Helping Not Hurting

Today's version of Faith and Finance Live is prerecorded so our phone lines are not open. Give justice to the weak and the fatherless. Maintain the right of the afflicted and the destitute, Psalm 82 verse 3. Hi, I'm Rob West. That verse teaches that we should help the poor, and orphans especially.

Beyond simply providing the next meal or a place to sleep, we must also seek ways to lift the destitute out of poverty. I'll talk with Mario Zandstra about that today. Then we have lots of great listener questions ahead, but we won't be taking your live calls today because this program is prerecorded. This is Faith and Finance Live, biblical wisdom for your financial journey. Well, Mario Zandstra is our guest today.

He's the president and CEO of Family Legacy Missions International, and if you're unfamiliar with it, it's a ministry focused entirely on helping Zambia's orphans. Mario, welcome back to the program. Hey, Rob. It's so great to be back. Thanks for having me.

Absolutely. Mario, most people understand that helping the poor often involves providing immediate critical assistance like food, shelter, and often even medicine. Family Legacy started out that way, but in time, I know your focus has shifted.

Tell us that story. Well, I think if you've ever read the book When Helping Hurts, which is a phenomenal book, it makes you realize that if you are always in the relief business, that you actually don't help them own their future. So we've kind of moved our vision from rescue and relief to really being a development organization, trying to figure out how we can help them move into the future. So rescue and relief work can lead to dependence on third parties long term, and we don't want to have a dependency relationship. We want them to become independent. So our desire is to develop our children, to provide them an education, to disciple them with Christian discipleship, to teach them nutrition, provide medical care, help them unpack their trauma, which we believe leads to dignity. Now, when appropriate, we might still need to provide rescue and relief and have it be temporary, but long term, we want to create independence for these young men and women and boys and girls that we have. So achieving dignity over dependence, you might say, that's a long term solution, isn't it? Absolutely, it is.

Our goal is to impact this generation that works towards independence, absolutely loves Jesus, and is a giver to their community instead of a taker. That's powerful. I know stories always help to just kind of understand how this is working.

So would you share one? It's actually working, and it's working in an unusual way. It's by impacting the family as well as impacting the child. So we've partnered with Hope International, and we've started these savings clubs. And we are allowing our people, and they go through this training, biblical training on how to manage money. We also are partnering with a group that is allowing us to use a curriculum called literacy evangelism. And so we're teaching the caregivers how to read.

Well, if they know how to read and the child comes home and needs reading help, the caregiver is there. And here's a great story. We had a woman who went through the program. She put money in week after week. She got to a point where her balance was high enough where she could borrow money back. She would go to the market and buy a case of water and come back and sell that water a bottle at a time.

Well, two things happened. One, she doubled her income overnight. She had an opportunity to feed her children. She has dignity. She's teaching her children that she cares for to have dignity.

And we are helping her think about her future, which then helps her kids think about, hey, listen, my caregiver has figured out a way to care for herself. Maybe I can too. Wow, that's powerful.

Mario, we have just about a minute left. Give us just a macro sense of the need that exists there as you serve in Zambia. You know, it's interesting. When you think about Zambia, Zambia is one of the poorest countries in the world. And they got their independence in 1964, just like South Korea did. They became independent. South Korea said, we're going to take no government funding from other governments.

We are going to make this happen on our own. And Zambia took money from the beginning. South Korea today has the fifth largest economy in the world, and Zambia is still struggling on the bottom end of the spectrum. What's happening there is that it's actually perpetuating a problem. And what we're trying to do is to help our kids not be part of the perpetuation of a problem, but be part of the solution. Learn how to be independent. How do you help make a third world economy become a first world economy? Sometimes it's by having a university degree and working in accounting or law or becoming a doctor or nurse.

But it might be becoming a farmer and employing your fellow citizens and helping them live independent too. Wow, that's powerful. Well, you all are getting it done on the ground there in Zambia, changing lives for eternity. We appreciate you stopping by, Mario. Thanks for being with us.

Thank you, Rob. That's Mario Zandstra, president and CEO of Family Legacy. You can find out more and sponsor one of these children at HopeForZambia.com slash Faithfi.

That's HopeForZambia.com slash Faithfi. Much more to come just around the corner. Stick around. This is Faith in Finance Live with Rob West. Hey, if you hear a phone number mentioned today, please ignore that number and don't call us because today's broadcast was previously recorded. But we think the upcoming information will help you and make you a wise steward of what God's given you. So please stay tuned. You know, here at Faith in Finance, we are all about living generous lives. That's right. When we think about the role that we have as stewards in managing God's money, it can be easy to start with our needs, to start with money being a way to provide for our families.

And clearly it is. The challenge is if we start there, we can end up with an endless list of needs and wants that we never get beyond. And I think perhaps we miss the bigger opportunity, perhaps more of the design of God as our role as stewards, and that is to be generous, to participate in his work and activity, to meet the needs of the people on our path. And of course, to support the work of the local church.

Well, we like to feature those giving opportunities that we feel like are really compelling from time to time. And we did that today as we had a chance to spend a few minutes with Mario Zandstra, my good friend and president and CEO of Family Legacy, really meeting the needs of the most vulnerable there in Zambia, Africa. And if you'd like to be a part in equipping and empowering Zambian children to reach their fullest potential and receive spiritual, also intellectual, emotional and physical care, you can participate with them at Family Legacy.

The website we gave, I gave slightly a wrong URL a moment ago if you tried that out. Just go to HopeForZambia.com forward slash faith. That's HopeForZambia.com forward slash faith. And you can find out how every child in Zambia can live their full God-given potential and you can be a part of making it happen.

Again, HopeForZambia.com forward slash faith. All right, it's time to turn the corner and take your questions on anything financial. The number to call today is 800-525-7000. We're going to begin in Ohio. Carl, you'll be our first caller. Go ahead, sir.

Oh, hi. Yes, I started listening to WCRF in Cleveland and I noticed your financial program and I could really use some help with our financial situation. Currently, we're senior citizens. We're both 76 years old and the income we have is basically Social Security and a small pension.

The wife and I have a small pension and basically it adds up to about $46,752 yearly and we were doing fine. I used to provide for my family when I was young and then all of a sudden we're old and we have a problem as far as with the inflation in regards to our home. We have a personal line of credit. Our mortgage, original mortgage, was paid off many years ago, but we have accumulated debt using a personal line of credit. We're up to $88,000 and we were able to make payments and do fine until the inflation came around. The interest rates tripled. We used to pay 3.5% and we're up to 7.8% now and we used to pay like $250 a month on our equity line of credit. Now we're up to $750. I thought, well, I'll refinance. I go to other banks and it's even worse.

It's like 8%. I thought, wow, what do we do? I thought about the different ways like a reverse mortgage where we can keep the home that we have and not have to make payments. The bank will get the house instead of the kids. The kids won't have anything anyways.

That was one option. The other option is to sell our home, which is really a nightmare because you don't know what the market is. One day it's up high, the other day it's down low or whatever. It depends what city you're in. They're not straight across the United States, so the wife may want to live back in the small town where she used to in Bucyrus, Ohio. But every time we call there, those marketing prices are completely different from Cleveland, the large city.

It's like crazy. We don't know what to put our house up on the market. The other option was to go to an independent living type thing, but they want all your money. They said, yeah, but even if you run out of money with their independent living, you can still live there.

That didn't sound right to me. I don't know. We don't know what to do, and we're looking to God for guidance. We have some small-term things that are helping us, the church is. That is establishing a budget, which, shame on me, I didn't do. I was just doing automatic payments from the checking account. Now I'm handling all that and really looking at our small time of writing down what we spend and how much income we have.

Sure. Let me ask you, Carl, what is that gap on a monthly basis between your income and what your expenses are to the best of your ability? Do you know what that shortfall is?

Say that again. What is the shortfall on a monthly basis between your income and what your expenses are? Wow, that's a good question. Well, I'm just starting to work this out with a financial advisor with the church, and he told me to make a profit-loss statement like that, income and expenses. And we're getting assistance, I'm a veteran, and we're getting assistance from the Veterans Administration, which they're paying our utilities, and they're paying our utilities and giving us food.

Well, here's the thing. I mean, these are big decisions that you're making, and it's got to be driven first by what is the current state of your financial life, most notably on the income and spending side. And so we've got to develop that budget.

I'm glad to hear you're on the way toward doing that. But we've got to determine what is that gap, and to the extent we feel like that gap is short-term, because we expect interest rates will reverse course. Now, the timing is only anybody's guess, but the Fed is focused on keeping rates up to slow the economy until inflation is in check. They will turn and start to head back down probably later this year, sometime into early next year.

The question is, what is your staying power? And then you need to put that alongside kind of your goals and plans with regard to this next season of life. Do you, in fact, want to relocate anyway? And if so, this would be a great time to go ahead and sell, especially now during the spring home buying season, pre-recession, which most economists think we're heading into. While people are trying to get situated in their new homes prior to the next year's school year, this would be a great time to sell and look at relocating either to another single-family home, a condo, or an assisted living facility maybe where you could buy in. But you have the option to have more skilled care along the way as you need it. I've got a family member who just moved into one of those.

She's in her own place, but there's the opportunity to go to assisted living or even full nursing, and it's the same monthly payment for the rest of her life. So I think you need to follow through on that process of getting the budget in place first. And once you know exactly what you have in terms of a shortfall, give me a call back and we'll take it from there. Thanks for your call, Carl. We'll be right back on Faith and Finance. Stay with us. Hey, it's great to have you with us on Faith and Finance live. But today we are prerecorded and we won't be taking your calls. However, we've lined up some calls in advance that we think you'll find helpful.

So stay tuned and enjoy the rest of the program. Before we head back to the phones today, we're putting a spotlight on the incredible work of Family Legacy in Zambia. If you'd like to help Zambian orphans reach their full God-given potential with support that provides spiritual, intellectual, emotional and physical care, you can partner with Family Legacy to do just that with a gift as small as $25. $25 provides care for a child in Zambia and Family Legacy is making that work possible. I've actually been there in Zambia with Family Legacy to see the schools, to see the work that's being done to provide for the needs of these beautiful and amazing Zambian orphans. And it's incredible what God is up to in that part of the world. So if you'd like to be a part of it, you can check out more at HopeForZambia.com forward slash Faith. And we're delighted to be able to tell you about this incredible ministry today on the program. All right, back to the phones we go. We're going to head to Texas. Hey, Matt, how can we help you? Hi, Rob.

Thank you for taking my call. I wanted to get your opinion or recommendation regarding some income property we have still in California. It's a duplex, fair amount of equity and a fair amount of yearly income, too, as well. But we've been in Texas now for almost eight years and one unit is available for rent. And so before we rented out, we're seriously considering maybe a good time to sell.

Yes. So we've been kind of going back and forth and haven't really found a tenant yet. So maybe it's meant to be that, you know, it's taken so long to find a tenant. Maybe it gives us time to evaluate selling.

Yeah, very good. So tell me the criteria you're using to evaluate this decision. I mean, obviously there's the first question. Do you want to be a landlord? Second, do you want to be an absentee landlord where you're living in a state pretty far away? Thirdly, there's just the financial return on it. You know, is it performing for you and is it a good investment? You know, there's a host of considerations. So talk to me about kind of the most significant things for you all as you evaluate this. Well, kind of all of the above, pretty much all you just described is kind of maybe what's helping us or making us decide to maybe sell. I don't want to be an absentee landlord and I'm in Texas.

I don't want to be flying to California if need be. Plus, you know, California is a blue state and kind of I sense, you know, going forward, you know, tenants can have more rights than landlords. You know, the risk of getting a bad tenant plus there's an HOA involved. And, you know, there's concerns over how well the HOA is being operated and, you know, we did a fair amount of investment into the property to get it ready for rent. And maybe like, well, it's just the best it's ever been, you know, might as well, you know, use that as a benefit to selling it, you know, before things start to break again.

Yeah, yeah, very good. Well, I think this is a great time to sell. I mean, the housing market has remained strong.

We haven't seen much softening in it. Now, it's clearly moved from a buyer's to a seller's market in the sense that whereas you might have had 30 plus offers on a home within 24 to 48 hours and bidding wars. Now we might have 10 to 15 offers and, you know, you might entertain a seller might entertain a contingency on a mortgage preapproval or a home sale, another property sale. Whereas, you know, a year ago, they wouldn't have it was just too strong of a market, they had plenty of options to take all cash offers with no contingency. So because of the higher interest rates, because of the fact that we're headed toward, you know, a recession in all likelihood, we have seen this shift to a buyer's market.

Now, despite that price, prices have really remained strong. Certain pockets of the country, of course, are exception. We've got a lot of people moving out of California into Texas in particular. But, you know, we still see a relatively robust housing market just because there's a reality and that is there's a shortage of two to 3 million homes in this country, because the millennials are reaching age 30 and buying single family homes and having families and we've got people moving into suburban areas and buying single family homes because they're working remotely now.

And so you've got a number of factors that have created, you know, still a significant demand despite some of the challenges we have going on economically. So I think for that reason, plus the fact that you're inclined to no longer be a landlord and, you know, several states away where you can't put eyes on it and it's more difficult to get things fixed. And, you know, what about marketing it and keeping it rented?

Not to mention the fact that it might all that might become even more difficult if we were to head into a recession that's a little deeper than some expect. So I think for that reason, this is a great time, especially right now in the spring with this being home buying season for you to go ahead and list this. Find a competent realtor who can help you stage it, get it ready. Obviously, you'll have to deal with the current lessee. You can still sell a property in most states, you know, and most states require you to the current tenant to, you know, continue to rent the property until the lease or rental agreement expires even after the sale.

So you'll have to deal with that piece of it. But the buyer may love the idea that there's a current lessee that they can, you know, have 50% of it already rented out to create income. So I think this is a great opportunity for you to sell just given everything I've heard. Yeah, another part of it, though, to kind of get your opinion on is, you know, it's a fair amount of equity, and then mean a fair amount of capital gains, you know, 1031 versus just paying the taxes and one one thought I have is that I'd like to make more, you know, more investment in Texas, you know, like, let me buy something, you know, buy some land or buy something else in Texas to kind of Yeah, I think that's a great idea. So the 1031 exchange will kind of kick the can down the road on that capital gain. So you can take 100% of your proceeds, roll it into another property, as long as it's another investment property, you have two deadlines with that, you've got to identify the replacement property within 45 days, and then you have to acquire it within 180.

But as long as you do that, with a similar property, I like that idea, like real estate, alongside perhaps other assets like stocks and bonds in a retirement account as an overall diversified portfolio for your future. I hope that helps you, my friend. Thanks for calling today. Well, folks, we're gonna head to a break. But let me remind you, we're out of the studio today. Our team is not here. So don't call in but much more to come just around the corner on Faith and Finance Live.

Stick around. We're thrilled to have you with us today on Faith and Finance Live. By the way, we're not here today. Our team is away from the studio.

So don't call in. But we have lined up some wonderful questions that I know you'll enjoy that we'll get to in just a bit. Hey, let me mention as we head toward June the 30th, which is the fiscal year end here at Faith and Finance, we could use your financial support. If you'd like to be a part of funding this work for another 12 months of ministry, you count on this broadcast and you've benefited from it in some way, we'd invite you to be a financial supporter.

You can do that with any amount and we mean that. It's all helpful. You can make your gift online at faithfi.com.

That's faithfi.com. Just click the Give button. Thanks in advance. Hey, before we take a few more phone calls, let me address the topic of how much is enough briefly. You know, the great Christian apologist and author G.K. Chesterton, he once wrote, There are two ways to get enough. One is to continue to accumulate more and more. The other is to desire less. You know, a secular worldview tells us that more is always better, so there's no end to accumulation.

The Christian worldview, on the other hand, turns that idea upside down. You see, according to Chesterton, enough isn't about getting more. Perhaps it's about wanting less. So how do we apply that to money matters?

How much is enough really? Well, first, we need to understand the difference between needs and wants. Believers in Christ serve a God who promises to supply our needs. In Matthew 6, he says, and he reminds his listeners not to be anxious about these things.

He says, Look at the birds of the air. They do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not more valuable than they? You see, this means when we put Jesus first, we will always have enough of what we need to live, and we can trust God to know what that is. Where people get confused, perhaps, is in the matter of wants and desires, the things that are not essential for survival.

How much is enough of those? Well, that's really a matter of priorities. You see, if we seek first the kingdom, he either exists and is sovereign, or he doesn't exist and you're on your own. Once you commit to following Christ, which we all should do, and that free gift is there for us to accept, well, we have to admit that God is sovereign, and that changes everything. You see, placing the Lord first means acknowledging his ownership of everything. And as the Holy Spirit works in your heart, your motivation to accumulate gradually changes. And by the grace of God, it moves from a self-centered approach to a God-centered approach. You see, when Jesus is the Lord of your life, your idea of enough begins to change, too, because you're trusting God to meet your needs, and your desires start to line up with what God wants. You begin to desire less of worldly things, and all of this is a part of the miraculous heart change that happens when God gets a hold of you.

So while the worldly person is asking, how can I get more? The Christian begins asking, how can I serve more with what God has provided? You see, God gives us the ability to make money through skilled work, and business ownership, and investing, and other righteous means. These are gifts from the Lord, and they're to be used for kingdom work, from taking care of our families, churches, employees, and communities, to serving those in need around the world, like we've been talking about with Zambian orphans today. So no matter how much you have, the principles are the same. Everything belongs to the Lord.

God has placed where you are for his sovereign reasons, because he loves you, and has important kingdom work for you to do. So perhaps you can think about that, and realize that following Christ is the way to peace, joy, and the abundant life. So when we ask, how much is enough? We may actually be asking the wrong question.

For believers, Christ followers, the real question is, who is enough? I hope that's an encouragement to you today. All right, we're going to head back to the phones. Let's go to Virginia. Hi, Joe. Go right ahead. Thank you for taking my call. Yes, sir. I'm 77 years old, and I'll be 78 in July, and my wife and I have a home that we originally bought back in the late 60s, and lived in for over 50 years, and we have that home outright, and we was going to rent it out, and I was thinking it came to my mind about selling it, and possibly holding a note on it myself, ourselves, and let the money and the interest come to us, you know. Yes, sir. I didn't know what all would be involved in that, and what would be the scoop on that.

Yes, sir. Well, I think the first question is, do you want to sell, and if you do, where would you go? Have you all talked about that? Where would you live if you sold this property? Well, we have another house that we've bought that we went in with my daughter and bought a house, and it had an in-law suite, and my daughter and us are living in the same house. Okay. All right. We both still have our original houses.

My wife and I and my daughter had her own house. Okay. Very good. And that would be a sufficient long-term solution for you? Well, yes.

I've got another thing on the second part of the question I wanted to ask you. I've got about $170,000 or $75,000 in the bank that's just in, like, a savings account. I need for that to be making more money. I mean, you know, a higher interest or something.

Yes, sir. So this, what is the purpose of this money? Is it money you need to access relatively quickly, or is it longer term?

It's longer term. I haven't been accessing that which was in the bank. I have another account that we access sometimes, and it's got about 20, I looked last month, I think it had 22,000. 20 or 22,000 and add. Okay.

Very good. Well, a couple of thoughts on both of these. Let's start with the idea of you selling. I think you all need to think through whether you're happy with this long-term solution of you moving into this other property. If so, it could be a great opportunity to sell the existing home. If you live there two out of the last five years, which it sounds like you've lived there a lot longer than that, then you have the opportunity to not pay any capital gains up to $500,000 as a married couple in gains. So, you know, if no matter what you sell it for, the gain is determined by the selling price minus the original purchase price. As long as that gain doesn't go over $500,000, you won't have to pay any capital gains.

If it does, then you would. And in terms of you holding that mortgage, I'm not a big fan of that. You know, there's a risk of the buyer defaulting on the mortgage, and then you're going to have to go through the foreclosure process. It's hard for you to conduct due diligence on potential buyers. They may damage or make changes that devalue the property. And then you've got to service the loan by collecting those mortgage payments and paying the property taxes.

So I'd probably stay away from that. Let's pick this up after the break, Joe. Stay on the line. Well, folks, we're going to take one more quick break and then back with our final segment today. But if you need assistance from a financial or legal professional, we'd love for you to visit faithfi.com and click Find a CKA.

Again, that's faithfi.com and click Find a CKA, that stands for Certified Kingdom Advisor, our preferred designation for financial advice from the biblical worldview. By the way, just a quick reminder, we're not here today, so don't call in, but much more coming just after this. Stay with us. This is our final segment of a Faith and Finance live program that we previously recorded.

Thanks so much for being with us today, and we hope you'll stick around and enjoy the rest of the program. Great to have you with us today on Faith and Finance, where we apply the wisdom from God's Word to your financial decisions and choices. We're talking with Joe in Virginia. Just before the break, he was telling us about a property that he has and he's considering selling it. They've had it for 50 years, and he was considering not only selling it, but considering holding the mortgage on the sale. And Joe, I was saying we need to first think through where you'd go and whether you're happy with that option. Number two, you have the benefit of missing up to a half million dollars in capital gains. And then number three, I'm not a big fan of you holding that mortgage just because of some of the challenges related to that.

But before we answer your second question, give me your thoughts on all that. Well, I hadn't thought about the complications of, you know, if you had to foreclose. And of course, I suppose you'd get the house back if you had to foreclose on it.

Yeah, it can be challenging, though. So I probably felt if I were you and you wanted to be in the real estate business, I'd probably go and sell this and maybe buy another piece of property and then go out and get renters. And be a landlord and use that to generate income as opposed to trying to, you know, offer debt to someone. With regard to the funds that you have available, the $170,000, I would say let's set aside at least six months' worth of expenses and liquid savings. And then if you had beyond that funds that you didn't need, you could consider deploying an investment strategy. Very conservative, just given your age, you know, where maybe you have 20% or 30% in stocks for some growth, but you have the lion's share of it, 70% to 80% in bonds. And you could generate a good income, have a less volatile portfolio, but still grow it for the future.

So if you need it down the road for, you know, long-term care, nursing home, or you wanted to provide it as an inheritance, you'd have something to be able to do that with. So I think, you know, that would be something to consider. And if you needed an advisor for that, Joe, you can head to our website if you're comfortable using the internet, faithfi.com. That's faithfi.com. Just click Find a CKA. That stands for Certified Kingdom Advisor.

And that's the designation we trust for professionals that have been vetted, they've been trained, they share your values, they'll bring a biblical worldview of money management to their financial advice. Okay? Okay. Okay. That would be great.

I can rent this house for right now for about $1,700 a month. Okay. Yeah. I mean, that would be another great option there, too.

I like that option a lot. As long as you go into this with your eyes wide open about what it takes to be a landlord and just the, you know, you're going to have to make sure they're having a property manager. They're having a property management company or somebody that can step in when there's a plumbing issue or an electrical issue or something needs repair and you got to keep the place rented and marketed and all of that. I'm not trying to discourage you. I actually like real estate investing as a part of your overall portfolio. You know the house well, obviously, but if it's older and it's going to need some repairs, you're going to have to stay on top of that.

So I just kind of think and pray through that before you make a final decision. Joe, thanks for being on the program, sir. I'm so grateful to Mississippi. Hi, Brad. How can we help you?

Hello. I had a 401K retirement question. My bonds are invested primarily in stocks right now. And with the impending possible recession, should I move that money more to bonds? I have two bond options and the rest is all stock options. Now, what's the current allocation between stocks and bonds, Brad, roughly? It's roughly about 75% into the stocks, 25% into the bonds.

All right. And how much is the portfolio down at this point from its high watermark? Well, I lost about 20% last year.

And this year I'm up just maybe a percentage, very little actually. Okay. But you haven't made many changes since you lost the 20%? I have.

No, I haven't made any. Okay. And what is your time horizon, Brad, on needing this money? Well, I'm 51 right now, so I really don't anticipate meaning it for another 15 years.

Yeah. Well, if it were me, just given how much time you have, I would probably just sit tight with what you've got. Although I think bonds will do well, last year was tough for stocks and bonds as interest rates were rising. The bond prices were falling. Now we've got the higher yields and we'll get the price appreciation as interest rates fall. But given the time horizon you have, I don't want you to lock in the losses on those stocks and miss the recovery, even though we're headed into a recession and we're probably going to retest our October 2022 lows we have in every recession that we've ever had. We hit the bottom of a bear market during the recession, not before it. So we could expect that we'll retest those lows at some point, but I wouldn't try to time it. That's just a losing proposition. You try to get out and then figure out your entry point.

It's just nearly impossible to do. So I think for that reason, as long as you've got the time on your side and you do, I would stay the course and recognize that you're going to have to stomach potentially more downside, but it will recover probably later this year, early next year, and it'll move to new highs. And you need to count on that continued compounding effect of the growth. And we go through these recessions.

These are cyclical. They do happen, but we always get through them and we always move to new highs. And once we are in the recession, we can see the end of it. We know if the Fed is going to start to lower interest rates, I think this market is going to take off. We have some bigger issues in this country economically, but those I think are much further down the road.

I think for now, your best place to overcome the effects of inflation and grow this wealth to have a decent nest egg in the future is to stay invested in stocks and bonds. And I think getting out right now would allow you or cause you to miss the recovery, which I certainly don't want for you. Right. I really appreciate it. All right, Brad, we appreciate your call today, my friend.

Thanks for being on the program. You know, as we think about investing so much of our investing decisions, especially if we're managing our investments ourselves as opposed to hiring an advisor, can be out of fear and emotions. You know, we get caught up in the 24 hour financial media news cycle and we start to think about, you know, the hard earned money that we have and we see that statement declining month after month and we think, I've got to make a change.

I've got to move to something more conservative. And we forget all the months, you know, the 12 years prior to this where, you know, every statement was up and, you know, you could kind of throw a dart and, you know, stocks were increasing. And, you know, we recognize that we do go through these periods.

I mean, you know, we hit recessions just about every decade and they all have different reasons and causes. But the key is to stay focused on our plan. You know, what is our time horizon?

Why do we have the allocation we have? And, you know, let's stay for the long term. We really need a rules based approach to investing that's not dictated by the shifting sands and the volatility of the market, but really has a well thought out plan that we can stay committed to in the good markets and the bad, knowing that the data is on our side. That if we have a properly diversified stock and bond portfolio not taking unnecessary risk, that that will lead to us having the ability to overcome the effects of inflation and the loss of purchasing power and ultimately build a nest egg that allows us to fund that next season of life in retirement. Not so we can just sit on the front porch so we can, you know, move away from paid work when that time comes.

Perhaps we have to. But pursue the next project that God has for us, knowing that he has a calling on our lives and that doesn't expire at 65, despite what the world might tell us. You know, this modern idea of retirement that, you know, we have an expiration date does not follow a biblical worldview.

You know, we see in God's Word apart from a very narrow instance with the Levitical priests that, you know, our calling to be workers is throughout the whole of our lives. And we're to be in service to God, which means that we should retire to something and not from something. But we do need to be saving appropriately along the way, which, you know, takes us back to what I was sharing a bit earlier about answering this question, how much is enough? You know, it's really critical that we have a goal in mind that's thoughtful, that we've prayed over, but takes into account some real planning.

And that's where I think the counsel of a certified kingdom advisor can be invaluable, not only in managing assets, but really on the planning side as well to say, what lifestyle has God called us to? I think that's a question each of us have to answer. And that how much is enough question needs to be applied not only to our accumulation, our balance sheet, what is our ultimate goal for savings?

It's not mindless, it's intentional, but it also needs to apply to our spending. How much is enough for our lifestyle? And that's a question we each need to ask and answer on our knees. And if you're married together as husband and wife, Lord, how much is enough for us? What have you called us to? And to the extent we cap enough, then as God provides beyond that, well, gives us an opportunity to do even greater giving, which is going to bring us full circle back to where we started the program today, as we talked about generosity. Today, we're shining a light on an incredible ministry that I've had the privilege of experiencing firsthand. It's the Ministry of Family Legacy, serving the vulnerable and the orphans over a million, 1.2 million orphans in Zambia, providing hope through spiritual and intellectual, emotional and physical care.

So if you'd like to partner with Family Legacy to support one of these amazing, gorgeous little ones over in Zambia who are orphaned, you can do that by visiting HopeForZambia.com forward slash faith, that's HopeForZambia.com forward slash faith, and with a gift of as little as $25, you can help to support the work of Family Legacy in supporting one child there who's been orphaned. What an incredible opportunity to be the hands and feet of Jesus in all of our giving, and this is just one of those opportunities we're shining a light on today. All right, folks, thanks for being along with us. It's a privilege to come alongside you, hopefully to be an encouragement, but always to help you look to scripture, God's word as the source for all living, including our financial management. Thanks to my team today, Amy, Dan, Clara, and Jim. Thank you for being here as well.

Faith and Finance Live is a partnership between Moody Radio and Faithfi. I hope you have a great rest of your day and come back and join us next time. We'll see you then. Goodbye.