If You Lose Health Insurance

The Fed has raised interest rates 10 times in the last 14 months hoping to curb inflation. Will the latest rate hike tip us into recession? Hi, I'm Rob West.

A lot of economists are scratching their heads these days over why the economy hasn't already slipped into recession. It seems we're overdue, and today I'll talk with Lauren Guidek about a way you can be better prepared. Then it's on to your calls and questions at 800-525-7000.

That's 800-525-7000. This is Faith and Finance Live, biblical wisdom for your financial decisions. Well, our guest Lauren Guidek is Vice President of Communications and Media at Christian Healthcare Ministries, an underwriter of this program. And Lauren, it's always great to have you with us. Oh, thank you so much. I'm delighted to be back on the show. Well, we're glad to have you, Lauren.

And one reason we always look forward to your visits is that you always have good news about an effective low-cost alternative to expensive health insurance. We'll get to that in just a moment. But first, I guess a little bad news, huh? Yeah, unfortunately, that's true. We don't know yet if the Federal Reserve is making a recession inevitable. So, the economy is continuing to grow at a modest rate, even with the employment remaining strong. But the question is how long that will continue. The conference board, which is a nonprofit business research group, is now predicting a 99% probability for a recession in the next 12 months.

Wow, yeah. And one of the reasons employment numbers remain strong is that it's a lagging economic indicator, of course. Employers resist laying off people until they absolutely have to. But if recession hits, unemployment, of course, will go up, and a lot of folks will lose employer sponsored health insurance.

So, what are the alternatives, Lauren, if that happens? Yeah, there's a couple different things that folks can do. One option is called COBRA, and that is an extension of the health coverage that you would have with your employer. The downside of COBRA is that it can be very expensive because your employer is no longer subsidizing the cost of your healthcare.

So, you are paying 100% of that, and then sometimes there's also an administrative fee. Another thing that folks can do is they can go to the healthcare marketplace at healthcare.gov. But again, you're going to find that unless you get a government-subsidized plan, those can also be quite expensive. So, I'm excited to share with you today that there's a third alternative, which is not insurance, but has the same end result in that your medical bills get taken care of, and that is Christian Healthcare Ministries. Yeah, and that's a great alternative. So, tell us how medical cost-sharing works.

Sure. So, what health cost-sharing is, is it's a way to take care of your medical expenses while you're sticking to your Christian beliefs and also to your budget, which of course, everybody's very budget-conscious these days. And we have several different programs. Our silver and bronze programs are essentially hospitalization and surgery only. And then we have our gold program, which is a little bit more flexible, and I can give you an example of how that would work. So, let's just say that your 10-year-old son was climbing a tree, fell out of the tree, and unfortunately suffered a bad break to his arm. So, what would happen with Christian Healthcare Ministries is, you know, everything related to that incident under our gold program would be eligible for sharing. So, you know, that initial visit, you would probably go to the ER. So, those costs, as well as any medication that he might be prescribed, and then also, you know, when he would go back to the doctor to get his cast taken off, that would be an example of an eligible medical incident under our gold program.

Oh, Lauren, that's a really helpful example. So, what would that cost? We do have different programs for different budgets. So, an individual with CHM could expect to pay between $90 to $235 per month.

We also have an extra program called Brother's Keeper. That's another $22 a month for any catastrophic health event that you might experience. Wow, that's great information and really important for folks who are thinking about how they cover medical costs in a budget-friendly way. Lauren, thanks for stopping by.

Oh, thank you for having me. Folks, CHM is not new on the block. They've been around since 1981, over $9 billion shared in medical bills. If you want to get more information, learn more at chministries.org. That's chministries.org. All right, your calls are next.

The number to call is 800-525-7000. This is Faith and Finance Live, and we'll be right back. Glad to have you with us today on Faith and Finance Live. I'm Rob West, and we're ready to take your calls and questions today on anything financial.

I'm sure there's something you've been thinking about and you're wanting some, well, another opinion perhaps, and certainly one rooted in a biblical worldview. That's our goal is to be hopeful and encouraging to you and always bring you advice and counsel that begins in God's Word. And we'll do that today with whatever you're thinking about financially. The number to call is 800-525-7000.

That's 800-525-7000. We've got some lines open today. We'd love to hear from you. Also coming up a little later in the broadcast, Bob Dole will stop by. Bob joins us each Monday with his insightful analysis of the markets and the commentary, gives us a bit of a week-in review, and Bob will do that today as we talk about, well, some of the headlines from the weekend, clearly the debt ceiling front and center, and we know that there's ongoing discussions. Another meeting yet today with the Speaker and the President continuing that conversation. We'll get Bob's take on how that's affecting the markets. Also, China in the news over the weekend as the G7 is determined to really isolate China in some respects economically. We'll talk about the implications of that on the global economy.

That plus much more with Bob Dole. All right, to your questions today, again the number to call is 800-525-7000. We'd love to hear from you. Let's begin in Williams Bay, Wisconsin with Catherine, and Catherine, I'm sure it's beautiful in Williams Bay, huh? Today, yes. Our air quality hasn't been great, but today is pretty good. Okay, well we'll take that, right, and we're heading into summer, which I'm sure you're looking forward to, but how can I help you today with a financial question?

Go right ahead. So the crux of my question is how soon between opening one credit card and opening another credit card should I wait, but I promise it's not as bad as it sounds because what happened is we opened a cash back credit card, but it's a master card and the main place that we do our grocery shopping will only take Visa, and so we'd like to still get cash back for the grocery shopping, but we're going to have to open a Visa for that, so we need to know how long to wait. We both have really good credit scores, my husband and I. Yeah, excellent. We just need to know how long to wait. Sure, so are you north of 800, both of you?

I believe I was 777, and my husband was somewhere in that ballpark. Okay, yeah, and have you picked out another card, a Visa that offers similar rewards? We're back and forth between two, but one of those two it will be. Okay, very good, and are you looking to buy a house and get a mortgage or buy a car and get a car loan? Any major purchases involving debt coming up in the next six months? No, we've already done both of those. Okay, yeah, then I would proceed.

I mean with a 775 plus you're not going to have any trouble. Now your credit score may have dipped slightly, so that would be the only reason you'd want to wait two to three months, and you could go check it yourself. That soft inquiry that you initiate, whether maybe your MasterCard offers that free, or you could go to Credit Karma, you know, somewhere that offers a free credit score, you could just take a look. That hard inquiry that you authorized to open this MasterCard will result in a temporary decrease in your credit score.

Could be 20 or 30 points. The only issue with that would be is when you go to apply for this next credit card, you know, whether that would prevent you from somehow qualifying for a top tier card that has, you know, some of the most, you know, aggressive benefit packages, things like that. But I suspect just from what I'm hearing, if you'll manage money responsibly, which it sounds like you have, and you've got a high credit score, if you had a temporary dip, it's probably already begun to come back. And even if you were applying with that dip fully in place, you probably still get this new card. So I don't think there's any reason to wait necessarily, especially since you don't have any kind of major purchases coming up. One suggestion I might make is you could check nerdwallet.com and bankrate.com just to make sure you're not missing any cash rewards cards that perhaps just slipped off your radar as you make that final decision for a visa.

There are some great ones out there, many of which that now offer two percent on every purchase, which is great because a lot of times it's below that unless you're in a certain category. But I think the bottom line is you guys can proceed, Catherine, without any problem. All right, thank you so much. All right, you're welcome.

God bless you. 800-525-7000 is the number to call. We'd love to hear from you. We've got a few lines open today for your financial questions. Again, 800-525-7000.

Let's head to Miami. Hi, Marilyn. Go right ahead. Well, hello there and thank you for taking my call.

Yes, ma'am. I am going to be 65 in August. I'm going to try to hang in another year of working. My house needs repairs. It's paid off, it's falling apart, and I don't know where to even begin to inquire on where to take out a loan. Yeah, so tell me about the house that you have. What is it worth, roughly?

Do you know? Probably about $4,000 to $450,000. Okay, and what do you owe on it?

Nothing. Okay, you own it free and clear. Great. And you're taking out about $50,000 or so, so you're looking to get a mortgage, correct? Not a mortgage, but like I need to make a loan for these repairs.

All right. I'm just not quite sure what my best option is. Yeah, so because you don't have a mortgage right now, I mean basically this loan that you get will be in first position, which is a good thing.

You're probably wanting, just because of the size of it, a lot of times with a new mortgage they want it to be over a certain amount, and so you've got a smaller amount, which is good. You're going to be looking at a home equity loan. I wouldn't get, you know, well let me ask this, how quickly are you looking to pay this back? Probably not going to be so quick because of the income I'm going to be living off, you know, when I stopped working.

Okay, yeah, very good. Are you able to wait perhaps up to a year, or do you really need to do it right now? I'm going to try to, you know, I guess I could wait. That's probably the time I'm going to retire, retire.

God willing, you know. Okay, yeah, you may want to do it a few months before you retire while you've still got documented income. Now obviously you'll have income in retirement, but and you can use that as well, but what I'm looking for is I'd love for you to get a home equity loan, not a line of credit, which is a fixed interest rate, but I would love for you to wait until rates come back down, and they will sometime in my opinion over the next year. I think we're at the top end of the range of rates right now, just because the Federal Reserve has been raising the fed funds rate, which has pushed mortgage interest rates up in an effort to slow the economy to fight inflation, and as a result of that we have still, even though they've come off their highs, we're still pretty high on interest rates, which is just going to make that monthly payment and the interest that you ultimately pay back larger than what it will be I think sometime over the next year. So what I'd probably do is hold off if you can, especially if money's going to be tight as you head into retirement, wait for rates to come down, which is probably later this year, early next year, do it then, and then lock in with a home equity loan, not a line of credit. You want a fixed interest rate, and you could go to bankrate.com to find those loan programs to see who has the most competitive rates and terms.

So again, you're looking for a home equity loan, but if you can, I'd hold off until probably early next year and watch the interest rates and wait until you can lock in at a lower rate if you have that flexibility. I hope that helps, Marilyn. God bless you.

Thanks for calling today. Well folks, we got a lot of great questions coming up. We're going to take a quick break, but back with much more on Faith and Finance Live. Stay with us. As we think about our role as stewards, we have a high calling to manage what God has entrusted to us. Not only our financial resources, but our time, our skills and abilities, God's word, our relationships, but yes, our money, or I should say God's money. And we want to be found faithful in that.

It's long obedience in the same direction, right? We want to look to God's word and find the principles and passages, the themes and scripture that really apply to financial decision-making and bring those to bear in our lives as we make daily financial decisions, ultimately maintaining an eternal, not a temporal perspective, holding God's money loosely, giving it generously, saving appropriately. And that's what we want to help you do on this program each day because we know the joy and the peace of mind that comes with living according to God's design in all areas of our life, but that certainly includes with financial resources. So let's do that together. We've got two lines open today. 800-525-7000 is the number to call. We're going to go to Indiana. Hi Kathy, thanks for calling. Go ahead.

Hi, thank you. My husband passed away a year and a half ago and I'm on a fixed income. I get some money from an IRA every other month and then my social security and a small pension. My husband's life insurance is in a total control account, which I can't add anything to, but I'm getting fairly good interest. But I found I really really need a little more income during the month and if I give that money to Salvation Army to get to annuity, I can get about a hundred dollars a month, probably before taxes. And I was wondering if it was a smart thing to put it in that or if I should put it in, which I can't take out of if I need the money or if I should put it in some place that I can get to it. Yeah, let me ask you, where are the funds now that you would use to fund the charitable gift annuity?

They're in the, it's called total control account. There's 18,000 in it. It was from his life insurance. All right, is that with MetLife by chance?

Yes, it is. Okay, and so you can't take that money out, so you could either continue taking that income stream from them, but they do give you the ability to transfer it into a charitable gift annuity, is that right? It's actually like a bank account. I can't put any money into it. It gets interest and once I take it out, that's it. I can't, it's just like a savings account that's getting good interest. I see. So I was wanting to know if I should take that and put it into the gift annuity and make a little bit more a month or put it in my IRA, which I wouldn't be able to get that much money from it. What is the interest that they're paying on that account? I don't know. Okay.

I think it's really, really good. I mean, it's 18,000. I'm getting like $25 a month, but that Salvation Army, if I wait till July, I can get 6.6% interest and get paid monthly from that. Yeah, that's certainly an option. I mean, these are, I think, great tools for folks that are looking for income. You'd get a partial tax deduction on that, so you can't take the full amount as a deduction, but you could take a partial deduction and then they would give you the income stream, which you said is at a very attractive rate. They would invest it, but you don't take the risk on that. They guarantee those payments and then whatever's left at the end of your life would go back to the charity. So I think that's certainly an option. I think if the goal is charitable giving and income, then I think this is the best tool for you to use, but you are giving up access to these funds and that's the only concern I would have is just whether you have depleted so much of your reserves that you really don't have any place to go if something comes out unexpected.

So I realize we're solving for an income gap and that's great. This would help you do that with a very attractive rate and accomplish some of your giving goals, but if you had something come up that was, you know, you needed long-term care or you needed to buy a new automobile or something like that, I mean, do you have other liquid assets that you could tap into? I just have my IRA.

Okay, and how much is in that? Right now about $90,000. I have about $15,000 savings. Okay, and how much are you pulling out of the $90,000 a year?

I get, every other month I get between $750 to $800. All right, and has that been declining? No, actually it's been ever since I put it in several years ago. Okay, but I mean, the principal balance, which is at $90,000 a day, has that been coming down? Yes, it's been going down. It was up at one time to over $100,000 and it's going down with the market and stuff. With the market, sure, yeah. I mean, you're pulling a little bit more than I would suggest, although what you're pulling is probably based on what it originally was.

Not a whole lot more. I mean, at this level, I'd probably think about taking $600 every two months instead of $700 or $800, but I think you're in a reasonable range there. So I guess that's the only question is just, would you lose peace of mind in no longer having access to that $18,000 or would you be comfortable trading that for the higher payout on that monthly income stream that you'd get through the CGA and then be able to use that to accomplish some giving goals down the road? If you're wanting to do some giving and get a guaranteed income stream, I think this is a great option. But if you're wanting to, if you'd have a little more peace of mind knowing that you still have that $18,000 to tap into, knowing that you'd lose control of that permanently, then I would say I'd probably just sit tight and maybe get whoever is helping you manage the $90,000 to help you pick some good stable investments, income generating that could also generate an income on that $18,000 to get your monthly income up and then you could give it away at death. I think those are really the two options. So I would just kind of pray and think through that, Kathy, as to which one would really help you accomplish your goals most effectively, I could go either way.

So I think it really just comes down to are you okay parting with that money or would you feel better knowing you have access to it? Thanks for calling. We'll be right back on Faith and Finance Live. Stay with us. Thanks for joining us today on Faith and Finance Live.

We're headed to Coeur d'Alene and Darien and Zephyr Hills, but first Cleveland, Ohio. Teresa, thanks for calling. Go right ahead. Hi, my question is do I stay in this high interest car loan at 21%? Do I get out and the credit user, if I pay them the $6,000 difference, they'll refinance the loan for me or should I just take that money, the $6,000, if you have all my other bills? Yeah, all right. Well, let's unpack this a little bit, Teresa.

I'd love to help you explore this a bit more. So you have a car loan. What do you owe on that car loan? It's at 31%. I mean, it's at $31,000. I'm sorry, $31,000, but the interest is 21%. 21%, okay. And what is that car worth today? Do you know? I just got it.

It's a 2019 Honda Pilot. Okay, all right. Now, beyond that, what other debts do you have that you were looking to pay off?

Well, they're small. I bought some furniture. Some almost done paying for that. It's like maybe $1,500 on that. There's little bills, utilities, just little things like that. And I have one credit card, well, two credit cards. I'm sorry. And I've been trying to get them out the way. All right. Are you able to pay those off in full each month or are you carrying a balance? I'm carrying a balance.

That's what I was trying to figure out. Should I? No, what can I do about this car? Yeah, well, the car loan is really not a solution for the credit cards. We need to right size your spending and this big car loan is not going to help that. In terms of you refinancing, I mean, why is that interest rate so high? What is your credit score?

645. Yeah, okay. All right.

And so talk to me about, you talked to the lender, you got this from a credit union and they say they're willing to refinance it for you. Is that right? Right. If I give them $6,000, I have to pay under $31,000. Okay. So you owe 31 today, but they want you to get it down to 25?

Yes. Okay. And if you pay the $6,000, what will they lower the interest rate to? 9%.

To 9%. Okay. Where would the $6,000 come from? Some money I have.

Okay. Would that leave you with an emergency fund or would that deplete all of your cash reserves? Well, it'll deplete my cash reserves, but what I've been doing is I retired early as my husband had passed away. So I got my early retirement. I put it in an IRA right now and I put in some stocks right now. So whenever it grows over $4,000, I took just that $4,000 out and I left $110,000 there.

All right. So you have money in a retirement account. Is it in an IRA? What type of account is it? It's an IRA. Okay. And you said it's worth how much today? How much is in the IRA?

It's $110,000. All right. And are you living off an income that you're pulling from that $110,000 or do you have other income sources that cover your bills? I work two jobs. Okay. So I'm doing okay. All right.

So you're working two jobs, but you took early retirement from a different job. Is that right? Yes.

I've been on the bus for 28 years. I see. All right. So you've got $110,000 in an IRA and you're working two jobs and the jobs are what's covering your bills right now. What other retirement assets do you have?

Anything besides the $110,000? No, that's about all. Okay.

And do you have... And that's... Okay. So you're not getting any retirement income.

The early retirement just gave you the lump sum, which is what's now in the IRA? Yes. Okay. And what is your age? I'm 55. 55. So you're planning on working for another 10 or 15 years? No, I'm hoping to leave.

Okay. And so how would you fund your living expenses if you were... if you retired in five years? Well, I'm keeping the one job and I like that job because I work every... I get paid every week.

So it took $600 in my pocket every Thursday. So I'm cool. You know? Okay. I'm a security guard, but it's pretty good. Okay.

And so you're going to try to keep that job for a long time. Is that right? Yeah.

It's a sit down. I don't want to kill myself. Okay. All right.

Let's do this. There's a lot of moving pieces here, Teresa. And here's what I'm most concerned about is, I want to get you... I want to get your budget squared away so you know exactly what your income and expenses are. I want you to have a plan for where you go from here in terms of, obviously, that car loan. I don't love the fact that you've got a $31,000 car loan right now just given what I'm hearing about the rest of your financial life. And I definitely don't like you having that car loan at 21% interest. But I'm also not convinced that the best way out of this is necessarily to put the $6,000 down.

And so we just need to look at that, whether there might be an option to refinance that with another lender who might do it with the current balance, just given your credit score at 640. Or it may be that you should, in fact, go ahead and do that. Would you have to pull the whole $6,000 from the IRA, or do you have other liquid savings outside of a retirement account? Well, I pulled it out.

I pulled it now. They told me I needed to do that, but I can pull how much I need now, like, right now. Okay, so you already took some money out of the IRA? Yes, but the taxes on that is 30%. Yeah, well, it's going to be added to your taxable income, and then you're going to have 10% on top of that. Did you do that in the last 60 days, by chance? Yes, about maybe six months, maybe. Oh, okay.

So yeah, you wouldn't be able to put that back in then. You'd have to get that back within 60 days. All right, here's what I'd like to do. Rather than just trying to rush to a decision on this, given the complexity of your situation, all the moving pieces, I'd like to do something for you just to kind of help the situation. We're going to connect you with one of our certified Christian financial counselors.

This will be at no expense to you. We'll cover the cost on it, but what I'd like to do is have the counselor work with you to look at all of the numbers, not only your budget, but help you with looking at your assets and liabilities, and then looking at this car note and helping you make the decision on what is the wise thing to do from here that's going to set you up for success in the future, and try to get this interest rate down. But I don't want to get caught into a trap of just, you know, automatically assuming we need to pay it out of your savings. There may be some other options. So would you be open to working with somebody who might be able to help you explore this a little further?

Yes. All right, you stay on the line. We'll get your information. Teresa, I'll have one of our certified Christian financial counselors reach out to you, and we'll see if we can help you get to the bottom of this. We appreciate you calling today. Quickly to Ohio. Gary, I understand you have a question.

Go ahead, sir. Yes, about home title lock. It's advertised that they can steal your title, and when they go to the title agency, they say that we can't do anything.

What is that about? How do they steal someone's title? Yeah, it's fraud. So somebody would have to go into the county deeds office and fraudulently transfer your title into their name, and when they do that, then they could take out a mortgage against it that they have no intention to pay, and then when they find out they're not going to get paid, they could try to foreclose on it. But it would be wrong full foreclosure because it was, they don't actually own the home. They transfer the title fraudulently. There is no insurance to protect you there, so that's an unnecessary expense. This fraud is very rare, and at the end of the day, it's fraud, so it wouldn't hold up in court.

If you want to do something, I'd put an alert on your deed with your county records office and have them alert you if any changes are made. Thanks for your call. We'll be right back. Hey, great to have you with us today on Faith and Finance Live. Here in our final segment of the broadcast today, we'll be joined by our good friend Bob Dahl. He's chief investment officer at Crossmart Global Investments, and Bob, we're off and running. It's a new week. What are you watching this week? I assume it has something to do with the debt ceiling, but give us your thoughts. Yeah, there's a good start, Rob. All eyes are on the debt ceiling, and the talks are going to start here in less than an hour between McCarthy and Biden.

See if they can't move the ball down the field a bit. There are a lot of differences, and these are big numbers. I think it's going to take a bunch more days for us to get an agreement, and therefore, they might have to extend the debt ceiling past June 1st in a small way before unveiling the details of an agreement, and then a longer and bigger increase in that debt ceiling.

Yeah, obviously, we'll continue to watch that one. Is the key on that, Bob, that it's just it doesn't slip into, let's say, July because then we may not have workers to send social security checks, and we've got a kind of a spiraling effect? Yeah, the timetable, they're all estimates, and they tend to be conservative in estimating, so we might not on June 1st all of a sudden hit the limit. Most payments will be made.

Some contractors, if we can't get an agreement, don't extend the ceiling. They may not get paid until later in the summer, but the essentials, I don't think we have a lot to worry about. Yeah, all right, very good. Bob, I've read your deliberations for the week. Obviously, as always, a lot of moving pieces. What's top of mind for you as you just evaluate the current state of the market and the economy? I guess I'm going to complain about the narrowness of the market when you ask that question. You saw in the deliberations that the Standard & Poor's 500 is up 8% year-to-date, but if you take the 10 top tech stocks out of that, the market, those 490 that are left, are down a half a percent, so it's a very narrow market.

The market is the chosen few and everybody else take a number, as it were. Yeah, no question about it. Still the Fed leading the narrative, or is there something else that you think is pressing at this point?

No question. Fed meets mid-June, and I've never seen people so all over the place. Smart, informed, well-intentioned people say they're going to raise rates again, and there are others saying, no, no, no, they're going to pause, and others still others saying, no, they're going to cut rates. So it's all over the place.

My best guess, and that's all it is, is that they will take a pause after raising rates, don't forget about this, Rob, from zero to 5% in 13 months. The impact of that is significant and we haven't felt it all yet. Yeah. All right, Bob, we'll continue to watch that. Hey, turning a corner here just quickly, I know we were all saddened to hear of the news of Tim Keller's passing. I know you and he were good friends. I'd love for you to take just a moment and reflect on his winsome witness for Christ over a long time.

Oh my goodness, yeah, I could go on and on. Tim was God's man for the church in these days, and his emphasis in the last couple of decades on cities. His personality, he was a scholar, he had a photographic memory, he cared about people, he was very careful not to step on people's toes and be narrow-minded as a believer. A great example for us, and of course, all those books. I think his sermons and his books will live on for decades. A real loss but a real gain for heaven.

Yeah, no question about it. Very well said, Bob. Appreciate you, my friend. We'll talk to you next week. God bless. All right, that's Bob Doll, Chief Investment Officer at Crossmark Global Investments, where investments and values intersect.

You can sign up for his dolls deliberations at crossmarkglobal.com. All right, let's round out the program today. We'll get to as many questions as we can.

To Darian, Illinois. Hi, Joanne, go right ahead. Good afternoon. First of all, I just really want to thank you for the program, it's just incredible. I've learned so much over the years, and I have a lot of ears, but I have an easy question for you today.

Okay, unlike softballs. A couple of weeks ago I was in the car listening, so I couldn't write and of course didn't remember. I believe it was a woman who had mentioned that there's a credit card company, I think Visa, but that doesn't matter, that when they get their profits or what have you, it goes to charities, Christian charities, and they've just done millions of dollars over many years, and I do use the credit card for most of my spending because it's a good record keeper, but I do pay it up every month, and I would like to know the name of the company again. I would love to change and have money go for something that is good for God and his kingdom. Oh, I'm so delighted you asked about that.

Yeah, absolutely. So one of our underwriters here at Faith and Finance is the Christian Community Credit Union, and they have a rewards card that they call Cards That Give to Missions, and so with every purchase you're helping to transform lives, because for every dollar in purchasing using the card, a portion goes to missions and ministry projects, and they've been able to give millions to God's kingdom through some incredible work, literally all over the globe. There's no annual fee, there are cash rewards, and as you said, a portion of every dollar is donated to Christian causes you care about. So if you'd like to learn more, you can do that on their website at joinchristiancommunity.com. Again, that's joinchristiancommunity.com. I hope that's what you're looking for, Joanne.

Does that sound like it? That's it, thank you so much. God bless you, and keep doing what you're doing. Well, thank you, Joanne. Thank you for calling today and for those very kind remarks.

Again, the website joinchristiancommunity.com, and you're looking for the Cards That Give to Missions. All right, to Miami, Florida. Darlene, you're next on the program. Go ahead. Oh yes, hello, good afternoon. Yes, good afternoon. My first time calling in, I just had a quick question. It is wise to use money from your 401k to pay off your mortgage.

The mortgage is just about twenty-five, twenty-six thousand dollars. Is it wise to do that? Perhaps. So let me ask a few questions. What is your age, if you don't mind me asking? Sixty plus. Okay, and are you fully retired?

No, no, no. I'm still working, yes. Okay, all right, and you've got about twenty-five thousand left on the mortgage. If you were to continue on your current path, Darlene, how long would it take for you to pay it off without pulling any money out of the 401k? I think in 2033, I believe they say. Okay, so it's another ten years or so away, and how much do you have in the 401k?

Like forty-one thousand right now. All right, so you'd have to deplete quite a bit of it, and how long do you, go ahead. Sorry, they did tell me that if I keep applying money to the principal, I put probably about two hundred, an extra payment every year, and if I increase that to two payments a year, I would finish paying it off in 2026. Oh, okay, well that's a lot better. Do you have the ability to do that?

Yes, I do. Okay, very good, and how long do you plan to work? I realize we don't know fully what the Lord has in store, but just based on what you know today, how long would you expect to continue to work? I could keep working until, you know, maybe another five years or so. Okay, very good.

Yeah, so here's what I would say. I would rather you not pull the money out of the 401k, because I'd like that to continue to grow. If your 401k is like everybody else's, it's down with the market, and so when you pull that money out, you'd be locking in those losses. I'd rather you keep it invested in whatever mix of investments you have right now that hopefully is consistent with your goals and objectives and age, and I'd let that recover over time, and I would set a goal to make sure that you pay it off as soon as you can, but at the very least, that you'd have it paid off by the time you enter retirement, because I want you to enter retirement without this mortgage payment, because that's going to keep your expenses as low as possible, and so if you could follow the plan you just described, where out of current cash flow, you're sending those two extra payments a year, you've got this paid off in three years, and you know, you've still got two more years to work, so clearly you're going to enter retirement debt-free, but you've still got a hundred percent of that 401k left and whatever it's grown to, because the market's recovered and you're continuing to add to it, and you don't have the tax hit on the money coming out of the 401k, I think that would be my preference.

Thank you so much, and one last question. I do have about a credit card debt about perhaps $80,000. Should I use some of that money to pay that off or no? So did you say credit card debt of how much? That's just $6,000. Oh $6,000, okay. What I would probably do is I would prioritize that extra money that you had each month on those credit cards first, let's get those paid off, and then as soon as those are paid off, let's switch to the mortgage.

I'd probably not pull out of the 401k for the reasons that I mentioned, but what I would do if I were you, Darlene, is contact my friends at christiancreditcounselors.org, because without replacing those loans, you know, we're not talking about taking out a new loan to pay them off, they can leave them right where they are, but they can get the interest rates reduced for you so that more of your monthly payment every month is going toward your principal reduction, and that would be my preference on how you get that paid off, rather than pulling out of the 401k, and then as soon as that's done, then we switch to the mortgage and focus on that. Thank you so very much because the interest rates are astronomical. Oh, I bet. I would make that your priority right now. Well, thank you so much for that, Darlene, and again, the website is christiancreditcounselors.org. Quickly to Cora Lane, Maria, you'll be our final caller.

Go ahead. Hi, I just recently sold my house, and I'm getting a check today for $408,000, and I have about four or five months before my next house is done, and I wondered what I could do with that money to get as much as I can. I put it in two online savings accounts at 4% interest plus. I'd look at Marcus, our Capital One 360, and as long as you don't go above $250,000, it'll be safe and liquid, and you'll get a nice return while you're waiting. Thanks for calling, Maria.

Faith and Finance Live is a partnership between Moody Radio and Faith Fi. Thank you to Amy, Tahira, Gabby, and Robert. Hope you have a great rest of your day, and come back and join us tomorrow. We'll see you then. Bye-bye.