3 Options for Investing

Know well the condition of your flocks and pay attention to your herds. For riches are not forever, nor does a crown endure to all generations. Proverbs 27, 23, and 24.

Hi, I'm Rob West. Those are wise words, especially when it comes to investing. These days we have several ways to invest our money, but each requires a certain amount of oversight. Today we'll talk through your options, 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. Well, today our flocks and herds are likely to be stocks and bonds, and you certainly do need to pay attention to them no matter which method of investing you choose, and I'll go over three of them today. The first would be the do-it-yourself approach, sometimes called self-directed investing.

Why would you choose this method? Well, most likely because you don't like the idea of paying fees to someone else to manage your investments. And of course, if you choose to go it alone, you really have to stay on top of things. That doesn't mean you watch the market every day and decide to buy or sell at the drop of a hat. No matter which style of investing you choose, it must be for the long run.

So here's the key to a successful DIY approach. You have to keep your emotions in check no matter what the market is doing. These days, technology allows you to make a trade with the push of a button, but you still have to stay disciplined and stick to a long-range investment plan. And even though you're taking active control of your investments, you can still put your money into mutual, index, or target date funds that lower your risk and reduce or eliminate the need for frequent trading. The greatest danger in self-directing your investments is that you'll fall victim to market swings, selling out of fear when the market takes a tumble, or buying out of greed when the market is hot.

You have to keep your emotions in check and stay the course. Let's move on to investing method number two. It's using what's known as a robo-advisor, but it doesn't have anything to do with actual robots.

Sorry sci-fi fans. A robo-advisor is actually sophisticated software, and they're now offered by most of the big online brokerage houses like Fidelity and Vanguard. So how do robo-advisors work?

Well, you input some basic information, such as your age and retirement goals. The robo-advisor then recommends a diversified portfolio tailored to your needs, with an emphasis on low-cost exchange-traded funds and bonds. The benefit is that you get prepackaged investing advice, tailored to your needs, but at a much lower cost than from a human.

For an annual fee of around 25 basis points, or one quarter of one percent, the robo-advisor will automatically rebalance and diversify your portfolio as needed. Now, we've talked about managing your investments yourself or getting a robo-advisor. The third option is to hire a real, live financial advisor. This would be for folks who want more than just investing advice. As the name implies, a financial advisor can assist you in all areas of your finances, from investing to tax strategies and even estate planning. Financial advisors come with various specialties, but for the widest range of assistance, you probably want to go with a certified financial planner. They have a fiduciary responsibility to give you advice that's best for you, even if it doesn't make them the most money. And of course, no matter what type of financial advisor you need, you can find one that shares your Christian worldview and values by choosing a certified kingdom advisor. It's easy to do.

Just go to faithfi.com and click Find a CKA. Now, going with a financial advisor will cost more than the other methods we've talked about, but there are two major benefits with this approach. First, it might actually be the most cost-effective method.

How can that be if it's more expensive? Well, that's because the advice you receive will likely more than pay for itself in increased gains and reduced taxes. So it's not really accurate to say hiring a financial advisor will necessarily cost you more because it probably won't. Second, going it alone or hiring a robo advisor won't get you the personalized service you receive from a financial advisor, especially from one with the certified kingdom advisor designation. That person will take your specific circumstances and needs into account and very often become a trusted friend to help you through all of your financial decision making.

I think that's worth its weight in gold, pun intended. So those are the three investing options. You can try each of them to see which one works for you. All right, your calls are next, 800-525-7000. That's 800-525-7000. This is Faith and Finance Live, biblical wisdom for your financial decisions. We'll be right back. Great to have you with us today on Faith and Finance Live. I'm Rob West. All right, it's time to take your calls and questions today. No matter what you're thinking about financially speaking, we'd love to tackle it. The number to call is 800-525-7000.

That's right. We've got a few lines open and we'd love to hear from you today. 800-525-7000 is the number to call. Hey, before we dive in today, in the news, the Treasury Department is reporting that the IRS has flagged, listen to this, over a million tax returns for possible identity theft. Now, the scope of the action shows that scammers filing false tax returns to get refunds remains a pervasive problem. On the other hand, these are just flagged. This is an automatic process. They review them. They flag them. They may or may not eventually be fraudulent. At this point, the IRS has confirmed that only about 13,000 of them were actually fake. But the bottom line is you need to be on your guard. And the best way to ensure that identity thieves don't file a fake return in your name is to get what's called an identity PIN from the IRS. You can do that at IRS.gov. Once the PIN is issued, it's required to file a return and scammers won't have it, of course, similar to freezing your credit report where a scammer would be stopped in their tracks from opening a credit line or taking out a loan in your name because when the lender goes to check your credit, they won't have the PIN and they'll be stopped right there.

So you may want to consider getting an identity PIN from the IRS, but just be aware of this possible source of identity theft. All right, we're going to take your phone calls today. Again, we have a few lines open.

800-525-7000. Let's begin today in Georgia. Marie, you'll be our first caller. Go ahead. Hello, Rob. How are you? I'm well, thank you. Thanks for calling.

Thank you for taking my call. My husband and I are close to retirement, and we have a very diversified portfolio. We were both teachers, so we have TIA, 403B, Annuity, IRA, Roth, REIT, market index funds, savings, so it's pretty diversified, and even though we're close to retirement, we need to understand all those funds, and we don't need to withdraw any money from them in the near future. But when we do, which funds should we withdraw first? Yeah, boy, it's a great question, and a lot of that is going to depend upon how they're invested and the tax treatment of each of them. So the 403B and the IRA are going to be pre-tax, potentially the annuity as well, most likely.

The Roth will be after-tax money, and the REIT could go either way. And then, of course, you've got your savings. So this really warrants, I think, Marie, a comprehensive financial plan for somebody to help you sit down and look at all of these investment options and accounts that you have. First of all, determining which ones can be combined, because what you may want to look at is, for instance, once you separate from your service as a teacher, you could potentially roll the 403B into the IRA and reduce the overall number of accounts that you have. And again, you're going to want to look at what are your income needs in retirement, what portion of that will come from either Social Security, if you're eligible for it, or your teacher's retirement, and then what portion will you need to take from your other retirement accounts that you've been saving in. And you'll want to look at what that income need is versus the total balance in the account to determine what's the appropriate amount to take out each month so that you can preserve these accounts for the rest of your life. And hopefully there's enough in those accounts that, based on your income needs, you should be able to cover your bills. And then as to which accounts to pull from first, again, that's going to come down to the investments in the accounts and ultimately the tax treatment, because we're going to want to minimize taxes in this season of life. Do you all have a financial advisor that you work with?

No, I mean, we have two TIAA quests we did, but we don't have any contact with them too much. I did check out their three CKA advisors here in Savannah, but I didn't know if we should be looking for a financial advisor or a financial planner, and are they the same? Yeah, they can be, but not necessarily. And it really depends upon each advisor or planner's business. Oftentimes, a wealth manager or what you might commonly refer to as a financial advisor or an investment advisor focuses primarily on the investment portfolios, managing the investments. Many of them will also, either as a part of that service or as an additional charge, they will do comprehensive planning. And then you have straight financial planners that only do planning and are fee only. And many of those, you know, in some cases, they don't manage the money, they'll just do the planning.

So you would really need to look into this further, and you're really going to need both potentially. I mean, you'll certainly need somebody who can help you on the planning side. Just look at the assets you've accumulated, make sure they're invested properly, help compare the assets you have to your income needs in retirement and talk about cash flows, talk about offsetting any risk, whether that's, you know, dropping your life insurance at some point, considering long term care insurance, make sure your estate plan is in place.

All of those issues need to be addressed. And that's where a financial planner can come in. And then that person or someone else could also provide the wealth management where, you know, you actually have somebody making the buy and sell decisions for your investment portfolios so that you preserve what you have because you're moving into a capital preservation and distribution phase and away from a capital appreciation phase where you're just trying to grow it. You've been growing it throughout your working life.

Now you're just trying to preserve it and convert it into an income stream. And I think that's where an advisor can be really helpful. So I think to answer your question, potentially you need both and they might be one in the same, depending upon the advisor you choose. Does that make sense? Yes, it does. Thank you so much. You're welcome. I think that's your next step, Marie. After you have those meetings, feel free to reach back out to us if you have further questions. Also, if you didn't see it, there is a list of interview questions at faithfi.com.

When you click Find a CK right at the top of the page, that may help you just as you're interviewing and selecting that advisor to work with you. Marie, God bless you all. Thank you for calling today. I'm excited for what God has in store for you as you head into this next chapter of your lives. And thanks for being on the program.

Well, folks, we've got some room for a few more questions. We'd love to hear from you. The number to call today, 800-525-7000. Again, that's 800-525-7000. Let's take a couple of emails here quickly before we head to our first break and then we'll head back to the phones.

Roxanna, Stephanie, if you can hold the line, we'll come to you right after the break. This email comes to us from Daniel. He writes, Is there a website that will help me find out if a relative had an insurance policy before he passed away?

And I will direct you, Daniel, to two websites. The first is if you'll just do an Internet search for the National Association of Insurance Commissioners, their website has a policy locator service that will help you hunt down whether the person in question had an insurance policy or not. And then secondly is the National Association of Unclaimed Property Administrators website. It's pretty easy to remember. It's just simply missingmoney.com, missingmoney.com.

They have a search tool for all kinds of unclaimed property, not just insurance policies. So, Daniel, you might want to check that out. We appreciate your writing to us. By the way, if you have a question you'd like read on the air, you can feel free to send it along to us, askrob at faithfi.com. All right, we're going to take a quick break and then back with more of your questions. The number to call today with lines open, 800-525-7000.

Again, that's 800-525-7000. This is Faith and Finance, where biblical wisdom meets today's financial decisions. Stay with us. Much more to come just ahead. Thanks for joining us today on Faith and Finance Live.

I'm Rob West. You know, my experience is that our financial journey is one of the key ways God shapes our spiritual journey. You see, as we work out our faith through our daily financial decisions, we have a choice to make. We can pursue God or money. We can see ourselves as pursuing worldly wealth or being entrusted with worldly wealth.

There's a completely different approach to one versus the other. When we see ourselves as entrusted with wealth, well, our goal is then faithfulness. We're maintaining an eternal perspective and recognizing our role as stewards, wanting to know the Master's heart so we can manage the Master's money well. If we're pursuing worldly wealth, that's often accompanied with a hard posture that is reaching for and longing for the things of this world.

The question is, can we manage money in such a way that it's evident that God is our true treasure and not our things? We want to help you do that on this program each day. We've got a lot of questions, great questions coming up here with two lines open, 800-525-7000. Let's head back to the phones.

Roxanna's in New Mexico. Go ahead. Thank you for taking my call. I am a live-in caregiver for my elderly mother-in-law. My late father-in-law and her worked their whole lives, built a good amount of wealth, they have a living trust, everything is paid off, and they are diversified all over the board.

It's really hard for me to manage. We do have a financial advisor through Thrivent who is helping us, but my question to you is, because my mother now is in late-stage dementia, we don't know how long it's going to be, her home is paid off, what, if any, benefits are there to a reverse mortgage? Should we liquidate the assets that are diversified and or look into a reverse mortgage for now before the house is sold or dig into the living trust?

Yeah. So what is the plan at this point? And I'm sorry to hear about your mother-in-law's health status with late-stage dementia.

I've not experienced that firsthand, but I know from so many others how challenging and difficult that is. What is the plan at this point? Is she, do you anticipate that she's going to go into a nursing home in the near future? No, my husband and I are convicted to keep her home. We are convicted in our hearts that we will, I live with her now, I resigned my job to live with her full-time.

He manages both our home and then comes here to manage this one as well. Wow. Yeah. Well, God bless you for that.

What a blessing you are to her in this season of life. And so why are you looking to repossession assets? Is there income needs that are not being met at this point? Well, right now we are pooling from what she had, the IRA and her mutual fund account just to manage the daily needs, the food, you know, her hygiene products. Sure. Sure. Is she receiving Social Security as well? Yes. Social Security retirement from my father. Okay.

She's fine. I'm just curious if the need comes up, which one should we pool from first? Yeah. So what are there in the way of assets? So first of all, you mentioned the home. What is the home worth? $200,000. Okay.

And is there any mortgage on it? No. Okay. And what does she have in the way of liquid assets? Close to $75,000. Okay.

Okay. And that $75,000 is in what type of accounts? That's the IRA plus the trust. Is that right? No. That's her IRA, mutual funds, savings account, checking accounts.

They have it all across the board. Okay. And has the trust been funded with anything? You mentioned a living trust. Yes. The trust has three homes, two vehicles, and all of the personal property, the jewelry and... Yeah.

Okay. And what is the plan with those three homes? To leave them in the trust because it's living for prosperity for the children, the grandchildren coming up. So is her plan to transfer the homes themselves to the grandchildren or to liquidate those at death and then distribute the proceeds? No.

The living trust is set up such that it has a trustee and when a trustee is no longer capable or willing, a new trustee will be named. Right. But is the plan to actually have the trustee distribute the homes in the trust to the children or grandchildren? No. Okay. So are they to be sold at her death?

No. Okay. So what happens to the homes when she passes away? What does the trust document say?

They stay in the trust with the honor of the trustee. I see. Okay. So really all you've got available is the potential of converting the primary residence to a reverse mortgage because you're saying that the trust assets are not really countable in terms of being available to be used for her care.

So therefore, you have the $75,000 plus the potential for the home. Is that right? Yes. Okay. And we can utilize the trust.

It's just we don't want to. Okay. All right. That's why I asked the question.

Yeah. So you mentioned a couple of options. I mean, I think it'd be worthwhile given all the pieces here for you to sit down with an advisor to really look at the whole thing more than we'd be able to do here in a couple of minutes on the radio. But I would say, you know, if you want to, and this is honoring her wishes to avoid the assets in the trust, which it seems like there's quite a bit there, especially if some of those homes were liquidated, I'd probably start with the IRA money and use that and pull out as little as possible. And then as a second fallback, I could get on board with you looking at a reverse mortgage as long as the money's there to pay the taxes and the insurance and the property taxes and the homeowner's insurance. But I would use that as a second resort.

I'd start with the IRA first. But I'd connect with a certified kingdom advisor and do some more holistic planning on this, Roxanna. Thanks for your call. God bless you. We'll be right back. Great to have you with us today on Faith and Finance Live. I'm Rob West. Hey, we received this email recently, and let me get it on the air here.

This comes from Dee. She writes, Do you have to make regular transactions in an online savings account to keep it open? My local bank was going to close my account because I didn't have any transactions for a year.

Dee, it's a great question. Any bank can close your account without notice for any reason. But most of the time, banks close accounts when the account holder has violated the terms in the account agreement, and one of those is prolonged inactivity. Now, it's less likely that a bank would want to close an account that has a significant balance because they're earning money off of it. So the question is, I think, how much was in that account? And I guess, could you make a small, maybe additional deposit once a year just to keep some activity going? That might solve the problem.

But I think the key is to check that fine print when you open the account to see what kind of activity is required to keep it open. If you'd like an email read on the air, we'd be happy to get that on for you. Just send an email to askrob at faithfi.com. All right, back to the phones to Chicago. Hi, Lupe. Thank you for calling. Go ahead.

Hi, Rob. Thank you. I was doing some spring cleaning and I was wondering how long do we have to keep like insurance records like for cars or a home or medical things like that bank records like statements?

Yeah. So bank and financial statements, three years is probably enough. Anything tax related, you should keep for seven years. If you have a W-2 or you have a 1099 or you get a tax form related to your health insurance, you'd want to hang on to those tax forms that have numbers that back up direct inputs into your tax return. Now, bank statement, that information makes it into your tax return, but you don't necessarily need to keep every bank statement for seven years because the W-2 captures the necessary information. So I think if it's tax related, seven years. If it's bank and financial statements, three years. And then you want to keep permanently things like titles, deeds, birth and deaths and marriage certificates, passports.

Obviously, you keep those forever in a fireproof safe. Is that helpful? Yes. And what I feel like records for like home insurances and stuff like that. Those aren't necessary, right?

They are. I mean, yeah, as long as you have the current one, you'll get a declarations page once a year. You know, when you pay that premium typically. So you want to get that if you have change of policy, you'd want to keep the information that tells you what your deductibles are. But, you know, so much of that is now available online. You probably have an online account set up with your property and casualty insurance provider. And you can, on a moment's notice, pull up all those declaration pages and find out coverages. And, you know, you can even get copies of invoices, things like that. So I think that's less important in terms of saving that. Okay. I can toss a lot of paperwork away.

That's right. And I would use a cross cut shredder on that Lupe. You just typically don't want to throw that stuff in the trash because somebody could get their hands on and use that to steal your identity.

So I think it's worth investing in a relatively inexpensive, but I would use a cross cut shredder that shreds it in such a way that it can't be pieced back together. All right. Thanks for your call today. We appreciate it.

800-525-7000 to Stephanie in Georgia. Go ahead. Hi, how are you today?

I'm great. Thank you. So I was calling because my grandparents, my grandmother passed away roughly about three years ago. And then my grandfather is living at home. He did not have a mortgage on his house, but he has recently went and taken out like a $70,000 loan on it just to have money as he needed. And now we're left with the question, does he do a reverse mortgage because his income is much smaller than the outcome coming out. He he only works six months out of the year, which is their tax season. So he just needs a six month of the year. He struggles in the other six months. He has enough income coming in right now.

That's his struggle season until he gets to July. And then that will start up his tax season so he can have more income. But how do you feel about a reverse mortgage?

Yeah. You know, I'm not a big fan of reverse mortgages. I mean, it's not free money in the sense that there are fees and interest rolled into the agreement. Obviously, there's a loss of equity over time because it will have to be paid back when it's sold. You can lose the home if you don't have the money to keep up taxes and homeowners insurance and HOAs could place a lien on it. So, you know, you just have to be aware of that.

And then, you know, obviously, and heirs will inherit less and then it could affect it doesn't affect Social Security benefits, but it could affect your eligibility for Medicaid or SSI benefits if that's a factor. How much equity is in the house at this point? It's roughly like worth $380,000 and then he owes $70,000 on it. Okay, he has quite a bit of equity.

Yeah. Okay, so you need at least 50% equity in the home to be eligible for a reverse mortgage so clearly he would be. And you know, I mean, this is probably his biggest asset right now. So if he plans to stay there for the foreseeable future, and you understand the costs and not all these mortgages, reverse mortgages are created equal, so you'll want to shop them around. But it is clearly a blessing for seniors who are having trouble making ends meet and they've exhausted other options. So I guess at the end of the day, what I would say is, you know, I'm not opposed to it, I'd probably look at other options first, but as long as you know, he plans to stay, he's got the equity, which he does, you understand there's a cost to it. And if this would meet, you know, for the rest of his life, or at least while he's there until it's sold and paid off, if this would meet the needs that he has, and you understand the implications with regard to Medicaid eligibility, if that's a factor that I think that it certainly could be worth looking at. I did not know that that could affect his Medicaid or Social Security.

So I'll look into that. And I didn't know that I thought all reverse mortgages are the same. So you can shop around and see like different options, I guess, for reverse mortgages.

Yeah, so I would, I would find somebody who really is a specialist, you know, in this area before you select, you know, your the reverse mortgage that you're going to go with because they are not all created equal, that's for sure. Okay, thank you so much. I appreciate it. Absolutely. We appreciate your call today.

Thanks very much. Let's head to Indiana. Hi, Nancy, go ahead. I am the retiree at my house.

And I'd like to know, I'd like to use some of it for travel, but most of it I would like to invest. Do you have any recommendations on that? Potentially, let's talk about that. So you've, you've moved, you've sold your home, have you already bought a new home? Or what are you doing? No, no, I have no intentions of. Okay, so you're going to rent from here on out? Yeah. Okay. All right. And what do you have in the way of proceeds from that home sale? About 530.

Okay. And you said you wanted to set aside a portion of that? How much were you thinking? I figured for travel, you know, I don't know.

I was going to go with 50. Yeah. So you have roughly 500,000 left. And do you need to convert that to an income stream to supplement your income? Or do you just want to protect it and grow it for the future?

Just want to grow it for the future. Yeah. Okay. I mean, that's a significant sum of money, as you know. So I would really encourage you to hire or interview and ultimately hire after you interview several an investment advisor to manage this for you according to your goals and objectives.

So you don't take any unnecessary risk, you focus on protecting it, but growing it modestly to offset the effects of inflation and have something there down the road for giving or inheritance, things like that. Stay on the line. I've got to take a quick break. When we come back, I'll tell you where you go from here. We'll be right back.

Great to have you with us today on faith and finance live just before the break. We were talking to Nancy in Indiana. Nancy has sold her home. She doesn't plan on purchasing another home.

She's planning on renting from here on out. She's got about 530,000 in the way of proceeds from that home sale. She'd like to set aside 50,000 for some travel, but she's wondering how to invest the rest. Nancy, I was saying this is really a prime example of where an investment advisor could be very helpful.

I would interview two or three, find the one that's the best fit. This is not about somebody managing this money according to their goals and objectives. They would want to do a lot of discovery with you to determine what's the appropriate amount of risk. Do you need to convert this to income at any point?

Do you have any giving goals? Then help you determine as well, do you want to align any of these investments with your faith values and avoiding certain companies or embracing other companies that might be more aligned with your values as a believer. Then they could deploy an investment strategy for you that would focus on in this season of life as a retiree protecting this money first, capital preservation, but then also growing it modestly so that it can outpace inflation because if it sits there in a savings account, it's losing purchasing power just given what's going on with inflation. So that would involve you interviewing two or three advisors, finding the one that's the best fit and then perhaps hiring that person to manage this money for you.

But how does that sound to you? That sounds wonderful and I have spoken to a wealth management from Avantax, A-V-A-N-T-A-X, a wealth management, and he gave me some ideas of doing some EFTs and some globals and things of that sort. But I will continue to get some other ideas. Yeah, curious.

I don't know, you know. Sure, and I'm just curious, are you wanting to have somebody give you some guidance and then you ultimately make the decision or are you looking to interview and hire an advisor and then delegate that responsibility to them to make the buy and sell decisions? I like the idea of advising. I like the idea of his recommendations.

I like someone who will come back to me and say, you know, Nance, I think maybe at least once a year or twice a year, I think maybe we should move something over or, you know, I think this might be a better option. That is what I'm looking for. I see.

Okay. Well, I might consider as one other option than our friends at soundmindinvesting.org. Sound Mind Investing was founded by Austin Pryor. It goes all the way back to the late Larry Burkett and they would provide some mutual fund and ETF recommendations to you. But you could be the one to actually make the buy and sell decisions. You could, you know, put the account wherever you want, Fidelity or Schwab or, you know, TD, you know, any place you want. And then you could use their recommendations or others.

But ultimately, you'd be in the driver's seat. Normally, I'd recommend a certified kingdom advisor, but they're typically going to take what's called discretion where they would actually take responsibility of managing the money for you. And it doesn't sound like that's what you're looking for. You ultimately want to make those decisions. You just want some guidance along the way. So whether it's the advisor you've already talking to or soundmindinvesting.org, I think that's the way to go, Nancy.

Yeah, I will definitely go on the Sound Mind Invest and make an appointment and talk this over with them. Okay, very good. Well, thank you for calling. If we can help further along the way, don't hesitate to reach out to us. God bless you to Washington. Hi, Chris. Go ahead. Good afternoon.

Thank you. Yes, I am a power of attorney for an 89 year old man and I oversee his finances and everything. He is in long term assisted living and our finances are going to possibly run out before before his life.

And I'm wondering, are you aware of any programs? I've been trying to research programs or any assistance that I can apply for to help with the cost of his assisted living. You know, you know, I think the thing you would typically see happen here is that as the assets are depleted, eventually Medicaid would step in and pay for his care.

Of course, he'd have to be in a Medicaid approved facility in the facility would be able to help with the apply the application for Medicaid assistance or suggesting another facility that's Medicaid approved. But beyond that, I wouldn't necessarily have any recommendations for how you could help offset that cost beyond Medicaid once his assets are depleted. Okay. Okay. Yeah, I did look at Medicaid.

It seems like they have to have maybe two thousand or less. And then I saw if I took his cash to that, I wasn't sure how I would pay for his the items he's responsible for with the cost of the assisted living rent as well. Right. So does he have Social Security coming in or something like that?

He does. And we run about a twenty five hundred dollar a month deficit with even with his retirement. Okay.

Yeah. So that's going to be difficult because, you know, that you're talking about the asset limit, which is two thousand for an individual, four thousand for a couple. There's a separate income limit. So it would be fine if he spent if you spend down the assets to that two thousand dollar level. And then there's income there that can meet his ongoing needs. But obviously, if there's a shortfall there, that would have to come from assets that you'd convert to an income stream. But that's, you know, going going to be above the asset limit and therefore he wouldn't qualify. So I realize that can be a challenge and really difficult just based on what his needs will be.

So I think the key would be if that's the only option available to go ahead and spend down the assets. And then once he gets into that Medicaid facility, we'd have to right size the budget to really match that with the income that's available. I know this can be challenging. Chris, you're doing a wonderful service for him as you serve him in this season of life. And we appreciate your call today. All the best to you.

To Ohio. Hi, Hope. Go right ahead. Hi there. How are you? I'm doing great. Thanks. Good. I just wanted to share and also ask, I'm roughly about five thousand, maybe fifty five hundred dollars in debt currently.

I consider myself saved as of February earlier this year and have completely entrusted and given that up to God and known that he will fix that for me. And I fully believe that. My only question to you is how do I remain patient and still please him and spend not obviously not my spending habits because there's not much to spend. But how I honor him in still working that debt off and trusting in him at the same time.

Yeah. Well, here's what I would say. I mean, first of all, I'm delighted to hear that you've surrendered your life to Jesus.

That's the most important decision you can make. And we celebrate that decision you made to place your trust solely in what Christ did for us on the cross to pay that what we call substitutionary atonement. So we could be in a right relationship with God, not because of what we've done, but because of that free gift that he gives us.

And when we place our trust in him, we can have that confidence in our eternal destiny. Now, God clearly wants you to be out of debt. There's a lot of warnings in scripture, even though it's not a sin.

There's a lot of warnings in scripture, but you have to do your part, Hope. So that means living on a budget. That means cutting expenses so you have money to apply to the debt. That means avoid taking on new debt.

You are a steward of the resources God has entrusted to you, however little or however much. And I realize, especially when the bills pile up and maybe you've made some decisions in the past that's resulted in this debt and with limited income. You may be struggling to pay all the bills and I get that.

And so I think the key would be to try to increase your income over time. Certainly trust God as your provider. He's your provider, not your employer, not the U.S. government, not anyone else. God owns everything and he is your provider. But you have to do your part.

And so I would look at something like getting on a credit counseling program with christiancreditcounselors.org and look at cutting back spending wherever possible, trusting God for your provision. But also the Bible is very clear, the wicked borrow and do not repay. And when it's in your power to do it, you're supposed to, as a faithful steward, meet your obligation. So I would say, you know, you need to trust God. But at the same time, you've got to accept the responsibility that you have just in the same way I do for the obligations you have. Does that make sense?

Absolutely. I, you know, accumulated the debt and then it was kind of around the same time that I, you know, found Jesus, that I took a step back and I looked at my finances and I saw I'm not where I need to be. And at that moment was when I decided from the same token that you have now where you're saying that I need to accept it's my responsibility, that I have been accepting it and knowing and working at, you know, trying to do things the right way, the way that he that I feel that he needs me to in, you know, paying that back and changing my spending habits and doing things a little bit differently. And, you know, my lifestyle has changed, my spending habits have changed.

I just just need some more patience and I guess more guidance. So I think maybe I should reach out to the website you gave me or something, but I definitely understand where you're coming from. Well, that's great.

And I think you're on the right track with that without question. So I would, in fact, as perhaps a next step, you know, contact our friends at ChristianCreditCounselors.org. That's ChristianCreditCounselors.org. And they would basically take a look at this debt for you. They would help you get the interest rates reduced.

And this isn't through negotiation. All creditors have what they call a credit counseling rate. That's a percentage interest rate that's lower than the prevailing rate. So by the by them helping you get those interest rates reduced, you would send one monthly payment and they'd work with you and your budget and they would make sure that it fits in your budget. But you'd send one monthly payment through them and then they'd send it to each of your creditors. The accounts would be closed, but the debt would stay with the original creditor. This isn't about taking on a new loan to pay them off.

But the combination of that level payment plus the reduced interest rates will help you pay this back on average 80 percent faster. So I think this could be a great option for you. And listen, you dig into the word, find a great Bible believing church to surround yourself with people who are on the same journey you are trying to pursue Christ. And they can be an encouragement to you.

And part of the body of Christ is to edify one another and build each other up. And you certainly, like I do, need that along the way. I so appreciate your testimony of God's faithfulness in your life and your desire to be a good steward. Thanks for your call today, Hope. We appreciate it. Stephanie, Adam, I'm sorry we didn't get to your calls. If you want to hang on the line, we'll try to get you on tomorrow. I'm thankful to Mara, Charles, Tahirah and Dan. Thank you for being here as well. Don't forget, Jim, Faith and Finance Live is a partnership between Moody Radio and FaithFi. We'll see you tomorrow. Bye-bye.