Assessing Your Financial Health

Here's a question for you. How many things can you do with money? A thousand? A million? A billion?

Or would you believe four? I am Rob West. That's right, there are really only four things you can do with money, and tracking them is a great way to assess your financial health. I'll talk about that with Sharon Epps today, and then it's on to your calls at 800-525-7000.

That's 800-525-7000. This is Faith and Finance Live, biblical wisdom for your financial decisions. Well, it's always a treat to have my friend and colleague, Kingdom Advisors President Sharon Epps on the program. Sharon, great to have you with us. Thanks, Rob. Now, you're here today, Sharon, to explain just how it is that you can only do four things with money, because I'm sure by now a lot of folks are curious. So let's dive into exactly what we're talking about.

Well, you're right. There's only four things that we can do with money. We can live, give, owe, and grow.

Pretty memorable. Live, give, owe, and grow. And we like to illustrate live, give, owe, grow as a pie. So think about a pie for a minute.

Perhaps think about what happened when your brother cut a big old piece of a pie at your grandma's house. You got less, right? There was a limited amount that the pie would cover, and it always would add to 100%. And when he got more, that meant you got less. Well, the same is true with our finances.

When you cut a bigger piece of the live slice, the remaining give, owe, grow pieces have to be smaller. So if we spend more on our lifestyle or the live piece of the pie, it reduces the amount available for giving, paying debt, or saving. In fact, the live, give, owe, grow pie principle works whether you have $10,000, $100,000, or a million dollars in income. Right. Your pie may be larger or smaller than someone else's, but the pieces should never exceed 100% if you're going to achieve financial health. Yeah, that's really helpful and a great visual. The pie is only so big, and if you make one piece bigger, the others have to get smaller. And really what that comes down to is competing priorities for our income, right? That's exactly right. Now let's remind ourselves of biblical principles.

I always like to start here. Okay. Psalm 24 one, the earth is the Lord's and everything in it, or as we like to say, God owns it all. That's right. Our role is to be wise stewards of the entire live, give, owe, grow pie. And the question that I frequently ask is what would God have me do with his money?

Yes. And each of us need to determine our personal convictions on this issue. We talk about that a lot on faith and finance and a personal conviction is a well thought out and prayerfully determined decision between you, your spouse and the Lord. And so God doesn't tell us a specific amount of money that we should spend on living expenses, or we can call them lifestyle expenses, but we do have guidance from biblical principles and from other people who had been wise money managers. And it's helpful to have some indicators along the way that will help you avoid the pitfalls of poor lifestyle decision making.

Yeah. So if this is something we work out between us and God, having some of those indicators can be really helpful. So what are some of those so that I know my living expenses are maybe in a healthy range? Well, we've observed that living expenses are the ones that are oftentimes the most difficult to control.

There's always one more thing we need or want to buy for the house, one more club soccer payment, more new clothes for the kids, et cetera. However, we have found that within those living expenses, there's three key categories that are indicators of financial health in this live slice of the pie. And those three categories are our housing, our car and our food. In fact, we call these categories the big three. After counseling with thousands of families, we found that if the big three are out of control, that it's very difficult to follow the biblical principle of spending less than you earn so that you can build margin.

Yeah. And simply, and we'll unpack this more after the break, but at a high level, how would we know if our big three are out of control? Well, we've learned it's very difficult to have balance in your live, give, grow pie chart if the big three, your house, car and food expenses exceed 65% of your take home pay. In fact, I would say you're in the red zone if you're over 65%.

All right. So we're going to talk after the break about how you actually determine your big three percentage, because as Sharon said, one of the biggest areas that cause problems in financial management is the live area of your pie. And if these three are more than 65%, your house, your car and your food expenses, it's going to be really challenging to balance the rest of the budget.

We'll unpack this more with Sharon Apps, president of Kingdom Advisors just around the corner, and then your calls, the number 800-525-7000. We'll be right back. Did you know there's only four things you can do with money? That is live, give, owe and grow.

That's right. Seemingly endless decisions about money can be boiled down to those four. Hi, I'm Rob West. I'm joined today by Sharon Apps, my colleague here at Kingdom Advisors. Sharon serves as president of Kingdom Advisors, and she joins us today to talk about a specific area of those four, the live category. And Sharon, just before the break, you were saying that the big three can really create the most problems when it comes to balancing the budget.

So just recap that for us. Well, the big three are your housing expenses, your car expenses and your food. And just a reminder, it keeps this whole live, give, owe, grow pie in sync or in financial health when your big three are also healthy because they represent such a big portion of whatever size pie that you have. So let's talk about the big three percentage.

How do I get that? I've mentioned before the break that I'm in the red zone if those are over 65% of my take home pay. Well, how do I how do I figure that out?

So let me unpack that for just a minute. First of all, when we talk about housing, it's not just your mortgage payment. We want to include all the expenses related to your house. So your electric bill, your water bill, any of those expenses that are directly attributable to your house would go into this housing category.

And then secondly, the same goes for your car. It's not just a car payment if you have one, but it would also include your gas and your insurance expenses as well. So total housing plus total transportation, and then your total food expense add together to be your big three. Now we promise you don't have to do too much math here. We'll try to keep it pretty simple. But basically house plus car plus food, that total, and then I just divide it by my monthly household net income.

So you don't have to worry about taxes or any of that. But just whatever your take home pay is, that would be the denominator of that equation. And I do have one helpful hint for you here.

If you're a FaFi app user, this gets really simple, because all you have to do if you're using the envelope portion of the app, you just take the sum of your housing, transportation and food envelopes, and you've got your number. So it's a really quick calculation. And so I mentioned the red zone. And I think it's helpful to use a stoplight and those colors to give you some health indicators. And so if your big three are greater than 65% of your take home pay, like we talked about, you're in the red zone. If they're between, let's say 55 and 65% of your take home pay, I would just call that the yellow zone, some caution might be required. And then if it's less than 55% of your take home pay, you're probably in the green zone and pretty comfortable. Yeah, this is really helpful. And I know can give a really important indicator as to where we're at with that live portion of our spending. So Sharon, obviously, the next question is, then what do I do if I find myself in the red zone? Well, first of all, let me emphasize this is simply an indicator and not a score.

The red zone is just like a stoplight. It says it's time to stop and perhaps ask yourself some questions. So a few of those questions would be, do I own more house than I can afford? Perhaps I've purchased larger or in a more expensive market. And that's contributing to me being in the red zone. Have I purchased cars that are more expensive than I really need?

And are there things that I'm doing that I could control food expenses? So those are some questions that you can stop and ask yourself when you find yourself in this red zone. And I might add just one note. I realize there's areas of the country where these big three, particularly housing, are more challenging to stay in control. And so you may have to be a little bit more creative. But the whole point is it's not a legislation that you can't go over 65. We're just saying when you're over 65, it's hard to balance the rest.

Yeah, that's exactly right. Now, obviously, food would be a little easier to right size. It's going to be a little more challenging with your car. And then, of course, with your house may require some more planning. And yet, if there's a glaring indicator that says I've got a problem balancing my budget, it may come to selling a house or a car, right?

It has before. But there's even some other creative solutions. We have listeners that have started driving Uber to get more value out of their car.

We have listeners that have opened up their home, perhaps in a season when they're away from the home, using it for Airbnb, or perhaps having an in-law suite up over a garage that they could rent out. So there's not just one solution. And part of tackling this is getting creative on how do I solve this red zone issue? And I think the reason that that's so critical is that these decisions have a long-term impact. In fact, Larry Burkett, who was a mentor to many of us, like to say that every spending decision is a spiritual decision. And if we look at our financial transactions, it really helps us see what our priorities are. Yeah. Let's take that one step further. Some folks may be listening saying, how are my daily decisions on spending at the grocery store and on my, you know, no matter what decisions I'm making, how are those ultimately reflection of where I'm at spiritually?

I think that is a great question. And really it helped. The pie is the best illustration to help you see that. Anytime I make a decision to spend on my family, I'm investing in my family. But when I go beyond that to wants and desires, it also has an opportunity cost that it may mean that I have less to give.

It may mean that I have less to pay off debt. And so the reason that this pie visual is so helpful is it helps us realize the more we do in one area, it restricts less. And ultimately at the end of the day, we just have to remember it's God's money and we have to ask him what he wants us to do with it. Oh, that's such good advice.

Well, Sharon, I'm convinced. And if our listeners are too, what can they do to really determine whether they're in the red, yellow or green zone in this area? Well, I'm grateful that at Faith and Finance, we have a free assessment to help you better understand your big three live category. In fact, you can simply go to faithfi.com slash live and you'll find a simple assessment that you can take as well as really helpful content to help take you on your next step to move that red back down to yellow and green. That's great.

So they can just head to faithfi.com forward slash live and take that quick assessment and see where their big three are. And then the key is that gives you the tools to make some decisions. And obviously, if you're married, Sharon, you need to get on the same page with your spouse about this, right? Yeah, you absolutely do.

And we also want you to know that if the tools and if the content isn't enough, please contact us because we can help put you with someone who will help you work through your individual situation. Yeah. The key though, is if these areas are in order, it's going to make it that much easier to take the rest of the pie and really use it according to your values and priorities, right?

It is. And I'd love to tease forward a little bit because in future weeks and months, we'll come back and talk about the other parts of the pie and ways you can assess your health there as well. Yeah, that's great. Well, Sharon, I really appreciate you stopping by today.

You know, this is where the rubber meets the road. And I know you've counseled with hundreds and hundreds of families. And when we get this area right, and we can have some margin, and we're giving according to our values, it just has a ripple effect throughout every other area of our life, including our walk with the Lord, right?

And it results in the peace and the contentment that the Lord would have for us. Oh, that's so good. Well, thanks for stopping by today and bringing these insights to us today.

You're welcome. That's Sharon Epps, President of Kingdom Advisors. If you want to learn more about your Big Three and even get your financial health indicator, you can do that at faithfi.com forward slash live faithfi.com forward slash L-I-V-E. Hey folks, I've asked Sharon to stick around and help me answer your questions. So give us a call at 800-525-7000. This is Faith and Finance Live, and we'll be back after this brief break. Glad to have you with us today on Faith and Finance Live.

I'm Rob West with me today, Sharon Epps. We're taking your calls and questions now on anything financial. We'd love to hear from you. 800-525-7000. We've got some lines open today.

Again, 800-525-7000. You know, here on this program, our goal is to be an encouragement to you, to point you back to God's word, to help you understand the big themes and passages from scripture, applying a biblical worldview to your financial decisions each day so you can make them with confidence and live with peace of mind and freedom and contentment, holding God's resources loosely, giving generously, saving appropriately. That's what we want to help you do each day on this broadcast.

And whatever your specific questions are financially today, we look forward to tackling those. Sharon, a moment ago, you mentioned the late Larry Burkett, and I'm reminded that Larry's homegoing is going to be 20 years as of July the 4th, which is hard to believe. It really is unbelievable. And still amazing as well that folks reference Larry literally every week, which just gives you a glimpse into the impact that he had. And I know you were one of the recipients of Larry's ministry having worked very closely with him. What's something that stands out about the life of Larry Burkett? You know, what's most meaningful to me is actually that he was exactly the same person off the air that he was on and that his life was one of integrity and he wholeheartedly desire for people to use God's resources, God's way.

Hmm. That's so true. And you hear that anytime anyone mentions Larry. He was also brilliant, was he? A lot of people don't realize he was actually a NASA rocket scientist, wasn't he? Yes.

I mean, so when you talk about somebody being a rocket scientist, he literally was. Yeah, that's amazing. Well, we certainly are grateful and only heaven will tell us the true impact that Larry had. But we celebrate that and know we walk in some big shoes here on this program.

All right. Let's take some phone calls today. We're ready to dive in.

Eight hundred five, two, five, seven thousand will begin in Ohio. Mike, thank you for calling today, sir. Go right ahead. Oh, yes. I have a question as far as opening credit cards where they give you like promotional or special perks, like, say, where you get two hundred fifty dollars if you spend like, say, five hundred dollars in the first three months or something.

Yeah. If I were to do that, take advantage of that perk and like, say, keep the card open for maybe six months, close it and then do another promotional card or something. What's your take on that?

Oh, Mike, that's a great question. In fact, there's a lot of exciting perks that the credit card companies are offering. Just remember, they offer it because they're used to making money off of it. And it requires a lot of discipline to be sure that you take advantage of the offer without them taking advantage of you. So a couple of things that I'd recommend is, one, be sure that you understand all of the terms and conditions. Some require that you charge a certain amount over the period of time, the promotional period of time. I've even seen some that require that you maintain a balance, which we would not recommend. So just be sure that you understand all of those details and then also be aware that your credit score can be impacted by opening and closing a lot of accounts.

To be really honest, I typically will do this once a year when I see a really good deal, but I try to limit it at the most once a year, probably even once every couple of years, because it does play with your credit score. So be sure to be aware of that as well. Mike, thanks for your call today. I hope that helps you. NerdWallet, creditcards.com, both of those could be great resources, but I think Sharon's right. Let's really limit that practice so you don't get in the habit of opening and closing those accounts too often. You know, we started today by talking about, Sharon, the big three, transportation, housing and food.

If you can keep those under 65% of your total spendable income, it's really going to help set you up for success with the rest of your financial life. By the way, if you'd like to take our free assessment to see how you come out in that area with some practical suggestions based on where you fall, just head to faithfi.com forward slash L I V E. That's faithfi.com forward slash live. Philip in Nashville wants to talk about those big three. Philip, go right ahead. Yes.

Thank you for having me on. I just had a question on the food aspect. How do you categorize that?

Could you break that up for me? Does that include groceries plus eating out, things like that? Yes, we typically do. And the reason for that is most American families these days use eating out as a regular part of their routine. And so it really does fall.

Some think it's maybe an entertainment expense, but what I've found is that because it typically happens several times a week, it needs to fall into that food category so that you're looking at it as your ongoing regular monthly expenses. Philip, thanks for your call today. Quickly to Wildwood, Florida. I know it well. Lynn, go right ahead. Hi, thank you for taking my call. I love your show. It's so helpful. Thank you. But my question today is about car insurance. As you know, the state of Florida, I guess, is doing a lot of changes.

So it's been high and I don't know if there's something that I could cut down on that, that I'm insured for or what to do. I've checked some other companies, but it's no better. Yeah. How old is your car, Lynn, if you don't mind me asking? It's a 2012. Okay.

So it's a bit older. Yeah, I think the first question is at some point, would you be able to drop the comprehensive portion of that? And typically we would just look at the value of the car for that. But beyond that, I think the key is to try to take advantage of any group discounts that may be available to you.

AAA comes to mind. You could look at whether taking an online safety course from the department or division of motor vehicles would help you. You can always increase your deductible, especially if you have that emergency fund fully funded. And that way you could essentially fund that portion that you're dropping or by increasing that deductible, that portion that you would now be responsible for, knowing that that would come out of your emergency fund, but you could save every month on the premium as that deductible goes up.

And then finally, as you just said, you've been looking, make sure you do look around every two to three years. I realize there's more to an insurance provider than just the price. There's the service and the reliability and all of that. But you do want to recognize that a lot of times for the newer customers, they will offer the most competitive and aggressive rates.

So shopping it around every two to three years to make sure you're getting a fair price is probably something that is worth doing. I know it's challenging there in the state of Florida, but hopefully those ideas will help you, Lynn. We appreciate you calling. We've got some lines open today. The number to call 800-525-7000.

Again, that's 800-525-7000. Rob West and Sharon Epps with you today on Faith and Finance Live. Stay with us.

We'll be right back. Great to have you with us today on Faith and Finance Live. Rob West and Sharon Epps, president of Kingdom Advisor, sitting in with me today as we take your calls and questions. We've got some lines open.

We'd love to hear from you. What are you thinking about financially today? Give us a call at 800-525-7000. We'll help you apply God's wisdom from the Bible to your financial decisions and see if you can move forward with confidence.

800-525-7000 is the number to call. By the way, we opened the program today talking about your big three. That is food, housing, and transportation.

That can really be a budget buster, those three combined, especially if they're over 65%. Where do you fall? Well, take our free assessment at faithfi.com forward slash L-I-V-E. You know, we love hearing from so many of you who are being impacted by this broadcast on a daily basis, not because of the wisdom we share, but because we bring principles right out of God's Word to help you apply practically to your financial decisions. And those testimonies are always an encouragement to us.

In fact, listen to what this listener had to say. In 2017, I was on the verge of bankruptcy, about to lose everything I had. I worked in the pipeline industry for several, several years, and that's what's kind of up and down, you know, you pay and everything.

We'd work a while and be off the wallet. Anyway, I just got really tired of being in debt, and I just prayed about it, and I said, okay, Lord, if you open the door, we'll do it, you know. And I've been working ever since.

I started out in 2017 with $220,000 in debt, and today I'm down to about $47,000. Wow, man. God has been faithful, man.

He's been faithful. Well, we celebrate testimonies like that here at Faith in Finance, and you may not know, but we have a fiscal year in coming up on Friday, June the 30th. That's the end of our year, and we are in a campaign to fund more stories like this. Currently, we've got about a $20,000 gap that we're trying to close, and we are just so grateful for those of you that have benefited from this ministry, that want to pay it forward for others so that the Lord can work in their story like they did in the one we just heard.

That's right. You can just head to faithfi.com. Just click the Give button. That's faithfi.com.

Click Give. All right, let's head back to the phones. By the way, a few lines open today. 800-525-7000. You can get in right now, and we'd love to get you on the program today. 800-525-7000. To Idaho we go. Hi, Andrew. Thanks for your patience. Go ahead.

Yeah, thank you. I got a set, well, it wasn't really, it was settlement, so there were some construction workers. They caught my house on fire, and I got a $200,000 settlement for my house, and because I know how to do construction work myself, I basically, it only took me about $4,500 to make my house livable again, so I got basically the rest of that, and I got a really good job to where I'm debt-free. I don't have any debt whatsoever, no car payment, no nothing, and just wondered where to put that. I got about $189,000, and right now it's just, all of it is sitting in a bank account at one of those high, you know, interest rates. It's like four point something percent interest, and I don't know where to put where to put it.

Yes. Well, I'm glad to hear that you were okay, and that you were able to use the skills God has given you to repair the home, and now you've got some decisions to make about how to use this money, and Sharon, you know, this is something we hear often, which is just, how do I allocate God's resources? What is the priority use of this money that I have available?

How do you help folks navigate that? Well, I'll go back to the live, give, owe, grow construct that we talked about a little bit earlier. Andrew, it sounds like based on what you've told us so far, that your living expenses are covered, and boy, we want to celebrate with you the fact that you don't have any debt. So the live and the owe are covered, so that leaves the categories of give and grow.

So my question for you would be, let's start with the grow category. Do you have an emergency fund, perhaps three to six months of your living expenses set aside in addition to the settlement money? I do, yeah. I had that before that. I mean, I was doing really good before my house caught on fire. I mean, I guess I'm still doing good. Thank God I had my parents and property and a 35-foot fifth wheel for me and my wife, two kids and two dogs to go live in. Oh my goodness. Well, we are glad about that, and we're also so thankful that you're doing okay. I think this is one of those opportunities where God's given you a windfall and an unfortunate circumstance.

We certainly don't celebrate that. But now that you have this money, you have an opportunity to ask him what your priorities would be. Is there a cause or a nonprofit that you'd like to bless with a portion of it? Would you like to invest part of it either for future goals or for your retirement? And I think with this amount, you would be helped by having a financial advisor to talk to and walk through and make sure that your use of the money is matching your values and your goals. And we certainly would recommend that you could go to faithfi.com and search for Find a CK to help you walk through some of those decisions. How's that sound, Andrew?

Yeah, no, that sounds good. And I do, I want to tithe. And right now, with a minimum of 20 grand, I do go to church.

I know that they're, they're, they're doing really good. They're, you know, they're not in need. And I do want to tithe off of it. And I do want to give because ultimately, it's his anyways. And, and I have been, you know, talking with my wife, and also praying about it where God would have me to help or give or support. My parents are doing good. My, my family's doing good. I do want to put some away. I have five children. I do want to put some away for them. To talk to a King advisor, that would be great.

That's great. Well, as Sharon said, just head to faithfi.com. Just click Find a CKA. We would encourage you to interview two or three, find the one that's the best fit. There's even a list of questions there that might be helpful as you interview those advisors. And if you have you know, we want to make sure that you're able to really follow the leading of the Lord and Sharon, you mentioned giving according to maybe the passions that you have. How would you encourage somebody in terms of uncovering what giving opportunities may exist that they may have missed? You know, my favorite question to ask is what need do you see in the world that just breaks your heart? There are so many out there, but the Lord seems to put in each of us a passion for a particular need, whether that's the homeless or for foster care or water for basic needs.

What does the Lord maybe put on your heart that this gives you an opportunity to invest in in a very direct way? Yeah, that's great, Andrew. Thanks for your call. Quickly to Arlington Heights. Hi, Catherine. Go right ahead.

Thank you for taking that call. I have a question about credit unions. I know banks are insured by FDIC. Credit unions, are they just as safe to put your money in a CD there or a bank account there as in a bank? It is as long as it's insured by the NCUA, which is the FDIC equivalent for credit unions. There are a small number of credit unions that would be privately chartered and those would have private insurance by the American Share Insurance Company.

It's the only insurer doing this in the U.S. now and they've never lost money, but I would feel better if you were at a credit union that had NCUA coverage and that's backed by the full faith and credit of the United States government, just like the FDIC. So you can go into that with peace of mind. Again, that's NCUA.

That's what you'd be looking for. By the way, for those of you who want to do business, banking business with a credit union that aligns with your Christian values, check out the Christian Community Credit Union at joinchristiancommunity.com. I know more and more believers are looking for alignment in the companies they do business with, specifically in this area of a banking partner, joinchristiancommunity.com. We're going to take a quick break. Sharon and I back with more of your questions just after this.

Stay with us. Delighted to have you with us today on Faith and Finance Live where we apply the wisdom from God's Word to your financial decisions and choices. You know, folks, God owns it all. Therefore, you're stewards. I'm a steward. Sharon's a steward of God's resources.

So in order to steward God's money effectively, we have to know the heart of the master, which is why we go back to God's Word to encourage you and equip you with principles that you can apply in your financial decision making. We're doing that today with your calls and questions. Let's head right back to the phones to Allianz, Ohio. Hey Brian, you'll be our next caller, sir. Go ahead.

Hi, good afternoon. I'm talking about a student loan that I co-signed on for my son and it looks like he's going to default on this loan and I can't quite afford to make the payments. I want to know what my options are to have the loan restructured, interest rate reduced, or what should I do? Well, I am so sorry he is facing that. Brian, tell me a little bit about your relationship and one of the things we're always concerned about is not just the money decision but the relationship as well.

It has been good up until recently. He does have some problems with I do believe depression. We haven't gotten very far with trying to resolve that. He's kind of isolated himself from myself and the rest of his family for the last almost a year and this is kind of when it all started with him to stop making payments on his loan. I did pick up the payments when I could but it's going to be a struggle. Well, it does sound like he has a hardship there. The first thing I would recommend is have you contacted the lender to describe the hardship situation and see if there's an option to refinance.

I have not done that yet. That's where I always like to start is going straight to the one that you owe or that he owes but you do as well as a co-signer. Explain the situation, express your commitment to repay the debt but your need for assistance in perhaps a different payment term and see what they will work with you on. Yeah, so the interest rate in July is going to be bumped up to 10% which that is now getting kind of high. Yes, yes, yeah definitely go to them. Let's see what they say before you take other steps because they may be willing to work with you knowing that there's a specific hardship situation. Yeah, is this a private loan Brian versus a federal loan?

It is a private loan through a credit union. Yeah, okay so I think yeah as Sharon said look at that refinance option. Have you talked to your son? Do you believe things might change and he might be able to step in and take part of this burden or all of it back over at some point in the future?

I don't see that changing at this time. I've had trouble trying to communicate with him and get through to him. He's really as isolated. I know he is working.

He was out of work for a little while. Okay, yeah well unfortunately you know as you co-sign this you know you're carrying this obligation with equal responsibility and so they're going to damage your credit just at the same time they're going to damage his if this doesn't get paid. Not to mention the fact that we just want to honor these obligations and so I think Sharon's advice is the best one in a difficult situation. We'll certainly ask our faith and finance community to be praying for you as you navigate this Brian. We know this is challenging. Sharon before we go to another call you know this is why the Bible speaks so plainly to co-signing and really has nothing good to say. In fact it's very clear we should stay away from it.

Well the money part of it is very important but the relationship part is too and that's why I started with that question because so often in these situations unforeseen things come up and it can impact the relationship. Yeah the FTC tells this as much as 50 percent of the time you will have to take over the payments for a loan that you co-sign for if you do it which is why the Bible speaks against it. Spring Hills Florida. Hey John go ahead sir. Hello thank you. I'm calling because my wife and I have managed to accumulate a little bit of debt somewhere around like maybe the three thousand dollar range and so we have some savings that we could just pay it off with but primarily my question is should I be using that savings to pay that off and continuing to or just prevent there from actually being debt accumulation or should we make that payment and then kind of be done with that?

John that's such a great question. Tell me this if you use savings to pay it off would you have three to six months living expenses left over or would it take all of your savings? So no I wouldn't be able to have the three to six months it wouldn't take all of it but I wouldn't be able to have that security net. Okay well we really recommend that you keep that emergency fund in place in fact I like to call the emergency fund your debt insurance because what often happens with credit card debt is you use all your savings you pay off the credit card and in the next month or two an emergency will come up and you're back in that cycle again so my recommendation would be keep your savings but make a dedicated effort with any extra money that you can find to accelerate that credit card debt you'd be surprised how often just maybe by skipping a meal out to eat or perhaps foregoing an expense that you could delay till later it gives you money that you can put towards that debt and I really appreciate how you're focused on trying to get it paid. Yeah you're right at the threshold where you may benefit from Christian Credit Counselors our friends at christiancreditcounselors.org could help you get those interest rates reduced or the interest rate reduced if it's just one card which would allow more of the money you're sending every month to go right to principal you could even accelerate it if you have that margin that Sharon was talking about but that will help you pay it off quicker and as she said preserve your emergency savings they'll even even help you set up a budget so I would check that out get them at least to run an illustration it's christiancreditcounselors.org. To Indiana Chris go right ahead sir. Hi Rob, Sharon I appreciate the show it's a blessing to have a godly financial program. Well thank you. I wanted to ask you guys about freezing credit I was talking to my brother a month ago or so and he told me did that I'd never heard about that so just wanted your opinion. Yeah I think you know certainly if your account has been compromised certainly if you've had any identity theft it's a no-brainer but even for folks that haven't gone down that road and it's certainly not pleasant if you do it's a free service you'd have to approach each of the three credit bureaus directly Experian Equifax and TransUnion based on legislation that passed a couple of years ago now there's no charge for it and essentially it would establish a pin number kind of like you know we have so often with you know two-factor security with web accounts it would establish a pin number for your credit file so if somebody tried to assume your identity open an account fraudulently in your name they would be stopped in their tracks because the lender wouldn't be able to access your credit file or for the purpose of extending credit to this fraudster because they wouldn't have your pin number so it's the only hiccup there is it's going to add a little more complexity if you're out seeking credit you want to buy a new car or you know buy a house or get a credit card but as long as you're willing to live with that it'll provide some additional security and given the rise of identity theft here in this country I think that would go a long way to helping you have some peace of mind Rob I keep mine frozen and in fact needed to unfreeze it the other day and for a creditor to look at something it literally took me about five minutes so it's not too bad all right Chris what do you think that's what I was going to ask you guys so just be a matter of contacting all three of those then if I did want to try to purchase something or take that off uh freeze that's correct you just go directly to that that either Equifax transient or Experian online and literally you can just say unfreeze my account it usually happens in about 30 seconds to a minute I appreciate your guys' help all right thanks for your call Chris we appreciate you my friend and thanks for your kind remarks about the program to Illinois hi Diane go ahead hi thanks for taking my call okay so I have come into a situation where my daughter is 16 she needs a car my car is about 180 000 miles it's paid off I've come to get a car a gentleman had passed away so I'm going to pick up his car at a good price and I wanted to know if it would be a good idea to then turn it over to a car dealer they would give me much not a lot more but they would give me more than what I would pay for it so it'd be like flipping it and then use a little bit of that equity from what they give me to buy a new car for my does this yeah does this person who's letting you buy this car below market value understand that that's what he's doing um well um like it was in probate so the person handling it you know she she just wants to get rid of it so I'm getting it at a good deal okay all right uh I mean used car prices are up right now and so if they truly are allowing you to buy it below market and you can take it I mean it's an asset so we would evaluate that in light of any other asset that you might have and if you can convert that into a profit and then turn around and roll that into a another car purchase that fits your needs so it's you know the age you're looking for the make and model the reliability the ongoing you know maintenance costs and this helps you get into that car as long as that person's you know giving this to you in good faith and you can take and convert that into a cash that you could then deploy into another purchase you know that makes some sense to me and they're not doing it to me I am taking it sure yeah you know I understand you're just buying it slightly below market Sharon Diane quickly the only other thing you might consider is if that's a known car that you know has a good history and it was reliable it might be something to think about keeping it rather than flipping it because when you go and buy another car you don't always know its history and what the repairs might be on it I would buy new because it would be for myself and I travel quite a bit it's just a bigger car and my daughter is just 16 and I think it's too much of a car for her gotcha yep that makes sense well hope that's our best advice to today Diane so make sure you understand what you're getting into but yeah if you can take that and convert that into something that you can reinvest in the right car for you and your daughter that can certainly work thanks for calling today Kathy Noel I apologize we didn't get to your call today if you all would like to be on the program we can certainly get your information and get you back on real soon thanks for calling today Sharon always a joy to be with you thanks for stopping by you're welcome great day well folks if you want to participate in our free assessment for the big three where we started today do that at faithfi.com forward slash l i v e thanks to my team today Tahira Charles Amy and Jim couldn't do it without them on behalf of Sharon Epps I'm Rob West faith and finance live is a partnership between moody radio and faith five we'll see you tomorrow bye-bye