Christian Financial Planner Update

Do you like helping people get their finances in order?

Maybe you have a gift for numbers. Well, there's good news straight ahead. Hi, I'm Rob West. A while back, we broke the news about a whole new career field that's opening up, the Christian Financial Planner. Kurt Kornfield is here today to give us an update, so you don't want to miss that. 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, we've been looking forward to having my friend Kurt Kornfield back with us to find out more about this exciting program. Kurt is Associate Professor of Financial Planning at Liberty University. He's also a Certified Financial Planner and a Certified Kingdom Advisor. Kurt, great to have you back. I love being on the show, Rob, so thanks for having me.

Absolutely. Hey, Kurt, when you were with us in November, you unveiled this new Christian Financial Planner program. But for folks who may not have heard that program, would you share with us what it is and how it works? Yeah, so there's about seven universities right now, Christian universities in this country that have offered CFP, which stands for Certified Financial Planner programs. In that course curriculum, the main five areas they cover is estate planning, investments, tax planning, retirement planning, and insurance planning. Students get well trained on the basics of what it means to help people holistically with their financial plans. But what's been really cool is the Christian universities, these seven at least that we've mentioned before, are adding the CKA, the Certified Kingdom Advisor content, which means that from a behavioral finance perspective, the students that get trained are learning what the Bible says about money and finances. And that's really been the most exciting part about what's going on. Well, it really is because as we said in the opener, this is now a whole new career track for students going into college. But as they graduate, ready to sit for the CFP and the CKA, they're ready to enter financial services, specifically aligning their work with the work of a Certified Kingdom Advisor who really is bringing their faith into their practice.

So give us an update. I know you're talking to a lot of the professors around the country who are running these programs. You're, of course, boots on the ground with your students there at Liberty.

How's it going? Well, what's really cool, as I was looking back, we just finished our 13th year, but 13 years ago, before 13 years ago, there was zero programs in this country that were doing what we're doing out of about 110 universities that were then offering CFP. There's now 146 universities in the country that offer CFP, but somewhere around 15, 16 of those are actually Christian universities now. So it's 10% of the schools are actually Christian universities. So that in itself is amazing. In 13 years, we've been able to go from zero to 10% of all schools offering the CFP curriculum. So I'm just excited that we were kind of the first to break the ice. And since then, there's been lots of universities that have decided to adopt these programs.

That's great. And what are you seeing? I mean, I know you're interacting with these students every day as they catch a vision, Kurt, for their opportunity to bring their faith with them into their career track, post-undergraduate degree. What are they experiencing? So your organization, well, Kingdom Advisors has helped us a lot because our relationship with Kingdom Advisors right from the beginning has been what really makes it different. And so when we expose them first to the biblical content, but then to just the Kingdom Advisor organization. So they get to meet really cool people at the Kingdom Advisor conference throughout the year. They try to meet lots of these people, you know, when they go visit these various workplaces where these Kingdom Advisors exist. And they really kind of capture their ability to integrate their faith into their lives 24-7.

Because what I know about young people today, Christian young people, because that's mainly what I get to work with, is they really want to integrate their faith into their lives. And they don't just want to do it on Sundays. And so there are professions, of course, full-time Christian workers and so on, where they can do that. But this is one where they can do that and still make a pretty good living. And so we don't like to apologize for that. But it is fun that they get to serve others, but still provide for their own families as well.

It's really exciting. Well, there's a lot more for us to talk about with Kurt Kornfield today. He's associate professor of financial planning at Liberty University. When we come back, we'll talk about the development path for a student coming out of one of these programs and entering financial services.

If you'd like to see a list of these schools that Kurt described, you can do that at kingdomadvisors.com, click the industry tab, and then universities. Following this interview, your questions today at 800-525-7000. Stay with us.

We'll be right back. Great to have you with us today on Faith and Finance Live. Joining me today, my good friend Kurt Kornfield, certified financial planner, certified kingdom advisor, and associate professor of financial planning at Liberty University. Just before the break, we were talking about this exciting career path that now exists for students getting an undergraduate degree in financial planning, taking the CFP, the certified financial planner educational track, and the certified kingdom advisor so they're ready to enter financial services coming out of college and bring their faith with them, which is so exciting. And Kurt, many of our listeners are parents of those prospective students, and they want to know there's a job waiting for them when they graduate.

And the really cool thing is there is, isn't there? Yeah, that's the one thing that's so much fun for me because I love helping kids get jobs. And virtually since 2015, 100% of our graduates have jobs. And not to brag, but the truth is they could have multiple jobs. And so employers are really very competitive and they want to come after these students. But these are some of the best students and they're rightfully getting hired.

Yeah, that's great. We'll talk about that development path. What does it look like for someone entering the financial advising industry? And then let's put this overlay of somebody who's also prepared with the CKA education. Yeah, having been in the trenches now for 13, 14 years doing this with college kids, we're seeing this progression of what are their real needs, not just the kids that go into this as a profession, but now the students that go into other professions. Sometimes they have financial messes. They get themselves into too much school debt.

And those kids need counseling. They just need help getting over that debt hump. And then there's others that don't have the financial debt burdens, but they're just starting out and they need what I would call basic coaching.

They just need to be pointed in the right direction. Now, once someone is a certified financial planner, they can give more holistic advice. And so we're seeing the need for students to kind of go into all of these areas, both the counseling, the coaching, the planning area. And so it's been fun to see that that's also percolating out of these universities. It's not just financial planners, but we have these counselors and coaches that are available to help all Christians, not just the students.

Oh, that's great. Let's dive into that coaching aspect a little bit more. Some of the schools, including Liberty, that we're talking about today actually offer peer coaching programs.

I love this. Tell us what that entails. Yeah, we're going to have 27 of our students this coming year that will actually get trained. We train them for several days to serve their fellow students.

But the main point that we train them with is, what does the Bible say about money and finances? So when they help their fellow students with budgeting, debt management, and a little investment education, they do that all with a biblical worldview, which is really cool. And we're not the only university doing this. This is prevalent now in many of these Christian universities. I know Biola out on the West Coast has been a leader, Calvin College in Michigan, and IWU in Indiana, and Charleston Southern in South Carolina. They've all had these peer coaching programs now for at least a half a dozen years or more, and it's really impacting their whole campuses, which is exciting.

Yeah, it really is. And Kurt, as you said, there's nine programs now that are offering CFP and CKA. Many of those have these peer counseling programs. And if you want to get a list of each of these programs, including how you can learn more about the program at that university, just go to kingdomadvisors.com. You'll click the industry leader tab at the top of the page and then universities, and that will give you a list of every university, the professor over the program, and a button to actually take a look at the program itself.

Again, it's all there at kingdomadvisors.com. But we're just getting started, Kurt. I know your passion is to see more and more Christian universities actually deploying these types of programs, right? Yeah, we know there's well over 100 Christian universities in this country, and so obviously there's still room for everybody to be doing this. And so I'd like to challenge your listeners, because I know you have a great group of listeners, that if they're near one of these Christian universities, especially if they're already trained as a financial advisor, especially when they understand the biblical worldview, let's partner up with these universities. Make sure they're offering personal finance classes from a biblical worldview, and then if it's possible for them to also consider these peer coaching programs and these CFP programs, all of those things are happening. And I want Christian schools to kind of take over this industry. You know, if we're up to 10 percent now, why not? Let's get the 50 percent of these schools being Christian schools offering CFP. I think we can own this space and really have a lot more Christians in the business, and it's at all these various levels.

That's great. What would you say to a parent who wants to be able to describe this opportunity to their high schooler, who perhaps they've identified an interest or a competency in this whole area of finance or financial management? What would you say to them about the opportunity on one of these tracks pursuing CFP and CKA? Yeah, I usually first point out that there's still some confusion in the industry, because 40 years ago when I started, pretty much everybody that came into the industry was a salesperson, and because we were in a commission-based transactional world. But that, over the 40 years that I've been around this, that's changed drastically, and we're more relational now, and most advisors charge fees, not commissions. And that has changed the conversation, and it changes the career path for young people, because they don't have to be salespeople. Because if we tell them they have to be salespeople, that usually scares them away. So I first have to remind the parents and the kids that these are not sales jobs. These are service jobs. We get to serve people holistically. And once they understand that, they start to say, you mean I can talk to people about my faith, and I can talk to people about what the Bible says about money and finances, whether I work with Christian clients or not? And the answer is yes.

And once that light bulb goes off, even the parents and the kids get excited about the career possibilities. That's great. Now, I did hear a little secret, Kurt, that if you're a student in one of your programs there at Liberty, it's actually a requirement to listen to this broadcast every day.

Is that right? Well, I teach personal finance, and then I also teach these financial planning courses. And yes, I do make them listen to your program. But part of it is, I want them to just start listening to you and what the Bible says about money and finances. I love the fact that when you answer questions, you always answer it from a biblical worldview. And I want all students, not just the ones that are going to go into this as a career path, to kind of get that in their hearts and minds when they start out on this front end.

I don't want them to be like most of us Christians, me included, where that light bulb didn't go off until I was about 50, where I realized, hey, I should be paying attention to what the Bible says about money and finances in everything I do. And we're trying to train these kids right from the beginning now. And your program makes my job easy.

Kurt, we have just about 30 seconds left. I'm sure it's incredibly rewarding for you to see your former students now in financial services on mission for Jesus, isn't it? You know that for a fact, because obviously you've met some of my former students, and you get to hear their stories. And yeah, God has put me in a unique place here at a unique university.

And I'm just so grateful. And I would like to challenge. There's a lot of other people, maybe in the second half of their career and their lives, and they're just thinking about how they can give back in a different way. We need more people doing what I'm doing.

These universities, if they have one problem, it's they can't find enough people to serve these classes that they need. So let's challenge some people to come into this career path. I love it. Kurt, thanks for stopping by today, my friend. You're welcome, Rob. Love being here. That's Kurt Kornfield, Associate Professor of Financial Planning at Liberty University.

To find out more about his program and the other eight universities offering CFP and CKA, go to kingdomadvisors.com. Your calls are next, 800-525-7000. Stick around. Well, it's great to have you with us today on Faith and Finance Live here on Moody Radio.

I'm Rob West. It's time to take your calls and questions today on anything financial. We're ready for you. We want to help you apply God's wisdom, the principles and passages we see in scripture to the actual decisions, the practical decisions and choices you're making each day. You see, we have to start with our identity in Christ, recognizing God owns it all and we're managers of his resources and we find our identity not in the things of this world, but in Christ.

And when we start with that idea and then take an eternal perspective to then apply the wisdom from the scriptures to all of our life's decisions and choices, but that includes our money, then we can make those practical daily decisions around our lifestyle and our spending plan, around our debt repayment and who we should owe money to and how much is appropriate, our giving and our long-term savings, looking at all of it through a biblical worldview. We want to help you do that on this program. So with the lines open right now, feel free to give us a call at 800-525-7000. We'd love to hear from you.

Let's begin today in Tampa, Florida. Rebecca, you'll be our first caller. Go right ahead. Do I pay tithes on money received from insurance claims for repairs? Okay, so you had damage to your property, Rebecca, and the insurance company made you whole? Is that what happened? Yes.

Okay. That would not be an increase. So if we step back and we say, okay, what is the purpose of the tithe? Well, if we look at the Old Testament principle of the tithe, it would be giving unto the Lord based on our increase. The word tithe means a 10th, and so we return that to the Lord on a systematic basis as he provides. So then we have to say, okay, what truly is our increase? Well, clearly that would be wages or an inheritance or a gift. All of that would be our increase. In this case, you suffered a loss based on damage to your property, and as a wise steward, you had insurance on that to offset that risk, and the insurance company then repaid you for that loss.

So because that insurance payment is offsetting that loss, there really isn't an increase there, and therefore, if we applied the principle of the tithe, it would not apply in this situation. Does that make sense? Yes, yes.

Thanks for clarification. Okay. Thank you for wanting to be a faithful steward in your giving, Rebecca, and for being on the program today. May the Lord bless you.

800-525-7000 is the number to call to Illinois. Hi, Jan. Go right ahead. Hi. I am a Christian. I am 76 years old.

I support my local church and other Christian ministries. I built a house with one of my daughters and her husband after my husband passed away, and I own half and they own the other half. I have another daughter. When I pass, my daughters will each get half of my half.

There is a discrepancy, however. One daughter says that half should be of the price we initially paid. I say it should be of the amount the house is worth at my passing, which will probably be much more. Yeah. So you would always want to consult with an attorney just to figure out exactly how this will be handled at your death, and you could certainly consult with a CPA as well.

But here's what I would say. The portion that's owned currently through either tenants in common would probably be the way that it's done, where you have each person owning 50%. Obviously, the value of that 50% is the market value at any given time. So when that asset is sold at any point, whether that's before or after your death, then that 50% that she owns, your daughter, would be worth whatever the market value is. In terms of the amount that would be received as an inheritance, again, at your death, the market value of that property would then be split among whoever your beneficiaries are, those who are going to receive your assets according to your will. So all of that would happen as of the date of death, and then at that point, each person who inherits that property, the decision could be made for that property to be held and continue to appreciate, or it could be sold and they would be paid out of the proceeds of the sale of the property based on their percentage of ownership. So it's really all based on the market value. Is she asking that question to determine any taxes that might be due, or is she trying to determine something else? No, not really what the taxes, no. No, just at the time of my death, how should we debate that?

I see. Yeah, and so at your death, the asset is worth whatever the market will bear at that time, and then each person would be entitled, let's say it was sold immediately after your death, they would be entitled to the percentage that's spelled out in your will, or if this property is in a trust, it would be handled that way. And basically your will would say, okay, if your portion is worth 50%, then the market value as of your date of death, 50% of that market value would then be divided among your heirs that are named in your will to receive your portion of the property. And that would be not the original purchase price value.

It would be the value as of the market value as of the date of your death that they would be entitled to. Okay. That's what I thought. Thank you for clarifying that from there. I really appreciate it. Happy to do it, Jan. Thanks for calling and being on the program today. We appreciate it very much. Quickly to, well, we'll stay in Illinois to Glenview. Hi, Karen, go ahead.

Hi, Rob. Thank you so much for taking my call. I have two questions. The first one is I've already maxed my I bond for this next year. And I did one previous last year, but what I understand is I received a $3,600 refund from the federal government. And I thought I heard you say that you can add that to your I bond even though you've met the maximum 10,000 for the year.

But I'm not sure if that's true. It is, but it would have had to go directly into the I bond as a part of your refund. You don't receive it and then turn around. You would actually fill out form 8888 and allow that to be designated into the I bonds. And that would allow you to purchase an additional 5,000 over and above the 10,000 that you already put in. Given that you haven't done that or you didn't designate that, it wouldn't be able to be done at this point.

But I'm not disappointed about that because I think the I bonds are not nearly as attractive now as they were a few months ago. I know you have a part two, so stay on the line. We're going to take a break, but we'll be right back with your additional question. Well, it's great to have you with us today on Faith and Finance Live.

I'm Rob West. We're taking your calls and questions today on anything financial. We've got some lines open.

We'd love to hear from you. 800-525-7000. Again, 800-525-7000. Give us a call.

Back to Glenview, Illinois. Just before the break, we were talking to Karen about her I bond account. She was asking about the ability to fund beyond the 10,000 annual maximum. And what I had shared, Karen, was that you have to do that directly from your tax refund.

You can't receive it and then put it in. It would have had to been designated on a special form that you wanted it to go straight into an I bond account. Although I'm not disappointed if you didn't take advantage of that, simply because with the current rate down lower than it has been previously, they're not as attractive right now. At 4.3%, you can do better in, let's say, a 10-month or a 12-month CD. You could get over 5% right now. So I think the I bond composite rate will continue to fall as the consumer price index falls, and therefore, it's probably not a bad thing that you didn't add to it. But give me your thoughts on that, and then I know you had a second question.

I agree with you. Thank you so much for your input on whether or not, even if I could add to the I bond, I should. So I looked on the bank rate site, and I did find I have my investment at Sachs, Goldman Sachs. And I did see both Marcus and Forebright have are paying five, Forebright is paying 5.20. And Marcus is paying 5% on CDs.

And I guess these one is a one year one is a nine month. So I wanted to ask your opinion on that, if you think that's the better way to go. I like a CD option a lot. I mean, we have very attractive rates right now. I mean, the only downside is you're not going to get a long term return on that.

So you're probably talking a year. And at that point, if rates are coming down, those very attractive rates won't be more as readily available. So if you want a longer term play, you may want to look at a bond portfolio or a bond portfolio with a maybe a smaller allocation to stocks that is going to introduce more risk into the equation. But it has greater long term growth potential, whereas the CD is paying a very attractive rate right now with no risk. I mean, it's ultimate safety with the backing of the U.S. government and the FDIC insurance. But it's temporary and probably won't be around in the years following this as you try to roll it over year after year. So that would be the only consideration. But I like really any bank that has FDIC insurance would be fine as long as it's one of the larger ones. Okay. But you're right about it might be better just to put it in with the rest of the investment instead of parceling it out in the CD.

Yeah, I think that's right. Unless there was some reason to do it, you needed more ready access to it. If you needed the money in, let's say, three years or less, then absolutely, that'd be the way to go. But if it's money, you just don't see yourself needing any time soon and you can have a five or better yet a 10 year time horizon on it. Then I think taking advantage of these attractive stock prices, but even more importantly, if you want to be more conservative, the bond prices where the bonds are actually going to increase, the bond prices will go up as the interest rates fall.

And we know they will at some point either later this year or next. And you're going to be able to take advantage of those higher yields. That to me is a better long term strategy, whether you do that yourself or you have an advisor help you with it. Thank you. Thank you so much. And for an advisor, you recommend going to the Kingdom Advisor site.

That's right. Or you could just head to our website at faithfi.com. That's faithfi.com.

And then just click on the top of the page. It says, find a CKA and Certified Kingdom Advisor is the designation we trust for men and women who have met high standards and character and competence and integrity. But also, they've been trained to bring a biblical worldview of financial decision making. But you still say I should interview or talk to more than one? I would, yeah. It's a big decision. You want to find somebody you have a good rapport with that you feel like, you know, it really meets who you'd like to work with or, you know, working with you on how you want to be communicated with, the frequency.

And so I think when you're making a big decision like this, you know, interviewing two or three makes some sense. And we provided some questions there that might be helpful to you as you do that interviewing. Again, it's all at faithfi.com. And then just click find a CKA.

Thank you so much for your help. You're welcome, Karen. God bless you.

To Grand Rapids. Hey, Jonathan, go ahead, sir. Hi, Rob. This is Jonathan.

I have a question. So my girlfriend has been renting for a few years now. And so she has, she's in her career. She's been in her career for two years. I'm a student.

I'm born into my sophomore year. She is sick of renting. So she's had a thought across her mind, would it be cheaper to, to buy a house in the hopes to sell it?

Or to keep renting? And she's like, this is like for like 44 or five years, and she's just trying to figure out what would be the best financial decision? Yeah, so she really wants the opportunity to be able to sell this home in as soon as four years. Is that what I'm hearing?

Yes. Yeah, I would probably say not to buy at that point. You know, typically three to five years would be a fine time horizon in a typical market.

I think in this kind of market that we're in right now, five to seven years is really more likely in terms of you needing to be able to hold it for that period of time to be able to get your money back. The challenge is buying and selling real estate is very costly, the transaction costs, the taxes involved, you know, you've got to have a title insurance policy. So there are costs involved and they can be significant. And in light of that, especially given where we are right now with the housing market still being very high and we don't see it growing tremendously more, but I also don't see it declining because even though we have higher interest rates in a looming recession, we still have a lack of inventory nationally. We don't have enough homes in this country for all the people looking for them, namely the millennials that are buying a single family homes and those moving out of densely populated urban areas to suburban areas, they're now working remotely. And as a result, we just need more homes, probably two to 3 million in this country. And so in light of that, I think prices will stay elevated, but they could dip slightly. And so if she needed to get out of it in three or four years, she may find a situation where she's actually selling it at a loss. When you factor in all the costs involved, the buying and selling the property on the front end and the back end. And so I think for that reason, just given her time horizon, I'd probably continue to rent if it were me.

Okay. And instead, even if so, if she did decide to go and buy a house, she would say at least hold on to that house for five to seven years, right? That would be ideal just given where housing prices are. Would she need to borrow, take out a mortgage in order to do this? Yes, I'm not sure if her finances.

Yeah. So that's the only other consideration is just given where rates are right now, a year from now, she may be in a better spot with interest rates a little bit lower. So that would be the other thing is to consider delaying this purchase until interest rates come back down. But I think the bottom line is if she's got a and we never know right what the Lord has in store. And so she may need to sell sooner. But if she thinks she could stay for five to seven years and she's got at least 20% for the down payment and the debt service on it, the mortgage, including the taxes and insurance were no more than 25% of her take home pay, then it's certainly something she could consider at that point. I think she just needs to be careful recognizing her window is a little bit shorter than I would typically like it.

And there are significant costs to both buy and sell. And she needs to factor that in as she thinks about it. I hope that's helpful to you, Jonathan.

You sound like a great boyfriend helping her think through this right now. And thanks for being on the program today. Hey, we're going to take a quick break when we come back. Bill and Valparaiso, Vicki and Naperville are coming your way.

Plus perhaps your questions. Give us a call right now. 800-525-7000. One more segment on Faith and Finance Live just around the corner. Stay with us. Great to have you with us today on Faith and Finance Live. Hey, before we head back to the phones, let me mention as we head toward our fiscal year end here at Faith and Finance June the 30th, we would really value your financial support.

You see, this ministry is listener supported. It's a not for profit ministry and therefore your tax deductible gifts go a long way to helping us serve God's people in this area of financial stewardship. And as we head toward June the 30th, your gift right now of any amount is really important to help us finish the year strong and prepare for another year of ministry beginning July the 1st. And so we would welcome any gift, and I mean that, of any size at faithfi.com. Just click the give button. Again, faithfi.com. Just click give and thanks in advance. Alright, back to the phones.

We go to Valparaiso, Illinois. Hi, Bill. Go ahead, sir. Hi. Thank you for taking my call.

Thanks for your ministry. You do finances. My question is I met with a financial advisor and he was recommending annuities. And I've always stayed away from them. And I am retired. I was wondering your thoughts on it.

Yeah. You know, I'm not a big fan of annuities. They, you know, the highlight is that they offer guaranteed income in retirement. And if you're looking for a guaranteed amount of income by putting a certain lump sum into an annuity and then converting that to an income stream either immediately or down the road, you know, that can be something that's desirable for folks who are wanting to transfer the risk away from themselves in, let's say, the stock market to an insurance company and just know that they have that guaranteed income for life for themselves or themselves and a spouse. You know, there are different varieties of annuities, although that's a downside because they are complicated. So you have to understand what you're buying. And there is some tax deferred growth that can be a benefit.

But I think the downside is they are complex. There are high fees and you lose access to your money if you need it early, at least without surrender penalties. So I think for that reason, I'm always my bias is toward doing your investing in investment products where you're managing the risk either yourself or with an advisor through diversification and selecting the right investments. So they're, you know, consistent with your risk tolerance, but keeping full access to your money and not having a lot of high fees and complexity that come with an insurance product. But again, I wouldn't say that there's never an opportunity or a place for an annuity. I think it really just depends on what is the primary objective of this?

Is it something you're seeking out because it meets a need or is it something that's being sold to you? And, you know, obviously that would not be why I would want to buy an annuity. But give me your thoughts, Bill. Well, thank you.

I'm on the same page as you and they do have high fees and you do turn your money over to an insurance company. And it was brought up to me to protect the amount of money I do have that we're living on and retiring. So, well, and I can certainly understand that.

I think that you need to explore, though, the alternative. How much money would we be talking about? Well, I was only thinking about giving them a couple of hundred thousand. Yeah. And how much would you still have outside of that in liquid investable assets? Oh, about four hundred thousand.

OK. Yeah. So you'd still have plenty of funds available. And do you have income that meets your obligations right now without counting on this roughly half a million dollars? Or do you need an income stream in order to meet your monthly living expenses?

Well, yes, we do have Social Security and we do take a little bit out every month to live on from it. And we're going to think about if I went with that annuity, I'd switch over my income per month with that. Yeah. Yeah. OK.

Very good. Well, I think, I mean, at the very least, I would explore other alternatives. Again, my preference would be that you keep full access to your funds and just build a portfolio with an advisor that makes sense. But I think, you know, ultimately, if having the peace of mind where a portion of this is generating the income that you need to perhaps meet your obligation. So now you don't have to worry about the market because you know, your bills are covered and you still have the majority of your assets available, you know, outside of an annuity product.

I could get on board with that. I think it's really just what gives you the most peace of mind. So I think from this point forward, I would probably talk to a few advisors just to compare this to some alternatives, pray it through and then make your final decision.

Yeah, I do have a regular advisor I work with. This was a new one. He has a Christian background and was recommended with a friend. So then when he threw that at me, I thought, OK, I got to take a couple steps back and do a little more research on it. Sure. Yeah, that makes some sense. Well, I think, you know, ultimately this is the decision you need to be comfortable with. So I would take my thoughts and advice and, you know, continue to seek wise counsel, pray through it and make the decision that feels the best to you and your wife.

But that's at least my thoughts on it. Hopefully that's helpful to you, Bill. We appreciate you calling today. God bless you, sir.

To Naperville. Hi, Vicki, go ahead. Hi.

Thanks, Rob. I have a question. I got an inheritance from my father and we have about one hundred and fifty thousand dollars to invest for. And and so we're not sure what to do with it. Somebody mentioned to me investing in a contract with livestock. And and so I'm wondering if you've heard of this.

It's a guaranteed return. And what's your thoughts are about it? And and we do have an emergency fund. We are currently both of us are working. We plan to retire in the next four years or so. So we don't need the money now, but we want to be wise with it.

And I'm wondering what your thoughts are. We still owe about one hundred and seventy thousand dollars in our house and our emergency fund is about sixty thousand. But we have my father's inheritance in there right now because it's sailing May and we can transfer it quickly. OK. All right.

Very good. So how much is the inheritance that you're receiving? It's it's about we have about one hundred and fifty to invest.

One hundred fifty thousand. OK. And what are your main goals with this money? As you just kind of look at your overall financial life, what is it that you really want to accomplish with it? Great question. We don't need the money now. So we would like to put it in a place where it could make the most yield.

OK. All right. And what would you think would be the time horizon on that? I would say probably five years, four or five years when we retire, probably. OK. And at that point, might you want to use the full amount to, let's say, retire the mortgage or do something else with it? Or do you see this money just being money you'd continue to grow and tap much further down the road?

Yeah, I would say probably continue to grow. OK. And do you have an adviser that you use to manage any other investments? Yes. Raymond James. OK.

Very good. You know, I would probably just have that adviser bring this, you know, these investable assets in as a part of your overall investment strategy. And if you needed to carve this out for some other purpose other than just kind of being involved in your full investment plan for retirement, then he could or she could approach it a little bit differently. But if you really, you know, you don't have any specific purpose for it, you're not looking to retire debt with it, you've got your 401k, then it really just becomes a part of the overall assets that you have. And, you know, he's already managing those. And I wouldn't see why you just wouldn't roll this into that in terms of being invested in the same way that the rest of it is.

Thank you. Have you heard of investing in livestock contracts? You know, I'm familiar with the concept, but I would certainly not be someone to weigh in on, you know, the viability of that, especially at this point in time. I just don't have a working knowledge of whether, you know, that would be a good thing or a bad at this, you know, during this time. So I would find somebody who's a lot more specialized in their knowledge of that area, for sure. Hmm. OK.

I'm not sure who that would be, but OK. Yeah. Perhaps your adviser could help you locate somebody who has maybe a more specialized knowledge in that area. But unfortunately, I do not. But I'm delighted to hear that you're thinking strategically about how to handle this money and certainly appreciate you checking in with us today. May the Lord bless you, Vicki. And if we can help further along the way, don't hesitate to reach out quickly to Aurora. Tom, I have just about two minutes left.

Go ahead, sir. OK. We have two homes, one home in Illinois, one home in Florida, and we go back and forth and we are retired. We've been able to maintain both homes for a number of years, but we're eating into our IRA gradually. I'm looking at how to free up the equity in the homes. One home in Illinois is 100 percent clear and mortgage free. The one in Florida has about 50 percent of total equity. And I've considered looking at reverse mortgages. I'm not happy with that one necessarily, but also I looked at what an ATA and work up something like that, a home equity agreement between one of my daughters.

I know one would like to have the home in Florida and just wondering what's the best way to get equity out of a home, still be able to maintain live in both of them. And then at some point, pop on or death, how we divide with the kids. Yeah. And so you're looking for an income stream from this, is that right? Yeah, I have an IRA. We have pension.

I have Social Security and my wife does. And we've been able to maintain the homes. But, you know, it's with medical bills and things that come up. We've been taking more out of the IRA than we would like and taxes and everything going up. So we're just looking how can we free up the equity in the homes? They both have equity. Yeah.

Yeah, very good. You know, and when you looked at the the reverse mortgage, you just weren't pleased with the fees associated with it. Is that right? Yeah, I'm not sure I understand it more with the fees. And I think you can only get like 60 percent of your home equity. And so I was looking a little bit more at the ATA with one of my daughters, who would probably bite into the share of the equity of the home. And then upon our death, I would split it with the other daughter. Yeah, that would probably be the best option where if she's going to inherit it anyway, she could go ahead and take it now.

You just have to factor in the tax consequences of that. Let's do this. I'll have my team get your number and I'll get you in touch with somebody who can help you process this a little more fully. There's a lot of complexity involved in this. And unfortunately, I'm out of time today. So you stay on the line. Give us your information and we'll get somebody to reach out to you. Faith in Finance Live is a partnership between Moody Radio and FaithFi. We'll see you tomorrow. Bye bye.