FAFSA Deadline Fast Approaching

If you have a child heading off to college in the fall, time is running out to apply for financial assistance.

I am Rob West. Of course, I'm talking about the Free Application for Federal Student Aid Forum, known as FAFSA. If you haven't filed it yet, you still have time, but not much. I'll talk about that first today, and then it's on to your calls at 800-500-4200. That's 800-525-7000.

This is Faith and Finance Live, biblical wisdom for your financial decisions. Okay, the deadline for submitting your FAFSA is this Friday, June 30th. Fortunately, you can fill one out and file it online at fafsa.gov.

That's f-a-f-s-a dot gov. Submitting a FAFSA is the necessary first step in receiving either grant or loan money from the Department of Education. It's easy to get loan money, but obviously you want to borrow as little as possible.

Many graduates take decades to pay off their student loans and dearly wish they'd borrowed less. Now, let's go over the types of aid that you might receive by filling out a FAFSA. First, there's the Federal Pell Grant. This is an income-based grant program for full or part-time undergrad students, but exceptions are made for students seeking a post-grad teacher certification. The less your family income, the more likely you are to receive a Pell Grant, which could be as much as $7,400 for 2023. Next is the Federal Supplemental Educational Opportunity Grant. This one's administered by individual schools, but not all participate, so you may want to check with your school's financial aid office. It's also income-based with a maximum grant of $4,000 a year. If you plan on being a teacher, you'll want to look into the Teacher Education Assistance for College and Higher Education Grant. With the convenient acronym TEACH, qualifying for a TEACH grant could get you up to $4,000 a year, but you'll be required to complete a teaching service obligation. Failure to fulfill that obligation will get the grant converted to a loan and you'll have to pay it back with interest, so make sure you're committed to teaching before you accept the money. Next is the Iraq and Afghanistan Service Grant.

If you've lost a parent or guardian due to military service in those countries and you were under the age of 24 or attending college at the time, you could be eligible for up to $7,400 for 2023. Now, since you'll be filing at this late date for the 23-24 academic year, a lot of the available grant money has probably been disbursed, so you're much more likely to receive assistance in the form of federal work-study programs. These are funded by the feds, but administered by the schools. As the name implies, they provide undergrad and graduate students with the chance to work and earn money for their education expenses. The work could be related to your major and may not necessarily be located on campus.

With these work-study jobs, you'd earn at least the federal minimum wage and possibly more depending on the job. Again, check with your school's financial aid office for details and availability. Now, we get into the dangerous area of federal financial assistance, student loans. I say dangerous because the system makes it incredibly easy to borrow, both for students and their parents. College students graduating in 2023 who took out loans owe an average of nearly $30,000.

The average length of time to pay that off will be around 10 years with a monthly payment of just under $300. Of course, a great many students borrow more than that and take longer to pay it back. Worse, many students who borrow fail to get a degree that could lead to a higher salary, meaning it will be even more difficult and take longer for them to repay their loans. The lesson here is, of course, borrow as little as possible, and if you do borrow, make sure you graduate. Then, make sure you graduate with a degree that gives you marketable skills that employers are willing to pay you for.

It's great to pursue dreams, but attending college is as much a financial decision as anything else. Remember Proverbs 22, 7, the borrower is slave to the lender. That said, here are the types of loans that could be offered after filling out the FAFSA. First, the federal direct subsidized loan. This is needs-based and allows you to skip interest payments while you're in school. Then there's the federal direct unsubsidized loan.

This one isn't needs-based, so basically anyone can get it. Finally, the federal parent plus loan, no mystery here. Parents take out these loans to put their children through school, but we don't recommend it.

Your child will have many more years to pay the money back than you will. Again, the deadline for submitting a FAFSA is this Friday. Your calls are next, 800-525-7000. We'll be right back. Great to have you with us today on Faith and Finance Live.

I'm Rob West, your host. We're taking your calls and questions now on anything financial. We can turn the corner from college savings and talk about whatever you're thinking about financially. I'm sure there's something that was rolling around in your mind over the weekend related to balancing your budget. Maybe it's communicating with your spouse about money.

Maybe it's your long-term savings, dumping debt, or your investments, whatever it might be. Give us a call today. We'd love to hear from you. 800-525-7000 is the number to call.

Again, that's 800-525-7000. We've got some lines open today, and we'd love to tackle your financial questions. We'll also be taking some of your emails today.

We hear from you every week at AskRobAtFaithFi.com. We're grateful when we do. We try to get a few of them on the air as often as we can. Also today, Bob Doll stops by in our final segment.

He'll update us on the markets and the economy as we begin a new week, tell us what he's looking at, and update us on what's happening economically. Speaking of those emails I mentioned a moment ago, let's tackle one of those. This one comes from Carol. Here's what she writes. Rob, the Bible is very clear on helping widows in their afflictions, but what do you do when the affliction is a romance scam? My sister is a widow who got involved with a romance scam. She sold her house and car and gave all her money to the scammer.

To this day, she truly believes he is going to build a mansion for her. How do you help someone who's still has blinders over her eyes? Wow, Carol, what a heartbreaking situation. I'm glad to hear your thinking and praying thoughtfully about how you can come alongside her. I know this is heartbreaking because it seems so obvious and yet she's wrapped up in it and can't see what's going on here.

A couple of thoughts. Number one, pray. Ask God to open her eyes to this situation that the person would reveal himself and that she would see clearly what's going on. Number two, you might consider bringing in a third party, perhaps an advisor, maybe a pastor or a trusted friend to explain to your sister what's going on here.

Often people have difficulty accepting advice from family members, especially siblings, so that third party person that could step in and provide some counsel, perhaps help her see what's really going on here could be really helpful. Also, it won't be hard to find examples of this scam online. Perhaps if you know the circumstances, maybe the language that was being used, some of the specifics around what has been told to her by this person who's been engaging her electronically in a romantic relationship, perhaps you could find one that parallels her own journey because oftentimes they use the same tactics. And if you presented examples of what is going on in, you know, very commonly now through these romance scams, perhaps she would begin to identify, oh, wait a minute, this is very similar to what many others are facing. And perhaps I've gotten wrapped up in something that is entirely scam related.

So those are just a few suggestions. Of course, if she won't accept your advice, all you can do is just love her and be there for when she finally realizes she's been scammed to the extent you're able at that point. Perhaps you can help her get back on her feet. But the most important thing you can do is just show her the love of Christ without ever saying, I told you so.

I know she's headed for a huge heartbreak and betrayal and will need your support down the road. So Carol, thank you for writing to us today. And I hope that's helpful. We'll ask the faith and finance community to be praying for you as you navigate this difficult situation with your sister. All right, lines are open 800-525-7000. That's the number to call today. And we'd love to hear from you with whatever you're thinking about financially. One more quick email before we turn our attention to the phones.

This one comes from Mark. What are your opinions on getting student loans to pay for a car if your credit score is low? I would I would have to pay after graduation in two years or so. You know, I'm not wild about using student loans to pay for education, let alone buying a car. You need to borrow as little as possible on the way to getting a degree that gives you marketable skills. So here's what I would do in terms of getting that credit score up.

Perhaps you're added as an authorized user on a parent's account. That would be one option. You don't get the card, you just inherit the good credit.

That potentially could help the situation. Secondly, would be to get a secured credit card. Mark, that would give you the option to put a budgeted item on that account that hits it every month. You pay it off in full. And in doing so that positive credit history that's reported to your report each month would in fact help you build your credit over time.

So I would look at doing that. That's called a secured credit card. You'd have to put a certain amount on deposit with the bank in order to be issued that card. But then you could again put that budgeted item, pay it off every month, might be just a few dollars every month. But that positive head credit history is going to help you rebuild.

And then in the meantime, maybe you're using public transportation, finding a carpool, taking classes online, doing whatever you need to do to buy without student loans. That's going to be my best advice today. All right. We appreciate you writing to us again. If you have a question, feel free to send it along at any time to ask Rob at faithfi.com. Let's head to the phones to Cleveland, Ohio.

Grayson, you'll be our first caller today. Go ahead. How are you? I'm doing great. Thanks.

All right. My question is, I want to apply for another credit card. I have a debt like $12,000. And what I'm trying to do is apply to pay that off without any interest. And they said that they would give it to me for 21 months. So if I pay on it, and up to the 21 months, will I be responsible if I pay for the fee, not the fee, but the interest before the loan or after the loan is up? Will I be responsible for that if I don't pay it off?

Let me make sure I understand your question. So you want to do a balance transfer to a card that's offering 0% interest for 21 months. And you're wondering, if you don't pay it off in its entirety by the end of 21 months, will you be charged retroactively for all of the interest that you had been paying previously?

Yeah. Oftentimes, in some cases, it will be retroactive. In others, you would just be charged interest on the balance from that point forward, whatever is remaining. So you'd need to check the fine print. Bottom line is, I don't love this approach to paying off debt. I understand it's attractive in that you say, well, listen, why wouldn't I take advantage of this offer to be able to do this interest free for a pretty good period of time?

Number one, there's going to be a fee, a balance transfer fee, 2% or 3% of the balance. So they're insured that amount, even if you do pay it off. Often, when the pressure is taken off by the removal of the interest, you have less incentive to pay it off. So my experience is you won't.

That's just what I've watched and observed. And it also doesn't require that you really resolve the issue that led to the debt in the first place, which is likely overspending without a balanced budget or spending plan. So my preference, Grayson, even though it will cost a little bit more over the long haul because we're not eliminating the interest, is to go through debt management, what's called a credit counseling program with our friends at christiancreditcounselors.org. In fact, a little later in the program, we're going to play a testimony from one of our listeners who used Christian Credit Counselors with $14,000 in credit card debt, got it completely paid off, and she talks about just how incredible of a blessing it was. That's the better approach, I think, because they'll help you get on a budget, get the interest rate down, and you don't have to play the balance transfer game moving forward. Their web address is christiancreditcounselors.org.

And that's going to be my preferred approach for you to pay this off once and for all. God bless you, my friend. We'll be right back with more calls and questions right after this. Great to have you with us today on Faith and Finance Live. I'm Rob West, taking your calls and questions with a few lines open today, 800-525-7000. We'd love to hear from you.

All right, let's head to Minnesota. Hi, Tina. Thanks for calling. Go right ahead. Hi, Rob. First of all, thank you so much for all you're doing.

Definitely these photos in the background as well. My question today is we bought a second home. And so the question is, would it be wise to start paying on the principal or is it better to invest that money? My husband is 64. I'm 59.

He's planning on retiring next year. It's a 30-year mortgage and it's at 2.75. Okay, so it's two and three quarters and you said this is your second home. Does that mean you're free and clear on your first mortgage or excuse me, on your primary residence?

That is correct. Great. And then are you all planning to move into this home when you fully retire both of you or is this always going to be a second home?

This will probably always be a second home as it is kind of big for the both of us. It is rented at this time. I see. Okay. And are you able to cover the mortgage with the rental income? Yes.

Okay. And do you plan to continue to rent it enough each year to do that, to cover the mortgage in full and then you'll just enjoy it a few times a year or do you think that that will change? The plan is to have it full-time rented. Okay, great. Yeah, and then on the off weeks when you don't have it rented or something, then you all can enjoy it. Is that the idea? That would be the perfect scenario, yes. Yeah, sounds good. All right, now talk to me about retirement.

You said it's not very far away for both of you. Do you have enough in retirement savings such that that plus Social Security would be able to cover your expenses? Yes, according to our financial advisor, yes.

Okay, great. And what kind of surplus do you have right now that you're considering applying toward paying down this mortgage? Probably anywhere from between $10,000 to $20,000.

Per year? No, that's what I have right now to put toward it if I need it. Oh, I see. Okay. It would be a good investment.

Got it. And then what about do you have additional liquid savings beyond the $10,000 to $20,000? We have a fancy savings account and then we have our regular investments like our 401k and the Roth.

Okay, very good. How much do you have total in savings outside of those retirement accounts and investments? Probably close to $30,000 right now. Okay, so if you were to put $10,000 to $20,000 toward the house, you'd be down to only $10,000 in those investments, right? Or not in the investments, but in savings.

That's correct. Okay. All right. And what are your monthly expenses today roughly? Well, we don't have any debts, any credit card debts or anything. We do pay that off. So it really depends on how much we spend on going out.

And other than that, I would say probably about, I honestly don't know. We don't have any car payments. So just the regular bills, electric, gas.

Yeah. Maybe a couple of thousand a month. I don't even think we would spend that much a month, but yeah, let's say $10,000 a month. And do you normally have something left over Tina that you're putting into savings each month? Yes.

Right now I am investing 25% of my income and my husband is probably doing about the same. Okay. All right.

Yeah. You know, I'm not feeling the urgency to pay this mortgage off just because the interest rate is so low and it's a rental property that's essentially paying for itself. It was, if it was your primary residence, I'd say, absolutely. Let's pay it off as soon as we can so we can get rid of that mortgage payment and get your monthly expenses down, especially as you head into retirement. But given that it's cash flowing well and you've been able to cover all the expenses, I look at it as a business and just saying, Hey, that business is doing what it was intended to do, which is every month you're building equity through the use of the rental income. And so I think the better question is, what is the priority use of this money? I think number one would always be, we can increase our giving. Number two would be just to double back with your advisor to say, you know what, do we need to continue to build this retirement nest egg up a little quicker than we are right now?

If not, well, that's great. Then number three would be, are there any other savings goals that we have? Do we have a car that's going to need to be replaced in the next, let's say, you know, year or two? And we'd rather do that with cash. And we don't want to pull from our investments. So let's move that over into the car fund. Do we want to take a big vacation that we haven't planned for, don't have the money for?

Something like that. If all of those are no, like, you know, we've got all of that covered, then absolutely. It's never a bad idea to pay down debt. But given that this thing is covering itself, I think making sure you have adequate emergency reserves, making sure you are, in fact, on track for retirement, and then making sure you've covered your short and medium term savings goals, like my example of replacing an automobile.

Those would come first, unless you said, Rob, we just feel a real conviction from the Lord to be debt free 100%. And if that was the case, I'd say go for it and don't look back. So I know I'm not giving you a definitive answer here, Tina, but does that all make sense? It absolutely does. And actually, you answered my question because my husband is looking at a new vehicle, he would love to have a new vehicle before he retired.

And we also are looking at a vacation we have never taken. So you've definitely answered both. Well, I think that makes a lot of sense. You're so welcome, Tina. We appreciate you calling today and grateful for your testimony of being a faithful steward.

You guys are very well planned and God certainly has been faithful and it sounds like you've managed his resources quite well. So we appreciate you being on the program today. God bless you. Folks, we're going to take a quick break. Can we come back? More of your questions.

We've got some great ones from Aaron and Sally and Kylie and room for a few more at 800-525-7000. Much more to come on Faith and Finance Live. Stay with us. Great to have you with us today on Faith and Finance Live.

I'm Rob West. You know, it's always a joy when we hear from so many of you where God is at work in your financial lives using the wisdom you hear from this program, not the wisdom from me, but the wisdom from God's word that we have the privilege of sharing with you each day to encourage you in your stewardship journey and our partners that are so influential in helping you in wherever God is taking you, including those of you who are looking to pay down debt to be free of the encumbrances of debt so you can respond to the leading of the Lord. Well, we heard an incredible testimony recently of one of you that have experienced just that.

Take a listen. I started listening several years ago and I was in terrible credit card debt and I just felt like I was drowning. I couldn't get out and I was so depressed and so stressed. I heard Rob talk about pushing credit counselors and I was in the program for three years and they thought that it was going to take me four and a half years to pay back my 14 grand in credit card debt. The program was so wonderful and my counselor was so encouraging and I was so motivated by the program and so many of my behaviors changed throughout the process. I became debt free last month. It completely changed everything about the way I handle money. I just wanted to express how much I appreciate the program and Christian credit counselors. What a blessing to hear those stories.

I love how she changed it, how she said it changed everything including her behaviors, how she was handling money. My experience is it'll actually even change your spiritual walk. As you get your finances in order, it has a ripple effect into every other area of your life, including your intimacy with the Lord.

There's just something about bringing all of that under his authority. We're so thankful for those of you who share your stories with us. By the way, as we head toward the end of our fiscal year, which is June the 30th this week, it's a critical time for support for this ministry. Because we're listener supported, we rely on your gifts to do what we do every day on this broadcast. If you consider a gift, maybe you consider yourself a part of the Faith and Finance Live family and you have the ability beyond the giving to your local church and Moody Radio to make a gift here to Faith and Finance, we'd certainly appreciate it.

A gift of any amount would go a long way to helping us close the gap and finish the year strong. You can do that on the web at faithfi.com. Just click the give button. Again, that's faithfi.com. Just click give.

Thanks in advance. All right, back to the phones we go to Springfield, Missouri. Hi, Aaron. Thanks for your patience. Go ahead. Hi, thank you for taking my call.

I just had a question. My wife and I, we started a business earlier this year. And we were thinking about, like how we want to save for retirement. And just because we won't have access to a 401k or anything like that. I want to see what your advice would be on the wisest way to save up for retirement, whether it be a Roth IRA or something else.

Yeah, that's great. So I definitely would be looking at a retirement savings vehicle alongside the business. Now, of course, you've got to be realistic about it. But the business itself could be a part of your retirement plan, if you would have the ability to sell it down the road. Each industry approaches valuation of a business differently. So of course, you'd have to get some professional expertise for somebody to say what your business may be worth down the road. So you have a realistic expectation of that.

But of course, that could be factored in. But I love the idea of you all, as you're able, and a lot of times when you start a new business, you're not able to in the early years, but as you're able for you all to take and direct a portion of what you're bringing in over to a retirement savings account, so you can have some funds growing tax deferred separate from the business. You could look at absolutely a Roth IRA between you and your wife.

Under the age of 50, you could put in 13,000 this year, over the age of 50, you could put in 14,000, that would certainly be a great start. Beyond that, you could look at opening what's called a simple IRA. That's a simple IRA, and that would be really easy to put in place. And if you had employees down the road, it would give you the ability to put in some funds for them as well. The employee contribution limit for a simple in 2023 is 15,500.

So that would be a great option for you. You could also look at what's called an individual K, which is basically just the version of a 401K that's for individuals, or one other option would be what's called a SEP IRA, S-E-P IRA. That allows you to put away quite a bit more money, and it's very simple to open. With a SEP IRA, you can put in 25% of your total compensation, or a maximum of $66,000, whichever is less, and that's for the tax year 2023. So if it were me, I would say, let's start with the Roth IRA and fund one of each for you and your wife, 6,500 each in those Roth IRAs. And then beyond that, if you were looking to have something that you could also make available to employees, probably go the SEP IRA route. If you didn't, then I would look at a simple IRA if you wanted to include employees.

If you don't, and this is just for you, then I'd look at the SEP IRA, which would allow you to put away quite a bit more money. Does that make sense? Yeah, absolutely. That was extremely helpful. Thank you so much. Sure.

You're welcome, Aaron. Listen, what line of business are you in? Tell me about what you all are doing. Yeah, my wife and I, we started up a Christian organization.

So we mainly send out free resources and Christian resources like Bibles and things like that. Cool. Oh, that's great. Well, all the best to you guys as you get started. I'm sure it's slow going in the early days, but I love the fact that alongside this, you're thinking about how you can use these really critical years while you're working and have the ability for compounding to work for you to put away some extra resources.

So hopefully that helps you. Thanks for calling today, Aaron, and God bless you and your wife and your new endeavors. It sounds like an incredible opportunity.

To Indianapolis. Hi, Sally. Go ahead. Hi.

I am wondering what the best investment option would be for my child just to set up her own investment account to use when she's older. Okay. So this isn't specifically for college. This would just be to have it more widely available? Exactly. Yes.

Okay. And the only thing I would consider is whether you want to keep this in your name, even though it would be a separate account earmarked for her, and therefore you can control when she gets access to it, or you want to go ahead and put it in her name in a custodial account. The only thing you just need to be aware of there is that, you know, at the age of majority in your state, typically 18, it's her asset.

She wants to buy a sports car, she can. So which do you feel like would be the better option? The first option. So I would keep it in my name. And how would I include her in that?

Yeah. So basically, you would just have it in your name individually. Or if you wanted to do joint with your husband, if you're married, then you could do that. But you would have it in a completely separate account. Legally, it's your asset, not hers.

But you all would just know that you've earmarked this money for her. And then you've got a couple of options in terms of how to approach the investments. If you want to really help her learn about investing, one approach would be to say, I want you to go out and pick the companies that you'd like to invest in. They may or may not be the best ones. I mean, you want to make sure they align with your values.

But in terms of performance, they may or may or may not be the best. But it allows her to take an interest in it and to start to watch the companies and see how they're doing to learn how investing works. The other option is through probably a robo-advisor that's going to build a diversified portfolio. So let's do this. I'm going to give you both of those options, but I've got to hit a break. So we'll do that offline. You stay on the line, and we'll talk a bit more off the air. We'll be right back on Faith and Finance Live. Hey, great to have you with us today on Faith and Finance Live.

I'm Rob West. Joining me today in the final segment of the broadcast here, my good friend Bob Doll. He joins us each Monday with his market analysis and commentary.

Bob is chief investment officer at Crossmark Global Investments. Bob, I was looking at your dolls deliberations this week, and I know you always calculate the year-to-date return for the major indexes. And, you know, the S&P is up 14 percent this year, NASDAQ nearly 30 percent. You'd look at those numbers and think, well, everything must be OK, right?

We're having a great year. The problem is, as you know, Rob, the average stock's only up a few percent, horribly lagging those averages. And other averages like the Dow Jones Industrial Average or the Russell 2000 measure for small stocks are barely changed on the year. So it's been the march of the generals, the Big Ten stocks, as it were. And everything else has sort of been left in the dust.

Yeah. Well, Bob, I know we're starting to see some weakening manufacturing data is starting to show some cracks. Jobless claims rose last week. Two hundred sixty four thousand new jobless claims. And yet there are still some bright spots, namely housing.

Tell us what's going on there. Yeah, housing, as you may have seen, Rob, the housing monthly statistics up 22 percent for the month of May. That's the strongest we've seen in well over a year. So this fear of recession in housing and higher interest rates causing housing to cave in just aren't happening. Part of the problem is the supply of new homes is a lot less than the demand. And so despite some weakness in the economy, people are still looking for homes.

Yeah, no doubt about it. Well, Bob, as I mentioned, there are, though, of course, some signs that the economy is deteriorating. And you mentioned one of the key economic indicators in this week's deliberations as well. So give us a read on where you think we're at in light of the prospect of a recession. You know, the the leading economic indicators for recession, frankly, we've talked about that almost since the first of the year, Rob, are all pointing in the wrong direction. But those leading indicators have yet to be felt in the overall economy.

It's a very dichotomous period. I suspect a lot of that traces back to the unusual nature of the pandemic and the closure and then the money being spent and the macroeconomic data, the patterns that we folks look at over time is very much skewed in a direction we've not seen before. And that's while you are seeing some deterioration, some of the things you mentioned, by and large, the economy's still OK. We're clearly not in a recession as we speak. But the lead indicators tell many of us who've been around for a while, don't get don't get lazy and thinking there is no economic weakness to come. Yeah, well, and what complicates matters even further is the fact that, as you said, signs are pointing toward the likelihood of some sort of recession, even mild. But even then, stocks are still very expensive, aren't they?

That is probably part of the problem. Even for those who don't think we're going to have recession, they have to justify why we're paying 21 times P.E. on trailing earnings and almost 20 times forward earnings. They're high numbers relative to history. And as I said, if you if you have all concerns about economic weakness and earnings weakness, swallowing that valuation is very difficult.

It's one of the things that's in the bear camp. Yeah, no doubt about it. All right. So summarize where we're at then here halfway through the year. So I would say from an investor standpoint, you need to be invested. You need to have some money in stocks, money in bonds, having some cash returning 5 percent. That's OK, too.

Just make sure the equity position you own, you're you're careful and you have a short leash on it should the recession that we just talked about rear its ugly head and we see a downdraft in earnings and therefore stock prices. Very good. Bob, I know you're on the road. Safe travels to you.

We appreciate you stopping by. Have a great week. Bye. All right. That's Bob Doll, chief investment officer at Crossmark Global Investments.

You can sign up for his weekly investment commentary. It's called The Dolls Deliberations and you'll find it at Crossmark Global Dotcom. All right. Let's round out the program today with as many questions as we can get to to Elgin, Illinois. Hi, Kylie. Thank you for calling. Go ahead. Hi.

How are you? Thank you for taking my call. Absolutely.

OK. So I'm curious if you have any information on the decision with the Supreme Court for student loan forgiveness. Yeah, well, they're expected to rule this week on the president's plan to forgive four hundred billion dollars in student loans. We won't talk about whether or not I like the idea of it. Let's just stay focused on whether we think it's going to pass. Many legal experts, Kylie, are skeptical that the Supreme Court will rule in favor of the administration. Let's say if the president, any president can give away four hundred billion dollar in taxpayer money, it violates the principle of the separation of powers.

Congress much has to approve expenditures first and it hasn't given the president that authority. That's at least the argument. So we're we're probably going to get some more information this week on it. OK, well, I appreciate that. And can you give me any information of where to watch for that or just listen to you?

Oh, yes, certainly. You will keep you posted here. It's going to be all over the news, Kylie.

You will have a hard time missing it once that decision comes out, because this is one that a lot of people are watching for just because it affects so many people and it's such a significant sum of money. I appreciate your time and thank you so much. All right, Kylie. God bless you. Yes, ma'am.

To Indianapolis. Hey, Kathleen, go right ahead. Hi.

Thank you for taking my call. I have a we have a ton and I mean a ton. I mean, maybe hundreds of thousands of dollars of coins that are in a safety deposit box. And, you know, they're all they're uncirculated coins, you know, the wrap and the white paper and also a lot of cash that we have in a safe. And with everything going the way it's going and going to non no cash anywhere.

What should we do? Yeah. Well, you know, first of all, I would say I think cash will still be in use for quite a long time, even if we got a central bank digital currency, a digital dollar. And that's a big if just because it's going to require Congress to get involved. And there's a lot of reasons why a lot of congressional leaders are skeptical just because of the loss of privacy and control by the U.S. government into our daily financial transactions. But even if we got that, it would likely just exist alongside paper dollars.

It would just be the digital form of the dollar. But I would just say in terms of these coins, if you don't need this money and you're not you don't have an inordinate amount in precious metals. Keep in mind, we typically recommend of an overall investable asset portfolio. Generally, about 10 percent is all you would want to have in the precious metals just because it tends to be a bit more volatile.

It doesn't generate income and it doesn't appreciate, you know, over the long haul as well as a properly diversified stock and bond portfolio. That said, I like precious metals and generally speaking, these coins should increase in value. And so, you know, I would say hanging on to them is never a bad idea. If you want to get the coins appraised, a couple of places you could check out for getting an appraisal would be the professional coin grading service PCGS or the numismatic guarantee corporation, the NGC. Either of those could direct you to a reputable appraiser that could tell you what you have. We don't endorse any coin appraisal service specifically, but those two tend to come up a lot when you do a search in their national organization. So I would say overall, as long as you're not too highly concentrated in the precious metals, it's probably not a bad idea to hang on to these.

But if it were me, I'd want to know how much I have and maybe that's your next project is to get these appraised just so you understand what you're sitting on and you could look at that in light of your total investable assets. I hope that helps you. Thanks for calling today. We appreciate it. To Idaho. Hi, Jesse, go ahead.

Hi, Rob. I was recently, well back in January, I came into some serious health complications, which left me with sepsis and ongoing neurological issues. Because of that, I have been able to continue my business that I've been running years. A term life insurance agent contacted me and told me to apply for the monthly waiver policy waiver since I'm unable to work right now. Um, he also said that there was a built in policy in, in mind, uh, that States, if I am unable to work, uh, I can actually cash out my term policy. Um, and he said it would be the amount of six to seven figures, um, would be the full amount of my policy. I didn't know if that's something I should pursue if I should just leave it alone.

Um, right now I don't know that I will be able to work a year from now, two years from now, just because this is ongoing and I still have, um, health issues. Um, so I'm just wondering what your thought was. Yeah. So this is, well, first of all, I'm so hard.

I'm sorry. Say that again. Oh, go ahead. Oh, I just, my, my other part of that was, I didn't know if there was taxation on that as well. And anyway, go ahead.

Got it. Uh, yeah. So, I mean, this is a complicated issue. I'm sorry to hear about your health status.

Um, I would certainly look into it. Is this death benefit needed if the Lord were to call you home and none of us know how many days or hours we have left. So he would call you home tomorrow. You know, is this provided needed, um, uh, death benefit for a loved one that's depending on your income. Yeah.

My husband and my children. Um, and I'm only 38, so that's, you know, yeah. And how, how many years do you have left on this term policy? Um, that I would have to look further into.

I think it does shut off a couple of decades from now, but it does. Okay. Yeah. I would. And it was, is it the life insurance agent that sold this to you? That's recommending it or someone else? Yes.

It's the agent that we got. Okay. Yeah.

I would sit down and look at that and then I'd probably get a second opinion on it as well from a certified kingdom advisor. Let's do this. I'm out of time, but stay on the line.

We'll talk a bit more off the air and we'll go from there. Thanks for your call today. Faith and finance lives, a partnership between Moody radio and faith five. Thank you for being along with us today. Grateful for Jim, Amy, and Dan as well. We'll see you tomorrow. God bless you.