A New Way To Further God’s Kingdom

Give justice to the weak to the weak. It's under what are his first Sure, we offer competitive rates and low fees. But that's all to help our members support churches, ministries, and causes close to their heart. Our mission is to be a place where your faith and finances can grow together as you seek to serve God and support yourself and your loved ones. We strive to offer financial solutions to help you live and give more abundantly.

Yeah, I love it. I mean, aligning your faith with your values with a banking partner like CCCU. So if this is something our listeners want to learn more about, Aaron, where would you direct them? They just need to visit joinchristiancommunity.com. That's joinchristiancommunity.com. Of course, you have to be a member to use one of our cards.

But if you're listening to this program, you likely already qualify. Membership is open to Christians across the country. Excellent. Well, Aaron, we're so grateful for our partnership with CCCU, and we're delighted that you stopped by today. Thanks for being with us. Well, thank you, Rob.

It's been a pleasure to be with you. God bless. Well, folks, if you want to learn more about aligning your faith with your values and all of your banking needs, visit joinchristiancommunity.com. That's joinchristiancommunity.com.

That was Aaron Cade of the Christian Community Credit Union. Your calls are next, 800-525-7000. Much more just around the corner. Stay with us. We'll be right back. So thankful to have you with us today on Faith and Finance Live here on Moody Radio. I'm Rob West, and it's time to take your calls and questions now on anything financial.

800-525-7000 is the number to call. We've got some lines open. My experience in doing this for decades is that our financial journey is one of the key ways God shapes our spiritual journey. That's right. The way we handle money is a tangible expression of what we value, where we've placed our trust. It's evident whether we're fixed on the hope of the eternal or the temporal, and if we're not careful, money can attempt to dethrone God from first position in our lives, making money the object of our affection as opposed to handling money in such a way that it's true that God is really at the center, and that he is where ultimately our hope and our trust is. And as we work out those daily financial decisions, well, it allows us to grow up in our faith. The key is that we look to a biblical worldview of money management in all we do, but certainly that includes this area of money management, because we're stewards, managers of the King of Kings resources. Well, on this program we want to help you do that faithfully, looking of course to the Council of Scripture as our guide. So with whatever you're thinking about today financially, debt repayment, maybe it's your giving strategy or living within your means, maybe your long-term savings, whatever it might be, give us a call. Let's talk about it. 800-525-7000 is the number to call. Let's begin today with Merrill. Go right ahead.

How can I help? Hey, Bob. Hopefully this is a simple question. I have a 401k IRA in a mutual fund, and I have a 403b that I contributed to when I was working for a school district here in Florida. And the 403b does not allow me to make the RMD a QCD, so I'd like to know if I can move that 403b out of the 403b and just into the standard IRA without any kind of penalties or worry about tax problems, and then be able to give that all that money in a QCD. Yeah, and the short answer is absolutely, Merrill.

You can definitely do that. So just for the benefit of our listening audience, Merrill's throwing out some terms here that I'd love to define for you just to make sure you're on the same page with us. That is, he's got a company sponsored plan, a 403b version is the nonprofit version of that. He worked for a school district. They allowed him to contribute to a retirement plan. Once you separate from the company, or in this case the school, then you can move that 403b or 401k, roll it out to an IRA, a traditional IRA. That's not a taxable event because it stays inside a qualified plan or account, which is a tax-deferred vehicle. Once you do that, then the QCD that he's talking about, Qualified Charitable Distribution, Merrill, that's absolutely then in play because you can make a QCD out of an IRA directly to a nonprofit ministry, charity, your church, any 501c3. That's not going to be added to your taxable income, so you wouldn't pay tax on it as you would if you take a standard distribution from an IRA. But the benefit is the ministry or your church gets the full benefit of the amount that you transfer and it counts toward your required minimum distribution, which as you well know, once you reach, it's now 73, it's going up to 75 eventually, once you reach that age, the government's going to make you take a certain amount out based on your balance and your life expectancy each year, and you can satisfy that amount through this Qualified Charitable Distribution.

So I think the next step for you is to just roll that out to your existing IRA, and you would just contact your plan administrator to get that rollover paperwork, and on that paperwork you would tell them who your custodian is and what the title of the account is and the account number, and they'll just transfer the assets over. Perfect. Well, listen, thank you so much, Rob, I appreciate everything you do. It's a great ministry you're providing for us. Well, thank you. It's very kind of you and we appreciate you being on the program today, and I love that you're thinking about giving, not only generously, but giving wisely, Merrill. That's a great thing for us all to be thinking about.

Thanks for your call today. You know, folks, as we think about our generosity, we should be thinking about how do we give more effectively, and that could come through any number of strategies. Number one is just starting with limiting our lifestyle so we have margin, so we can give more generously. Maybe you implement what I call a progressive giving approach, where every year for at least the systematic proportionate giving you're doing, what would be equivalent to a tithe, let's say you're doing 10 percent or a tenth right now, maybe you try to bump that up one percent every year, 11 percent this year and 12 percent next year.

That would be a great approach. Another approach to think about giving wisely is to think about giving off of our ballot sheet. And so often we're focused on giving only out of cash. And yet what we will find is that the majority of our wealth, the vast majority of our wealth is not held in the form of cash. So 90 percent of our wealth is held in the form of assets on our ballot sheet. And yet we're giving primarily out of cash. So that means there's a great opportunity if we think about giving appreciated stock or a portion of a business or real estate or some other asset.

Take a look at that. It may allow you to give far more than you've considered previously. And if you need help with that, our friends at the National Christian Foundation are experts at helping you give effectively.

You'll find out more at ncfgiving.com. All right, we've got some lines open today. 800-525-7000. Let's try to sneak another call in here before our first break.

Jeffrey is in Boynton Beach, Florida. Go ahead, sir. Hi, Rob. God bless you for your ministry. Thank you. It's such a help.

I listen to it almost every day. Oh, great. My question is, my question is, I'm getting a settlement from an accident I was in actually four years ago, finally settled, and it's about $11,000. I have $8,000 in credit card debt, and I'm wondering if you thought it might behoove me to pay the credit card debt off or take some of that money and put it in an emergency fund because I don't really have one yet, and then maybe just do some of the credit card?

Or what do you think a good approach would be for me? Yeah. Well, the short answer is, but I'm going to give you a little caveat here in a second. The short answer is, yes, I would pay off the credit card debt. Here's why. Typically, when somebody has high-interest credit card debt, which is what you've got, we would say, let's have—and this is not a magic number.

It's just kind of a rule of thumb. Let's build that emergency fund, not up to three to six months expenses where we ultimately want it, but let's put $1,500 away just so we've got something to fall back on to break the cycle of the charging, and then with every extra available dollar, let's attack that credit card debt until it's paid off. You can do better than that here. If you're getting $11,000 back as a part of this settlement, you can wipe out your credit card debt, and now you've got $3,000 to plow into your emergency fund, and that's exactly what I do. You don't have to spend it. Put it in your emergency fund so it's there for the unexpected. But here's the thing. You've got to make sure before you do this that you've eliminated the reason that got you into the credit card debt in the first place, because the last thing I'd want you to do is wipe out that credit card debt, stick $3,000 in your emergency fund, and continue overspending beyond your lifestyle, and then you call me back in six months and say, well, Rob, the credit card debt's gone, but guess what? Now it's back, and maybe it's a little higher than it was before. So I want you to demonstrate to yourself for at least 60 days that you can live on a balanced budget and that you can live within your means, and if you can, then absolutely.

Let's pay off the credit card debt, let's put $3,000 in emergency savings, and then let's take what you were sending to the credit cards and continue to build your emergency fund until you get to three to six months expenses. Does that make sense? Will there be a lot of tax involved in that? Shouldn't be any tax whatsoever, because that's a settlement making you whole for a loss that you had. We appreciate your call, Jeffrey. God bless you, my friend.

I hope you're doing better and not having any lingering issues from that accident. We'll be right back. It's great to have you with us today on Faith and Finance Live.

I'm Rob West. Hey, just a quick note here before we move on to additional calls. Jeffrey was asking about whether he should pay off credit card debt before he puts his settlement money into his emergency savings, and I said, yes, let's do that.

We can wipe out the credit card debt, put $3,000 in emergency savings, and then continue to build that emergency savings to three to six months expenses. He then asked a follow-up question, is this taxable? I believe he said that that was an insurance settlement, and if so, that's what I was referring to, money received as a part of an insurance claim or settlement is typically not taxed.

Key word there, typically. You always want to check with your tax preparer. If it's a settlement, though, from a lawsuit, that would be different. Legal settlements generally are taxable. These are lawsuit settlements. Now, the exception would be a case where it involves a physical injury, so observable bodily harm or an illness you suffered. In other words, a personal injury settlement usually is not taxable while other types are. So bottom line is, depending on what the situation is, it may or may not be. Generally speaking, lawsuits are taxable.

Generally speaking, settlements from insurance where you had a loss or not, but always a good idea in a situation like this, something, this is not normal and customary, this is a one-time event, check with your CPA just to make sure that you're setting the appropriate amount aside so it doesn't catch you off guard if, in fact, you are going to owe tax on it. Thanks for your call, Jeffrey. 800-525-7000 is the number to call. Let's head to Cleveland, Ohio. Hi, John. Go ahead, sir. Hi, Rob. Love the show. Thanks for taking a call.

Thank you. I'm a union laborer out of Cleveland, and I'll be retiring in about two years. We have a pension and an annuity fund. My question is, the annuity is doing real well right now, it has done for my whole career, but I'm feeling I should take the annuity out and do my own investments in two years. Is that something I should do or keep the money in the union and keep doing their investment?

Yeah. Well, I certainly think you could go either way, and it's going to come down to, number one, I like the fact if you were to get the lump sum and it made sense based on the amount they were going to give you versus, let's say, an income stream for the rest of your life or the rest of your life plus the life of your spouse, it's going to come down to just how those numbers work out, depending on how much they're willing to give you. In either case, it may make sense to do one or the other. The benefit, though, of getting the lump sum is you're in control over it, so you have more control over how it's invested. If you need to access the principal, you need to get access to more money, you have the ability to do that, whereas with the income stream, by leaving it inside the annuity structure, you don't. You can get a monthly check for the rest of your life, but you're not going to be able to get to the money if you need it. Let's say you had a major medical event or something like that. The other factor is just performance. You said it's done incredibly well, so you may want to look at that as a part of the decision just to say how has it been performing, how might we expect it to perform in the future, and how does that stack up against what we think we could reasonably get on our own if we were to invest it in a fairly conservative portfolio, which is what you would typically have in retirement, and how do those two things stack up with one another.

Bottom line is I'd probably do, it'd be worth some time with an advisor just to look at both options. What are they going to give you monthly? What's the amount they'd give you as a lump sum?

How is the performance done on the other side? What might be done when you get it out? Just looking at all that in light of your financial situation, whether you have a shortfall every month in the income needed to cover your expenses, and if you left it there and didn't take the risk of investing it but got the income stream, if that would make up the gap, that may give you peace of mind just to know that, okay, at least my bills are paid, and I don't have to think about how the stock market's going to perform or anything like that. Perhaps this is money over and above what you're going to need monthly because you got the pension, and maybe that's covering your bills, and so if so, you may value having access to the full lump sum. So I think just to sum all that up, usually I like the lump sum, but there are a number of factors I would consider before I made a final decision, and that's where I think an advisor could be helpful to you.

Does that all make sense? Yeah, it sure does, because I'll only be 57 years old, so I'm still going to work, so there's a lot, I mean, it's going to be moving north of $500,000, and by far that's moving, that kind of money's not in my wheelhouse, so I'm definitely going to go to a Kingdom advisor, but the other quick question is, from my understanding, moving out of annuity and making your own annuities, you really don't have to worry about penalties, is that correct? Right, I mean, as long as you stay within the tax-deferred structure, then you could just do a rollover, and that would not be a taxable event, whether or not there's any fees imposed upon the company as it's rolled out, you'd have to check with them, but it's not going to generate any taxes as long as you roll it from a qualified annuity into a qualified retirement account like an IRA. Gotcha, perfect. So I think just given what I hear, I mean, the fact that you've got a half million dollars in play, the fact that you're still young and you've got time on your side, I kind of like the idea of you rolling this out to an IRA, having control over it, you get an advisor to help you manage it wisely and in accordance with your goals and objectives, but then you have access to the money if you need it over time. The place you would interview several certified Kingdom advisors and find the one that's the best fit, which is probably a good idea to go ahead and do now, is on our website at faithfi.com, that's faithfi.com, and then just click Find a CKA. Hey, all the best to you, John, in the days ahead. Sounds like you've got an exciting season coming up here as you transition to whatever God has for you next. We appreciate your kind remarks about the program and for calling today.

God bless you, my friend. 800-525-7000 is the number to call. We've got some lines open today. We'd love to hear from you with whatever you're thinking about financially. Hey, coming up in just a bit, Bob Dolls stopping by with our market update. And closing today, down slightly, some big news out with JP Morgan's takeover of the fallen First Republic Bank. We'll get Bob's thoughts on that straight ahead. Stay with us.

Much more to come around the corner. We're so thankful you've joined us today for Faith and Finance Live. I'm Rob West. We're taking your calls. We've got a few lines open, 800-525-7000 is the number to call.

That's 800-525-7000. Hey, before I head back to the phones, let me mention a new special offer we have here at FaithFi. You know, we're listener supported, which just means that we do what we do every day because of your generous support. So if you're a part of the FaithFi family, you listen to this show, you've taken advantage of our resources online, or maybe you're in the FaithFi app, whatever it might be, we would just ask that you'd consider a gift, especially now as we head toward our fiscal year end to try to finish the year out strong.

And we have a special offer available just as a way of saying thank you for any gift. It's our brand new Free to Follow package. It includes author Michael Blue's groundbreaking book that takes us in depth into what the Bible says about money and possessions with a challenge to rid ourselves of misconceptions about how we view and use money. It will really challenge your thinking.

It's a powerful read. Again, it's called Free to Follow. And we've also put in with that our brand new FaithFi leather phone wallet. It affixes to the back of your phone and you can request the Free to Follow package with your gift again of any amount when you go to FaithFi.com. That's FaithFi.com. Just click Give.

Thanks in advance. All right, back to the phones, 800-525-7000 to Central Florida. Hi, Nancy. Go ahead. Hi, Rob. Thank you for taking my call. I really appreciate your ministry.

Thank you very much. My question today is about online banks. Just recently, about a month ago, I purchased a CD with one of the online banks. And it has a 12-month term.

And the process was much, much smoother, much easier than I thought it would be. And I'm thinking of possibly opening another account with the same institution. A few days ago, however, though, I read something about this, the parent company of this organization having some legal issues several years back and involving fraud. And they paid a settlement, a quite large settlement, and I assume all was resolved. But what I'm wondering is, should this raise a red flag in my thoughts to perhaps continue with another investment with this company?

Or I mean, I want to be a good steward of God's resources and also a wise investor. And I'm wondering if this should be a concern at all, or if it because it was several years ago, if it just doesn't really even matter at all. Yeah. I was wondering what your take on this would be. Yeah.

No, I appreciate that. I mean, I think, you know, we're managers of God's resources, right? So you're the steward of what he's entrusted to you, just as I am with me. And so we can't keep our heads in the sand.

We need to be wise and even shrewd, according to what the Bible says about how we should manage God's money. And that means that if we see an institution that, you know, is having problems, maybe there's something systemic in their culture, the way they've set up their governance or their board that allowed this fraud to occur. I mean, anything can happen, but I think the question is, you know, what was the event surrounding it? Did they resolve it?

Is there anything lingering? And I'd probably do my homework on that. But I would do that with any institution I was involved with, a bank or anyone else. So I think perhaps that gives you pause and you ought to look at another option. You know, I don't have a problem just generally speaking with the online banks, as long as you've got that FDIC insurance. Now, I'd like to know that it's not one that was just spun up last night and that it's got some, you know, there's some reviews out on it and that, you know, it's been rated as being strong in terms of its balance sheet and it's known for its customer service.

And the good news is there are some great options out there. And you can always go look up the kind of the rating of the bank on the five star system with websites like bankrate.com. I tend to stay with some of the larger banks like Capital One or another one that's one of the largest is Marcus. That's the retail side of Goldman Sachs. I mean, these are, you know, decades or, you know, old institutions that have massive assets. They're known for being, you know, the strength of their just their balance sheets and so forth. But they also are participating as an online bank, which means they can pass along their savings in the form of higher rates and the ability to get a CD at, you know, 10 months for five percent at at Marcus today is a great option that's very attractive.

So as long as you've done your homework, it looks like, you know, they get good reviews. The strength of the bank is there and the key is that FDIC insurance. That would be my preference. Now, if you're looking for a bank like we started about talking today that aligns with your values, the good news is there's options there as well.

So I'd look at something like the Christian Community Credit Union, where, you know, that not only is it a has a strong institution that's a credit union and has very attractive rates like a four percent CD for seven months, but you know that they're aligned with your values as a believer and in fact, part of even the the profits, if you will, are going to go to kingdom causes. So I think you're on the right track here, Nancy. But just as a category, I don't have any problem with the online banks as long as there's FDIC insurance. OK, OK, well, I did I had done my homework and I did go online to the bankrate.com and research the different options and and actually one of the ones that you mentioned was one of the ones that I decided to go with. And that's the one that I discovered that this problem was, you know, several years back. Yeah. And so other than that, the company seemed fine and certainly had a strong rating and a good history and, you know, good offers. And so it was just, you know, just kind of put in that position then, well, OK, this was a number of years ago, about 12, 13 years ago. But should that have any bearing on, you know, my investing even more with them or or should I look elsewhere? Yeah. And I guess I would say it depends on and maybe when we're done here, you can give the information to our producer.

I'd love to look into it a bit more. But I think, you know, it could maybe it's an isolated event that happened a long time ago with one person that did something unscrupulous and it was addressed. Or maybe there's bigger systemic problems. You know, any institution is subject to a rogue employee making a bad decision or doing something fraudulent.

So I think the key is the protection and you have protections as a depositor of a bank, you know, with regard to fraud and even ultimately the failure of the bank, which is what you know where the FDIC comes in. And so I think you're probably in the clear, but I you know, it's never a bad thing to do your homework. And if you find something that just lets you leaves you uneasy, you know, perhaps moving it out to somebody else can make some sense.

So I think at the end of the day, it's probably fine to stay right where you are unless you just had a conviction or an unsettled feeling that perhaps it's time to move on. So share that information with with my producer today and we'll see if we can learn more about it. I appreciate your call today, Nancy.

I hope that helps you. Let's head to Illinois. Hi, Brenda. Go ahead.

Hi. My mother recently passed away and she had several IRAs. My siblings and I were surprised to see these little dribs and drabs.

None of them were huge. But anyway, so we're the beneficiaries and I'm just wondering, would it be best if I combined those IRAs with the small IRA that I have? That's my first question. And should I get a financial advisor? Don't know a lot about the stock market.

And what is a quick money grower because we want to buy a house? Gotcha. Okay, let's do this. I've got those three questions down. I've got to take a quick break when we come back. We'll follow up and see if we can tackle those.

Talk about combining IRAs, saving for a house and even using an advisor. Stay with us. We'll be right back. Well, thanks for being with us today on Faith and Finance Live. I'm Rob West, your host. We're taking your calls and questions today. Bob Doll stops by in just a moment. We'll get to that in a moment.

But first, just before the break, we were talking to Brenda in Darien, Illinois. She's asking about combining IRAs. She's also asking about using an advisor and saving for a home purchase. Brenda inherited IRAs can be combined if they're what's called a trustee to trustee transfer from the same deceased IRA owners with you as the beneficiary, which is what it sounds like. So you're the beneficiary, they had the same owner, and if that's the case, then they can be combined, but I wouldn't combine them and you probably won't be able to combine them with an existing non-inherited IRA. So if there's multiple inherited IRAs, those would likely be the ones that you're combining.

I would always check with your CPA just because the tax ramifications and all that can get a little tricky, but I do like the idea of you combining where possible because that's just going to simplify things, allow you to have one investment strategy instead of multiple and just get less statements and just easier to keep up with it all. Does that make sense? Yes, very much. Okay.

Yeah. Then beyond that, in terms of using an advisor, I like you having an advisor both for planning and for investment management when it makes sense. Typically you'd want for somebody to oversee your investments, actually make the day-to-day buying and selling decisions, you'd probably need somewhere north of 100,000, maybe 150,000 total investable assets would be typically a minimum for advisors to manage that money for you, but when you get to that threshold, I think it does make a lot of sense for somebody who can kind of wake up thinking about this and who's got training and can really make sure that you're not taking unnecessary risks, but you're taking full advantage of the opportunity to grow the resources God has entrusted to you. So I like that idea a lot. You can go to our website, faithfi.com. That's faithfi.com. Just click Find a CKA. I'd interview two or three of those Certified Kingdom Advisors. These are professionals that have met high standards and character and competence and they've been trained to bring biblically wise advice, they've met significant experience requirements, plus they've had a pastor reference, a client reference, and signed a statement of faith.

So I'd interview two or three CKAs, find the one that's the best fit, and right there on that site is a list of questions that we provided that could help you as you interview those pastors. And then thirdly, to the savings question, restate that again. What specifically were you looking for as you saved for this house? Well, my mother also left some life insurance and right now I'm living in a condo, me and my family, and we still owe about $55,000 on it, but we want to buy a house.

So we still have to sell my mother's house and then we would sell our condo. Anyway, what I'm getting at is I'm wondering, how should I invest that money while I'm waiting to make more money? Yeah, you really don't want to invest it in the sense that you don't want to put it at risk with an investment that could lose money.

You just don't have the time horizon. So you really want to stay in banking products. You could either use a high-yield savings account and you could put in up to $250,000 per bank or per account category.

So if you had up to $250,000 in your name and then you had another account at the same bank that was jointly titled you and your husband, you could get up to $750,000 in FDIC insurance. But right now with high-yield savings, you can get 4% a year and the money's guaranteed through the FDIC. So that would be a great option.

If you had a little more time and you wanted to extend it out with a CD, you could probably get over 5% and you'd have to just tie up the money for probably about a year. But I think both of those options would be great. You're not risking losing anything and you're going to get a little bit of interest while you're waiting. Sounds good. Okay. Is that all?

Yeah, that's all. That was great advice. Okay. Awesome. Well, thanks for being on the program today. We appreciate it.

Let us know if we can serve you again in the future. Well, before we head back to the phones to round out the program today, it's Monday, which means Bob Doll stops by. Bob is Chief Investment Officer at Crossmark Global Investments where investments and values intersect. And Bob, another exciting day on Wall Street. We started higher, finished lower, and obviously a lot of the talk up and down Wall Street is about this first Republic deal. So banks now front and center once again, what do you make of all of it? Yep.

A quiet day. As you point out, I think the bank situation is, this is another chapter. Look, FRC has been on the ropes now for several weeks. At the core, Rob, it's not all that dissimilar from Silicon Valley Bank, the mismatch between assets and liabilities because interest rates went up so fast. And so there were other banks willing to consider taking the bits and pieces from FRC, but only if the government step in and provide some guarantees. And that's what happened kind of almost overnight. And so JP Morgan has stepped up. It's still not a systemic problem where we have dozens of banks. But as you and I have talked on this call and other Mondays, it doesn't mean we're out of the woods and there won't be another one.

The consequences of raising rates from zero to five percent on the part of the Fed have long tail implications. Yeah, no doubt about that. Well, certainly something we'll keep an eye on in the days ahead. Bob, what else are you watching?

I know we talked last week. All eyes were on corporate earnings. Any notable corporate earnings out that in the last week that you want to mention? So lots and lots of earnings, I guess I'd sum it up this way, Rob. So far, and we're almost halfway through first quarter earnings reports, the numbers are slightly better than expected.

That's the good news. The less good news is that the analysts aren't taking their full year numbers up. In other words, if I had five dollar estimate for a company and they came in at five and a quarter, you think I might take my full year number up by twenty five cents, right? Because they exceeded on the first quarter. No, they're leaving the number where it was. They're basically saying for quarters two, three and four, my number is twenty five cents too high.

So I'll take this extra in the first quarter and put it further back in the year. So the estimates are not moving up, which tells me numbers are still a little too high. Interesting.

All right. What about on the economic front, Bob? Any particular data that you're watching this week? So I want to point out GDP, which is a very important number, came out last week, as you know, and it was up only one point one percent, which has got some people concerned.

But you got to look under the hood is so often the case. Real final sales, which is an important measure of the health of the consumer, was up three point two percent. So the number was not as weak as the headline looked.

I know that sounds complicated, but that's the reality. And so it says inventories were drawn down. They're going to be replaced on the next few quarters, which will help economic growth. So the economy is hanging in there, despite a lot of us feeling it's going to weaken between now and the end of the year. Yeah, interesting.

We'll certainly keep an eye on that. What about just this rally that we've seen this year, Bob, in the market? You're making some comments here just about the fact that it's been fairly narrow, hasn't it?

Boy, has it ever. The average stock year to date is not participated in this rally. Breadths, defined as the number of stocks going up versus the number going down, is not healthy, particularly when you compare it to the big averages. So what does that say? It says the big mega cap stocks have carried the market higher.

So the average stock's not done nearly as well as the averages, which is the bottom line, which for active managers or stock pickers out there, it's a tougher road to hoe. Yeah, no doubt about it. Well, Bob, I always appreciate your insights.

Lots of crosscurrents, I guess you could say, going on right now. Not for the faint of heart, but as long as we're long term investors, we just stay the course, huh? Amen to that. All right. God bless you, my friend.

We appreciate you stopping by. You too. All right. Thanks. That's Bob Doll, Chief Investment Officer at Crossmark Global Investments.

You can learn more or sign up for his weekly market commentary at crossmarkglobal.com. All right, back to the phones as we round out the program today. We'll get to as many calls as we can here in our remaining moments.

John's in Chicago. Go ahead, sir. Yes, Rob. Good afternoon. Thanks for taking my call.

I sure appreciate the show. Thank you. Rob, I have a question when it comes to debt management programs here. I hear two of them advertised on the Christian radios. One is christiancreditcounseling.org and the other one is Trinity. I was wondering if there's a way to choose between them.

What's your advice on that? Yeah, no, I would just say, I mean, both very reputable organizations. I only have experience with Christian Credit Counselors personally and here at our ministry just because we've worked with them so long and they've worked with hundreds and hundreds of our listeners to Faith and Finance live. And so I know that the folks there personally and can personally attest to just how they care for folks and the services that they offer in debt management. I know Trinity to be very reputable and obviously they're underwriters here at Moody Radio and so I would absolutely stand by that. I've just never worked with them directly. But I think the bigger idea here, John, is just that debt management, credit counseling is my preferred way to go, whether you use Christian Credit Counselors or Trinity. That's the most effective way to get out of debt once and for all, get the interest rates down and pay them off in their entirety. So I would say if you're kind of wrestling between the two, maybe set up an initial free consultation with both of them and then just make a decision from there.

Sounds good. Now the rates they offer, Rob, are they the same? Do you know that, if that could be true or not? You know, I don't know enough to be able to comment on that. So I think that would be one of my first questions is, you know, how are you compensated and what are those fees? So that could be a part of the comparison.

It's bigger than that, though. Make sure you're going to get served well and that you feel like you've got a good fit with whoever you choose. But I don't, unfortunately, have those details in front of me. John, I know you had a part two, so we'd love to get you back on a future broadcast.

Same for you, Flora, in Chicago. I apologize we didn't get to your question. Stay on the line. We'll get your information. Thanks for being on the program today.

Faith in Finance Live is a partnership between Moody Radio and Faith by thank you to Ryan, Dan, Amy and Jim. We'll see you tomorrow. God bless you all. We'll have to go. Thanks.