion.

Number one, you are correct. The Biden administration asked several governmental agencies, including the Treasury and the Fed, to begin to explore this idea of a CBDC, a central bank digital currency. Think about it like a digital dollar. The challenge with it is it's fraught with problems, namely just the lack of privacy, oversight and control of every transaction that would be feeding data into the Federal Reserve, which has lost a great deal of trust, to say the least. And so there's a lot of reason to be concerned about that.

It's a hot topic right now. We even saw the state of Florida come out, and there's legislation on the table right now to make a CBDC not able to be used with the Florida's Uniform Commercial Code as a way at the state level to try to thwart this activity and send a message. But it's still very, very early. I mean, it's people writing white papers and doing research, frankly, that have no power to put it in place because it's clear that coinage is a congressional function. It's going to have to go through Congress and the president before we'd ever see it come to the light of day. And there's a lot of concern on the part of legislators with regard to the government having this kind of access to data around transactions and control over our currency in a way that, frankly, they've never had before. So it's a good ways off if we ever see it.

So what's happening this July? Well, this July is something called FedNow, which is basically an instant payment platform for banks and businesses. It's being called a digital currency.

It's not. Essentially, what's going on here with FedNow is if you want to send a transaction through the electronic means relying on the current banking infrastructure, you can't do that 24-7, seven days a week. For instance, you can't do it on the weekends. And FedNow would make payment transactions possible 24-7, seven days a week instantaneously. And so it's a means by which you can transfer money using the Federal Reserve. And it's an instantaneous process which allows for more timely transactions when those are necessary. So that's what's coming in July, but that has nothing to do with a central bank digital currency. Although I will say that could be part of the plumbing for what could come down the road with the CBDC, but it's not that in its current form. Yes, that's what I was thinking too. So do you think it's a good idea to even have something like that with the federal government controlling it?

Which one? The payment system? What you just talked about just now. Yeah, well the FedNow system, you know, I think it's certainly, you know, I don't have any problem with it. It is especially for folks who need electronic transfers on the weekends. They need instant transactions. The FedNow program is going to enable that. So it is going to speed up commerce and be very effective for folks that need it. If you have concern about, you know, these transactions running through the Federal Reserve, then you may want to think twice.

But, you know, I think based on what's coming out in July, I wouldn't have any problem using it personally. Okay, you answered my question purposely. Thank you very much. All right, Jim. Thanks for calling, sir. God bless you.

800-525-7000 is the number to call. Let's head to Illinois. Hi, Joanne. Go ahead.

Hi, Rob. I heard a question about potentially having the opportunity to purchase a property I've probably lived in for the back taxes of just over $14,000. And I don't know if I should do that with the hope of reselling the property because it's not really an even condition. And I'm not interested in fixing it up.

So I was just wondering if you think that's a good idea. Okay, so how did you come about this opportunity? Where is this coming from? Well, I'm divorced and as part of the settlement, you know, he bought me out. And so my name's off the deed, but I got he, he's deceased.

Someone is interested in buying the property for the delinquent taxes. And they notified me and, you know, his brother and any years. And so I got this, I called the county clerk, and I called the back taxes. And I called my divorce attorney. And he said it looked like there was an outstanding mortgage. But like, is this something I should, you know, I can't pay the outstanding mortgage, it's almost $200,000.

I only had to pay the $14,000. We originally paid $100,000 for the property. And so would it be worth taking all my available cash with the pretty good hope of someone purchasing the property fairly quickly just to tear it down and rebuild? Yeah, well, I was having a little trouble hearing you there.

I think I got the gist of it. I mean, obviously, if you could get the property for only the back taxes, and you could afford to do that, it could be a great opportunity, even without putting the money in it, to just turn around and flip it to an investor who'd be willing to come in and do the work. I'd want to make sure there's no other lienholders, it sounds like there likely is, against the property, you'd want to make sure that you could get a clear title to it.

And, you know, there weren't other lienholders here that have a claim to it. And then I'd want to talk to a real estate professional once I dealt with the title side and the ability to buy it and own it outright, and be protected in that. I'd want to talk to a real estate professional about the likelihood that I could turn around and sell it in its current form, given some of the properties deficiencies and so forth, and get my money back. And I wouldn't want you to be in a financial hardship in the meantime, because this could sit for a while, especially if it's in a state of disarray. And the last thing you'd want to do is kind of in the name of a quote-unquote great opportunity to tie your all of your funds up, put yourself in a real bind and create a lot of headaches and hardship and potentially some negative financial ramifications. So I think you need to get a lot more information, perhaps starting with a real estate attorney who could do some title work and explore the explore the state of the property. And then secondly, with a real estate professional, just to try to get all the facts and then look at that in light of your financial situation.

And perhaps a financial advisor helps you do that. If we can help further, let us know. Thanks for calling, Joanne. And we'll be right back. Stay with us.

Well, it's great to have you with us today on Faith and Finance Live. I'm Rob Last. We've got a few lines open today for your calls and questions. The number 800-525-7000. Give us a call. Let's head to David in Louisville.

Go ahead, sir. Hi, just a quick question. My family, my sons and my wife and I have a landscaping business. It's been part-time since 2006. This year we made a change and we're going into it full-time. My sons are still in college, but it's going to be full-time for me. And we've done a fair amount of work. Last year, I think we brought home between the whole business about $50,000.

It was just part-time. So I know that's not that much, but this year it looks like our work is going to significantly increase by what we have lined up already. And so I need some equipment, some additional equipment to handle that workload. I was just wondering what your thought was about getting a business line of credit of about $50,000 to handle that. Yeah. Well, it certainly makes some sense.

I think you just have to go into it very carefully. Typically, a business line of credit is more flexible than a business loan because it can be used for any purpose. It would be revolving credit so you can carry a balance that accrues interest and then pay it back as you're able. And then you could borrow more, which could be helpful here because if you can go slow and just add the equipment as you need to, and then hopefully as you see that revenue increasing, you could pay that back. And then that line could be available to you down the road when you reach the next threshold of needing some additional capacity. I would look certainly for an unsecured line of credit that doesn't require any collateral. And what's nice about the lines of credit is they're usually a bit easier to qualify for than a business loan.

So I think that makes some sense. I think the key is just to make sure you're being realistic about the business that you'll have and not getting ahead of yourself and kind of eating up your profits with debt service, especially with the rise in interest rate. So you're going to have to count the cost of what you need.

And I would just try to go as slow as you can in terms of taking on the debt before you realize the business that you're hoping and praying for as you expand and give more full-time attention to this. Is that helpful, though? Yes.

Yes, I agree. And I thought through some of that. We've never borrowed money much at all. I mean, we did for a mortgage and I think the vehicle one time years ago, but other than that, we haven't borrowed money. And so it's just a little bit scary for me to step out and do it. Yeah, I mean, the only downside, well, there's a few downsides. I mean, one is there's going to be some fees.

There's usually an origination fee and there's going to be monthly maintenance fees and annual fees and draw fees each time you withdraw from the line. So you're going to want to compare those as you shop this around. They also tend to have higher rates compared to traditional business loans. So you'll generally qualify for competitive terms on a business line of credit if you meet their eligibility criteria and have a solid credit rating. And again, a lot of it's going to do with whether or not you are giving a personal guarantee.

But you're going to want to just try to limit that and you're going to want to shop it around and make sure that you're getting one that not only has the best rate you can find, but you look at these other fees as well. And then the big question is just going to be that whether or not you're comfortable with that personal guarantee. But it sounds like you guys have been in this space. Obviously, you know what it takes. The fact that you're now going to focus full time on it. You've already got some profit going.

That's great. I would imagine you have a pretty good handle on what it's going to take to actually build it up to where it is going to be able to meet your needs. And then hopefully you're building something that has value and could be sold down the road or something like that.

So I would just say, yes, that can make some sense. But count the cost. Go slow and make sure that you don't get ahead of yourself and chew up your profits with the debt service. David, all the best to you guys as you move forward with this. I'm excited for you. Thanks for calling today. Karen is in Holmes County, Ohio. Hi, Karen. Go right ahead.

Hi, thank you. In 2004, I bought a property listed as residential to run my business out of. And unknowing to me, the property changed to commercial zoning when I turned in my signage application.

Fast forward to now, I've changed businesses. And the only thing I could figure that I could handle with was an Airbnb. But the income from the Airbnb is pretty much only covering the mortgage and upkeep. We aren't making anything yet that contributes to retirement. And originally we bought the place with the thought that it would be a portion of our retirement. So I'm trying to figure out, is there something I'm missing? I can't sell it at a commercial zoning and get the money out of it that it's valued at.

And I don't know what to do, if I should just cut my losses and... Yeah. Have you looked into the zoning laws there? Because, I mean, it depends on where you're at, but it is possible for commercial properties to be rezoned to residential or back to residential. Have you explored that fully? I did several years ago, and at the time we were tied on funds and I was told we had to pay an $80 fee and that most likely the zoning commission wouldn't approve it. So I didn't proceed. I could do it again now, but I don't have high hopes.

Yeah, yeah. Well, I mean, obviously, counties and municipalities have specific zoning standards, but I don't know how to deal with specific zoning specifications for every property within the community, residential, commercial, industrial, agricultural, mixed use, and then there's within each of those classes or subcategories. But I think, I mean, obviously I don't know the specifics here, but given that it had previously been residential, I think you probably have a pretty good case to have it changed back to residential. So it would be at least worth exploring, in my opinion.

I mean, this was commercially zoned all along and, you know, it's in a clearly a commercial zoning category, but obviously residential is a part of this area because that was its previous zoning classification. So I think before I'd take a loss on this, I'd probably explore every option to see if I could get the county to take another look at it and consider at your request and appeal it being changed back before I do anything. So that would be my next step, Karen.

I understand this is challenging, but it's probably worth the legwork for you to do some digging on it. We appreciate your call today. Let us know how that goes.

I'd love to hear the end of the story. We appreciate you being on the program. We'll be right back with much more on Faith and Finance Live. Stay with us. Great to have you with us today on Faith and Finance Live.

Phone lines are open 800-525-7000. Hey, good news, stock market's up and egg prices are down. That's right, the market.

The Dow Jones gained more than 250 points today. As the index finishes the best month since January, by the way, Jerry Boyer will stop buying our next segment. We'll get his take on where the economy and the markets are at right now. But that's certainly positive as we finish out the month of April here. But egg prices are down. You might ask it, really, eggs? Well, you probably have seen that you've been paying as much as 60 percent more for eggs, largely due to the bird flu that caused the supply and demand pressures.

Those have eased. And as of April 26th, a wholesale dozen eggs is down to $1.22, down from $5.46 in December. Now, that's again wholesale. You're paying retail. But nevertheless, we've had a dramatic drop, which is right sizing the egg industry.

So that's good news if you're an egg eater. All right, let's head back to the phones. We're going to go to St. Petersburg. Hi, Mary Jane. Go right ahead.

Hi. Yeah, my daughter is 25 years old and lives on her own. And she just told me she's in debt and she keeps paying on a credit card. And I had heard you recommend, I think, a debt management company before and I was wondering what you would recommend.

Yeah, that's my preferred way to get out of credit card debt. Give me just a little bit more in the way of details. How much does she owe currently? She won't tell me. Okay. How old is she? 25. All right.

Do you have reason to believe Mary Jane it's over $4,000? I honestly have no idea. Okay. All right.

Yeah. So I mean, typically, that's kind of the threshold. It's not a magic number, but it's kind of the threshold where you're under 4000, you may be better off just kind of snowballing it yourself, which is where you have multiple cards and line them up smallest to largest balance. Try to cut back in the budget as much as you can to free up margin that is money left over. You know, after all the bills are paid, pay all the minimums, but attack the smallest balance with every available dollar until it's gone. That's going to give you the boost psychologically to, wow, I just paid one off.

Let's keep going. And then you move right down the line. If it's over 4000, that's where debt management is absolutely my preferred approach. So credit counseling is what it's also referred to. It's essentially where you don't take out a new loan. You're not doing a balance transfer. We're not consolidating it with a new debt.

We're leaving it right where it is. If it's with Discover, it stays with Discover. It's with Citi. It stays with Citi. But as long as you go through a nonprofit credit counseling agency, they all have a program where they'll drop the rates if you pay through a debt management company.

So my friends at ChristianCreditCounselors.org work with hundreds and hundreds of our FaithFi listeners. And if she were to contact them, ChristianCreditCounselors.org, they could evaluate not only helping her with her spending plan, and you wouldn't have to be involved, which it sounds like she'd be glad about that. She could just, you know, work with a third party who doesn't know her personally and work through her budget, but then also determine what these interest rates will be lowered to so that that level monthly payment will go far more to principal, and that will help her get out of debt on average 80% faster. So that would be the way I would recommend she goes.

Now, she will have to close any of the cards that go into the program, but that's probably a good thing. The thing I would also say to you is, you know, we need to solve the underlying problem that led to the debt in the first place, which is likely overspending. And so we just need to make sure she's living on a budget. One of the reasons, though, I like this approach is, you know, it's going to be more of a slow and steady approach to paying this off, as opposed to kind of coming in and wiping it out, you know, in one fell swoop or refinancing it to a new debt that has a lower interest rate, because that's probably just going to take the pressure off, not cause her to do the hard work to put the spending plan in place and rein in her spending. And then the debt will likely come back. Whereas I find that this program, if you can, she can build it into her budget and develop that discipline of paying it every month, then hopefully she gets to the end of it, it's paid off. And now she's kind of, you know, trained herself to live on a balanced budget.

And hopefully she never has credit card debt again. But the short answer is yes, that is my preferred approach. Oh, thank you so much. I appreciate it.

All right. Thanks for calling. Hey, if we can help further with that, let us know. I mean, one of the things I'd be willing to do would be if she doesn't end up going to Christian credit counselors, we could connect her with one of our certified Christian financial counselors just to be a sounding board and, you know, somebody who's, again, a third party that could just help guide her and we'd be happy to do that at no cost. So just let us know if we can help.

800-525-7000 is the number to call. Let's head to Ohio. Hi, Monica. Go ahead.

Hi, how are you? Thanks for taking my call. You're welcome. So my question is, my mother is 87 years old. We found that she has a very large credit card debt, $18,000, actually. She's been paying on it, $500 a month. Her living situation is changing. She's going to have to pay rent. She was living with her sister who passed. We had to sell the house. She's going to have to pay rent.

So all that is changing. She cannot pay that credit card anymore. Do we let it go to bankruptcy? Well, would she have any ability to make a payment? I mean, even the minimum payment, would that become problematic? Well, no, she couldn't make a small payment on it, but the minimum payment on this account is $500 a month.

She cannot do that, not any longer. Okay. What would she have the ability to pay? Oh, probably about $200.

Okay, yeah. Yeah, that's definitely going to be lower. I mean, typically you would expect 3%, which is $540.

So you're definitely not going to get down to $200. Before I would just, you know, stop paying this and it, you know, you're talking bankruptcy, I mean, at the very least, you could just stop paying it, it would happen. They would kind of harass her. And then, you know, eventually it would, because of the balance, it would likely end up with a judgment where, you know, she owes this deficiency balance and, you know, that would be a legal judgment perhaps that would come of it. And that could end up resulting in garnishment and other, you know, remedies for that.

I would probably contact them just to let them know, you know, what's going on in the situation. And they may be willing to lower the interest rate or settle for a smaller amount monthly. You know, I would see stopping payment or filing bankruptcy as a last resort here. But it'd be worth a conversation both to them. You could also contact my friends at ChristianCreditCounselors.org just to see what they may be able to do and how low the payment would be through a debt management program, which would, if she could afford the payment, it would get the interest rate down, which would mean that more of the payment each month would be going to principal.

That would be great. But you may find that even the debt management monthly payment is still too high for her budget given this change that's coming in her relocation. And if that's the case, then you're going to be left with, is the credit card company willing to work with her? You know, because of the situation, obviously, they don't want to have to write it off.

So they have some incentive to do so you could provide them documentation on how much budget's available and all of that. So I think I'd probably start with Christian Credit Counselors at ChristianCreditCounselors.org. And then as a backup, I would reach out to the creditor and see if they'd be willing to work with you. All right. Okay. I did reach out to the creditor and they sent her a letter saying there was nothing they could do.

So that's why I read a lot. All right. Well, I would then check in with our friends at Christian Credit Counselors.

Again, it's ChristianCreditCounselors.org. Thanks for calling, Monica. All the best to you and your mom. And we'll be praying the Lord helps you navigate this, gives you wisdom on how to proceed from here.

I know this is a challenging one. We're going to take a quick break, folks. When we come back, Jerry Boyer stops by and then we'll finish out the program today with more of your calls and questions at 800-525-7000.

Stick around. We'll be right back. Great to have you with us today on Faith and Finance Live. I'm Rob West.

All right. Here in our final segment on a Friday, we're always joined by our good friend Jerry Boyer. He's our resident economist. He's the president of Boyer Research.

You'll find his insightful opinions and world opinions where he's a columnist. Jerry, good afternoon. Good afternoon.

All right, Jerry. I know you got chickens in the backyard and I'm reading that egg prices are down 76% since their December high. So I don't know. I guess you're not making as much money selling those eggs, huh? We just gave them away to the electricians today. They came in and did some rewiring. So we figure maybe they gave us a little price break. Hey, you want to make some eggs with you?

They're not worth as much as they were five months ago, unfortunately. No, they weren't. Yeah. So we put our eggs in one basket. I'm glad we were diversified. We didn't have our whole portfolio. Look at that. I love it, Jerry.

You're always looking for an illustration. Hey, give us an update on the economy and the markets. I mean, so we just finished the best month since January, huh?

Yes. And that's of course because, you know, the economy is slowing down. We got the GDP number out yesterday and it said not a recession in the first quarter, but a lot slower than it's been and slower than expected. Most of the big forecasters were expecting 2% growth.

Instead, we are basically at 1% growth. By the way, most of the big forecasters, the blue chip forecasters are now saying that the second quarter will be negative. And so is the Atlanta Fed, which, by the way, we're in the second quarter now. So it's kind of weird. They're predicting something that's happening now, but we won't find out for two months.

So it gets kind of complicated. So if they're right, we might actually be in a recession now. But a lot of economic indicators, we've just seen housing prices and consumer spending was a little weak.

We just found out today. So all of these indicators about growth, the bad news about the banking problem, you know, we had some problems with some regional banks and they're not completely gone, although they're, you know, mostly gone. All of that stuff amounts to, well, the Fed probably isn't going to tighten money very much.

Maybe next week, maybe one more quarter point, maybe not, don't know for sure. But that amounts to easier money and easier money pumped into the system or taking less out or, you know, take taking a little bit out now and then putting a lot more back in later in the year. All of that gets kind of gooses markets. And it also is inflationary. So inflation indicators have been going up and gold's been going up and the dollar's been weakening.

So it's your classic bad choice, you know, between Keynesian options. You slow down the economy to fight inflation. Oh, you cause inflation to get the economy going again. It's absolutely amazing that they're triggering a recession to contain inflation.

And then the markets are saying yes. And once the recession is official, then you're going to try to get inflation going again to end the recession, as opposed to just biblical principles, which are so much simpler, which is have sound money. Don't try to print your way into prosperity. The only way to prosper is to work hard and be productive. So get the government out of the way of people's hard work and productivity, and just keep the currency sound and the creativity that God gave us, the gift of humanity. That's what will get us out of recessions. Yeah.

And the question is, why can't we apply that simple biblical thinking to the decisions we're making nationally at related to our economy? I want to take a couple of questions, Jerry, you open to doing that? Sure, absolutely. Go ahead. All right, because I'm seeing some good ones on the board here. And this one speaks... I'm not open to answering them.

I'm opening to, if you could take them. No, no, you're definitely answering them. Lynn wants to get to what you're talking about here. I mean, she's having a hard time understanding why these principles we talk about regarding restraint in spending can't be applied at the national level. Lynn in Huntington, Indiana, go right ahead. Hi, yes, this is Lynn.

Thank you so much. I would like to understand what the national debt is more clearly, just because it keeps going up. And why aren't certain programs just stopped until we can pay off our debt? I know there's brilliant people working in Washington who make these decisions, but what can we as Americans do to help the situation? Jerry, it seems so simple.

Why isn't this happening? Well, it's simple, but it's still hard. Ronald Reagan says the answers are simple, but that doesn't mean they're easy.

So people listen to this radio program. I hope they listen to it quite often. And you tell them to control their spending. And I hope most of them do, but they don't all control their spending.

Why? The wisdom is obvious, right? The wisdom of budgeting is obvious, the wisdom of having an emergency fund, the wisdom of controlling your spending and not borrowing.

That's all obviously true, just like dieting is obviously true, but it requires self-control. And our political leaders don't have self-control, which means at some level we don't because we elect them, although partly they're special interest groups that kind of punch above their weight class. So what's reflected in Washington isn't just purely a reflection of what we think, it's also various interest groups.

So there are a lot of people who are at the federal trough and they're highly organized. But Lynn is busy, right? So is Rob, so is Jerry. We're busy like living our lives.

Our grandson's visiting for the weekend. So we're going to focus on him, but some other people who are doing politics all the time and they're always lobbying for more money, that's their life. That's what their life is about. So they lobby for higher spending, and we complain about it, but we don't really do anything. So there's a problem with the system. And generally, I think in the history of nations, the thing that fixes that is when things get so bad that solutions are forced on the political class by reality, not by them waking up or behaving or repenting or being wise or smart, but where eventually people buy bonds say, I'm not buying them anymore. I don't trust you anymore.

And when that happens, you have something like a debt crisis and then nations are forced to get some self-control. Yeah, well said. Lynn, thank you for your call today. Let's take one more.

That was so much fun. Jim's in Idaho. And Jim, I understand you're wondering about a bank investment that you have. Go ahead with your question. Yeah, I have about a little over $400,000 in a foundation that loans money to churches. It's been in business for a long time.

It's doing great. Right now, they raise the rate on my traditional IRA because I transferred my 401k money into this because I wasn't getting anything. It's getting five and a quarter percent interest. And then I have about $10,000 that I contribute every month, $200 a month. That's a Roth IRA that's getting the same amount, five and a quarter.

And then these are seven-year terms. And then I have $350,000 in an on-demand account that's collecting 4% because we're building a home, we're paying cash for it. So we'll be totally debt free as soon as the house is built and everything. And someone told me this foundation was not good or something. Get your money out of it. But everybody I talked to bank, old bank presidents, different people, I'm in a pretty good area where I have a lot of good people to financial people to talk to. They'd know that's the best money to have you're into right now. And then the second question to kind of follow up this is if all the banks fail, because I listened to this guy, Glenn Becker, my wife does, I don't like listening to him because he says put all your money in gold and silver, get your money out of the banks because they're all going to fail.

And if all the banks fail, I think the least of my worries is going to be where my money is because I think there's going to be chaos everywhere. So if they could comment on that, I would greatly appreciate it. That's a loaded question. But yeah, no worries. Thanks for your question, Jim. We're going to have to stay away from the foundation one.

We just don't have enough details to comment on that. But Jerry, just in terms of the possible bank failures, and obviously his wife's listening to Glenn back, I mean, just give us some perspective on where we find ourselves today. Yeah, well, before that, if he's got 400,000, do you want to buy some eggs?

I can tell you eggs. They're on sale. Yeah, like you, I'm not quite sure about like what the foundation situation is. But he's described basically bank accounts of one form or another, and they're insured. It is incredibly unlikely that the federal government would allow these banks to fail, they have the ability to stop banks from failing. The Fed is the lender of last resort, and it can bail out banks, we may not like that. Because it does it in inflationary ways, but it can bail out banks.

And politically, it doesn't seem like they would let the banks fail. You know, I know Glenn Beck, I've been on this show, the thing is, I've spent so much of the past 15 or 20 years of my career, talking people out of panics, about things that Glenn Beck says are going to happen like next week. And you just have to realize he's right about a lot of issues. But even he's admitted, he lacks depth perception. So he can look at something and say, oh, you know, we're about to crash into a wall.

It's like, Glenn, that wall's 10 years away. So there's a lot of fear. And also that's a way to get listeners. I'm not saying don't listen to them. I am saying do please remember how many times he said the dollar was going to collapse over the past 15 years, and put it all into gold.

And how many times that didn't happen, which is 100% of the times it didn't happen. And understand that the entertainment aspect of talk radio is different than what a guy like Rob is doing day after day, dealing with financial professionals who have to look clients in the eye. Whereas people on talk shows, they don't really look clients in the eye, they all sell it all, you know, and buy gold and buy freeze dried food, and they don't have to look them in the eye when gold goes down, or when they miss run ups in the stock market. So having financial counselors who have knowledge, they have a biblical worldview, they're not in denial. But they're also not into ratings.

Fear gets ratings. Whereas Christian financial professionals and advisors and guys like Rob are just doing it every day, the blocking and tackling of finance are far better counselors than, you know, some of my friends whose job on Fox News, or some of the talk stations, their job is really just to get you to listen and watch, which isn't quite the same thing as giving you actual financial wisdom. Well said, Jerry. Well, I'm off Glenn Beck's Christmas card list now.

We talked about Glenn Beck eggs and the Federal Reserve today. I think we've covered the waterfront. Hey, Jerry, thanks for stopping by. Enjoy your family this weekend.

It sounds like a blast. And we'll talk to you next week. God bless.

All right. That's Jerry Boyer, our resident economist. He joins us each Friday with his economic commentary. Folks, thanks for being along with us today. So thankful for the opportunity to serve you, to encourage you and to take you back to God's word as you think about your high calling as a manager of God's resources. Faith and Finance Live is a partnership between Moody Radio and Faith by thinking to Amy, Dan, Clara and Jim. Couldn't do it without them. Have a great weekend and we'll see you on Monday.