Ask for Help, Glorify God

Why is it that so many of us are quick to help others, but we never dream of asking for it ourselves?

I am Rob West. Studies show that Christians are generous people, willing to help when we see a need. But do we hide our needs from others when we could use a hand? I'll talk about that 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. While many churches have benevolence funds to help, primarily members, get through a financial rough patch. And no doubt, most church members gladly support those funds and want to see them used wisely as needed. But I'll go out on a limb and say that a lot of folks who readily support their church having a benevolence fund would and have found it difficult to ask for help from it.

Now, why is that? Well, no doubt one reason is that we see asking for help as being a burden on others. We would gladly go without some necessity and maybe even see our families go without, rather than burden someone else. And yet Galatians 6, 2 says, bear one another's burdens and so fulfill the law of Christ. So you see, God never intended for us to be rugged individualists, going our own way.

He meant for us to live in a Christian community, centered around the local church and extending outward. God wants us to share each other's burdens. But that's not possible if we don't make ours known. Maybe we don't want to appear vulnerable or weak, so we keep our needs secret, telling no one that we need help. Or we might tell ourselves that others can't help us or don't want to.

Here, we must be careful because some of these reasons could be rooted in sin, the sin of pride. Proverbs 11, 2 tells us, When pride comes, then comes disgrace, but with the humble is wisdom. Well, no doubt, asking someone for help is a humbling experience.

We don't like it, especially if it's financial help, and especially if the need is the result of a poor decision or action we've made. Maybe the message there is that having to ask for help is the lesson you need to not make the mistake again. But even if your present difficulty is through no fault of your own, God can still use the experience to shape your character more like Christ, to teach you something you need to learn.

And it quite likely has to do with letting go of pride and surrendering yourself in humility to the Lord. While you may have surrendered to Christ as your Savior years ago, it often takes longer to surrender to Him as Lord over your life, especially over your finances. Some of us put that off as long as possible, but you can save yourself a lot of grief by not waiting until you hit some future financial bottom. So if you need short-term financial help, ask for it.

If you need financial advice, ask for it. God has no doubt put people in your life who can help. James 1-5 teaches if any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask God, who gives generously to all without reproach, and it will be given to him. Start with your church and let your needs be known. If no one in your church can help, the odds are decent that someone knows somebody outside the church who may want to help.

The body of Christ is a vast network of people and resources. Okay, we've gone over several reasons why you may not want to ask for help, but here are the main reasons why you should do it. It glorifies God.

How, you might ask? Well, first, asking others for help glorifies God because in our weakness, His strength is revealed. In 2 Corinthians 12-20, Paul writes, For when I am weak, then I am strong. When we are weak and admit it, we give others the opportunity to help. Conversely, if you keep quiet about your need, you deny others the chance to help, and they may really want to help. Ultimately, you deny God the opportunity to provide for you through others. When you find yourself in a difficult situation, you're more likely to go to God in prayer, asking Him for help.

The Bible encourages this. 1 John 5.14 teaches, If we ask anything according to His will, He hears us. When you pray for God's help according to His will, He will help. Not with bags of money falling from heaven, but through other people and circumstances. Maybe He provides a new opportunity for you to earn more. The point is, to get help, you have to ask for it, and that includes and begins with asking the Lord.

It's good to do because it not only glorifies the Father, it allows others to be generous as they're called to do. All right, your calls are next. The number 800-525-7000.

That's 800-525-7000. I'm Rob West and we'll be right back. Well, it's great to have you with us today on Faith and Finance Live.

I'm Rob West. It's time to take your calls and questions today on anything financial. The number to call is 800-525-7000. We've got some lines open here today. We'd love to hear from you again. 800-525-7000 with whatever is on your mind today financially speaking. Also today, we'll tackle a couple of your emails.

In fact, let's do one of those now. This comes from an anonymous listener writing in to askrob at faithfi.com. This one says, we've had a timeshare for many years.

We don't use it anymore. Even though we pay $100 every month in fees, how do we get out of this nightmare? Thank you. Well, the ideal way to get out of a timeshare is to sell it to someone. Before you attempt to do that, I'd get all the information you can about the process. The best source we know for that is the Timeshare Users Group, otherwise known as TUG.

You can find that on the web at TUG2.com. You need to have a realistic idea of what it's worth and that's almost certainly a lot less than you paid, if anything. You'll have to advertise and TUG does have an extensive online marketplace that's probably the most active site you'll find for buying and selling.

You can of course try eBay, Craigslist, Facebook, newspaper classified ads. If you find a buyer, you would need to write up a contract that specifies what each party must do and what they receive in the transaction. I'd probably have an attorney do that. If you're unsuccessful in trying to sell it, you can simply ask the resort to take it back. It's called a timeshare deed back and if the resort agrees, it's an inexpensive way to get rid of it, most notably to get rid of that ongoing maintenance fee that you described. You'll probably need to have paid the entire cost of the timeshare before you do that. There are companies that claim they can get you out.

I'm not a fan of those. I haven't found any to be reliable, so I certainly wouldn't recommend any of them, but you could do your research. I'd read a lot of reviews before you get involved there. There's a lot of scams in that space. Unfortunately, there's just so many more buyers than sellers here and that's what makes this really challenging. Let's use this as perhaps a cautionary tale for someone else who's considering a timeshare. I've been doing this a long time. I don't ever hear from anybody saying, I have a timeshare and I love it.

I'm sure you're out there. I hear from all of those many, many, many folks who are saying, I just want to get rid of this thing. So perhaps go slow before you make any decisions about proceeding with the timeshare. All right, let's take your calls and questions. A few lines open today, 800-525-7200.

We're going to dive in and begin in Chicago. Hi Andrea, you'll be our first caller. Go ahead. Hi, how are you, sir?

I'm well, thank you. I have a question. How do I go about giving if I wanted to give? I remember many years ago when I took martial arts over 20 years ago.

I still remember the stuff, but I know a martial arts instructor always told me we don't ask for help because for a week we actually helped to stay strong. And I used that because I went on the police force and I utilized that and I share that. But how do I go about if I wanted to give? Because I am a person that likes to give. It's not a lot, but I like to give.

Yeah. Well, I love that. I mean, you were created to be generous and I was as well, all of us were, because we're created in the image of God and the Bible is very clear about that. And God is the ultimate giver.

For God so loved the world, he gave his one and only son. And so we have an opportunity, I think, to reflect our nature being created in the image of God. When we give, when we hold what God has entrusted to us, which by the way, it all belongs to him.

So we're his stewards or managers. And when we give, we have an opportunity to take a portion and say, you know what, I'm not going to consume everything you've entrusted to me, Lord. I want to take a portion of it and put it back into circulation in your kingdom, in your economy. I would say that should start based on the pattern in Scripture with your local church. And if you're involved in a local fellowship, I would start there.

If you're not, I would encourage you to be. I think that's God's plan A for the body of Christ, to be involved in a local fellowship of some kind, to be encouraged and to serve and to spur one another on and to grow together. And I think you should give starting there. A good principle to apply there would be to give a tenth of your increase, whatever God entrusts to you.

But I wouldn't stop there. I'd use that as a beginning point and then give sacrificially wherever the Lord leads. I'd look for the intersection of your passions and the needs that exist in the world. You might ask yourself, what is something that really just burns in my heart for a need that exists in the world?

What's something I'm really passionate about? And then do some research and find some places that are meeting that need, preferably in the name of Jesus with a great track record and just a lot of effective results in the work that they do, and then give generously there. So that's just some general thoughts, but were you asking something more specific, Andrea, or was that what you were looking for? No, no, that's fine.

That's a great idea. Normally I give regardless, but sometimes I like to find other ways of how I could give, you know, just to give. I mean, there's a lot of times that I'm in a store, so I'm not making a purchase and I see kids with their parents, but I'll get permission to say, Hey, do you mind if I purchase this for them? You know, and they're like, no, you're not. I said, you know what I want to, I said, but if you chose for me not to, that's fine. And I respect that, but they said, it's okay.

They usually say it's okay. So, you know, I don't, I love giving as my passion. Well, I believe that's a God given gift. I mean, we all should be givers, but I think some of us just have the gift of giving from the Lord. And that's great.

I would lean into that. Perhaps one thing you may want to do, Andrea, is to start to pray and ask God to show you opportunities, uh, just in the normal course of your day where needs exist. And I think you'll be surprised at how he might open your eyes for you to see, perhaps you're already seeing many of them. It sounds like you are, but maybe there's additional needs, um, you know, where you can use that gift of giving, uh, to bless those around you. I'm delighted to hear that.

Uh, um, uh, hopefully your testimony today, well, I'm confident it's spurred others on to even greater giving in their own lives. Thanks for being on the program. Uh, 800-525-7000 is the number to call. We've got some lines open today. We'd love to hear from you with your financial questions, uh, to beautiful Murphy, North Carolina, Barre.

Thank you for calling. Go ahead. Barre, are you with us? All right. Looks like we're having some challenges there. So we'll allow Barre to perhaps, uh, see if we can fix that line and, uh, get Barre back on here very shortly.

Uh, again, 800-525-7000 is the number to call. If you've got a question today, whether it's your lifestyle, your debt repayment, maybe it's the amount you're trying to save and put aside for the future and you're navigating this stock market. And we've been talking a lot about a recession and yet the market keeps going up this year. What, how do you navigate that?

Well, I think the key is to be a long-term investor, really always looking out five to 10 years at a minimum, hopefully a lot longer than that. And, uh, that allows us to ride the ebbs and flows of the market. Uh, as we move forward, you know, we're going to be headed to a break here in just a moment.

I think we've got Barre's line fixed, but I want to give you plenty of time to ask your question Barre, plus all the lines filling up. So a lot of great questions coming up. We're going to do this. We're going to pause for a quick break, then back with much more on Faith and Finance Live. Hey, let me take this opportunity as we head into this break to remind you, uh, tomorrow is the last day of our fiscal year here at Faith and Finance. And if you'd consider a gift, we'd certainly be grateful. God is moving in incredible ways as we have the privilege of sharing his principles and wisdom about financial decision-making every day.

The stories are amazing. In fact, you'll hear one of those testimonies later in the broadcast, but if you'd like to be a part of this and help us shore up the listener donation portion of our budget, we're just $20,000 away from completely funding that portion of our budget for the year. If you'd like to make a gift to that end, we'd certainly be grateful. Just head to our website, faithfi.com and click give much more to come just around the corner. Stay with us. Thanks for joining us today on Faith and Finance Live. All right, quickly back to the phones. We can get to as many questions as we can today. Back to Murphy Barre. It sounds like we got your line cleared up there.

How can we help you? I had a question about a whole life term, a whole life insurance policy. I have one for $100,000, but I'm struggling recently with finances with my bills. And I've heard your stance plenty of times on the whole life policy. My question or hesitancy is that there's no returns on the premium with a term, and I am a homeowner, so I need my life insurance, and I have a daughter with special needs. Sure. Yeah, so you were using the whole life policy to ensure that there was a death benefit there, that regardless of when the Lord called you home, that there was something to provide for your daughter's needs, correct? Correct.

Yeah. So we've got a couple of options here. I mean, obviously in order to make this work for you, you've got to be able to continue to pay the premiums. And if that's challenging, we're going to have to do some work to try to right size that budget. And I realize, you know, there's, it's not easy to do, so I don't pretend that it is, depending on how much income you have versus what your expenses are.

Perhaps one of our certified Christian financial counselors could help you with that in terms of just bringing a fresh look at the budget. But clearly you need to be able to maintain this. Typically, what I would recommend is you buy term insurance, pure insurance. You're not looking for any kind of return of premium or any cash value. You're just purely offsetting the risk that exists there. That during your working years, if there was a loss of income, it would create a hardship for loved ones or dependents. And that term insurance for that term while you're working would offset that risk. And just like your car insurance is there, if you get in an accident, you don't expect any return on it.

You just want to offset the risk of the loss of your car in the same way you would be just paying the mortality expense, the pure insurance in a term policy, so that if the Lord calls you home, there's something there. Now, in your case, it needs to go beyond that because the question would be at that point, would there be enough just by way of you continuing to save in whatever ways you're saving, retirement accounts or whatever it is, would there be enough in assets to fund your daughter's ongoing expenses based on her special needs? If not, you may say I want to prioritize keeping this whole life policy because this really is going to fund a special needs trust and that money is then going to be used for her care for the rest of her life or some portion of it. And that's really important to us.

Well, that makes sense. And that's where maybe the one of the few exceptions where I think whole life insurance does make sense, permanent insurance, because it doesn't go away and you need to make sure that it doesn't so that it's there whether the Lord calls you home tomorrow or it's well into your retirement years. So if that's the case, I think you need to do some planning, perhaps have that special needs trust that would be available as the beneficiary of that death benefit and then look at whether or not you can save enough during your working years to with term insurance to cover her needs or whether that will fall short. And therefore, you know, you need to keep this whole life policy in force.

Does that make sense? I'm not sure about so how would I know about how much to start? Because I am saving, you know, as much as I can, I can't 8% on my 401k. And my employer matches that with 4%. I'm putting some money away for a 1k.

Yeah. But how do I know how would I balance the time and saving enough to versus the whole off? Yeah, I think you just need to do some financial planning here, Bray and really look at, you know, first of all, for you, what are your needs going to be in retirement, so you can expect something from Social Security, that's a known amount that we can begin, we can project. And then we can take this 12% a year that you're putting away between your contributions and your employer match, we can apply a reasonable growth rate to that based on market performance over the last hundred years, and project what that will be. And then we'll know is that enough to cover your lifestyle spending in retirement, which is typically 80% of your pre retirement income, what you would need, you know, to maintain your bills in that season of life, because you're hopefully your homes paid off your debts paid off, you know, kids with risk, with exception of your special needs daughters off the payroll, and you know, you're not working anymore.

So maybe you're not eating out as much and you know, those kinds of things. And that's a known amount that we can solve for to say, are we going to are we on track to have enough saved in that, you know, when we get to retirement to be able to cover our bills? Then the second question would be, what will be needed to cover your daughter's expenses based on her actual health situation? Will she ever be able to work? Is she going to be completely dependent upon you for an entire life?

Or is it just a supplement? And you can, you know, with an advisor, make some projections as to what's needed. And then if you can cover that by the term insurance up until retirement, and then beyond retirement, you would have retirement assets that could then be left to her through a will or a trust, that may be enough to cover her needs as well. And if that's the case, then we go term insurance and we invest the difference, because I think you'll do better by investing it on your own rather than turning it over to an insurance company. Or you may say with the advisor, you know what, we're just not going to have enough based on the kind of the path that we're on. And therefore, we're going to need some permanent life insurance that never goes away, that is going to fund this, you know, a trust that is going to provide for her care. And so you all may decide that in that case, you need to keep the whole life insurance.

Does that make sense? Okay. Yes, sir. Thank you very much. All right.

You're welcome. I'd connect with a certified Kingdom advisor there in North Carolina to do some planning around this, Bure, because I think somebody could really bring a fresh perspective, help you quantify these two amounts. What do you need for retirement? What do you need for your daughter's care for the rest of her life? And are you on track to accomplish those goals? And if not, what do we need to do about it?

And if so, great. And then it's just a matter of the planning and the tools like putting that special needs trust in place, making sure the beneficiaries are updated on the life insurance policy. All of that will be really important.

So I'd head to our website, faithfi.com, click find a CKA and maybe interview two or three advisors that could help you in this planning. God bless you. Thanks for calling today. We'll be right back on Faith and Finance Live.

Stay with us. I'm so thankful to have you with us today on Faith and Finance Live. I'm Rob West, your host. We're taking your calls and questions today with a few lines open 800-525-7000.

You can call right now 800-525-7000. You know, one of the things we absolutely love here at Faith and Finance Live is to hear your stories, stories of life change, how God has used these principles from his word to bear fruit in your life and in your financial life specifically. Let's take a listen to one of those stories right now. I'm right into some serious financial problems whereby I made a huge mistake of taking out personal loans to try and repair things and wound up with not just a car payment, but nine personal loans on top of that. That was a whole lot of debt. And I said, Lord, if you're going to be the Lord and savior of every aspect of my life, that also includes my finances. I took all my monthly bills, laid it on my Bible, prayed over it, and I said, Lord, I need your divine intervention. And one by one, I was able to do this where I paid off the smallest debt first, the money I used to pay on that smallest debt.

I applied that to the next smallest and the next smallest after that. And right now I owe $35 of my credit card and that's it. The secret thing I had to realize, and I think a lot of people got to realize, what is the difference between a want and a need?

If I can live without this thing, it's not a need. And that's how I was able to start getting all these bills paid off. And like I said, right now, that's all the debt I got. But since I did that, God's been opening financial things in my behalf about this and that.

And I don't like, what did I do to deserve this? And he says obedience has its rewards. Incredible. I love that he laid his bills right there on top of the Bible and prayed and said, Lord, I want to invite you into my financial life. You know, how often do we fail to invite God into our financial lives? And then he has to distinguish between needs and wants. That's a critical step that all of us have to take.

But now he's experiencing the freedom and the joy and the intimacy with the Lord that comes from being aligned with God's heart, following his principles as he manages God's resources as a steward. Well, that's our hope and prayer for everyone that listens to this program. And by the way, when you support this work, a listener supported ministry, you're helping to support those stories happening time and time and time again. Here as we head toward the end of our fiscal year, tomorrow, actually, June the 30th, we would like to invite you to be a financial supporter of the ministry. The listener portion of our budget for the entire year is just $20,000 away from being fully subscribed. So if you'd like to help us with a gift of any amount and we mean that, you can just head to faithfi.com and click Give. That's faithfi.com and just click the Give button.

Thanks in advance. All right, we're going to get through a lot of calls here between now and the end of the program. We do have a few lines open. So if you have a question, I've got three spots for you. 800-525-7000. You can call right now.

Let's head to Florida. Hi, James. Go ahead, sir. Good afternoon, sir.

I should be able to talk to you. I have a question. My friend, he has about $49,000 on his house. He's in his 60s, like 65, been retired for a few years, and basically his only amount of income is Social Security and whatever he gets for retirement.

His interest rate is 4.99, I believe it is. He's debating about whether to take, I think it's the money out of his retirement account or savings, one or the other, to pay the house off or to maybe pay $30,000 and only have $20,000 to go on it, roughly. Do you have any recommendations along those lines?

Yeah, I would need a good bit more information. Here's just kind of the underlying principles, and maybe we can find a path forward here with this. Number one is I love the idea of him being debt-free in retirement. That's just going to get his lifestyle expenses down as low as possible. That just makes the budget balance that much easier. Number two, I don't want him to deplete all of his liquid reserves, so I want him to have something to fall back on because the unexpected will come.

That's just a reality that we all have to accept. If it's going to involve depleting his savings, that emergency fund, which in retirement should be probably six months' worth of expenses, then I'm not a fan of that. Also, if he doesn't pay off the whole thing, even though he's getting himself closer, he still isn't getting rid of that mortgage payment. It's not like he could take the amount he was sending to the mortgage by paying it off and then redirecting that to build up his savings.

In the case of just paying down $20,000 or so, yeah, he's that much closer to paying it off, but he's depleted his reserves and he doesn't pick up the mortgage payment because he still has that same scheduled payment. With regard to the retirement account potentially, I think I would just want to know how dependent is he on the income from the retirement account to meet his monthly obligations. If he's living on Social Security plus drawing an income stream from his retirement account, I would hope that that income stream is no more than around 4% of his balance so that we can preserve that for the rest of his life. If pulling this money out of that account is going to drop him down and just erode that account even quicker, especially with the market being down and not giving it a chance to recover, I'm not a fan of that on top of the fact that it would all be taxable.

No penalty, but it would all be taxable, which means at the very least he'd probably want to do it over two tax years, maybe take half of it this year, half of it next year. But I guess with all of that, give me your thoughts and then I'd love to know if you know kind of is he funding his expenses out of drawing down that retirement a certain amount each month or does he have other retirement income sources that he's using to supplement Social Security? I think basically just the retirement account is getting money from that and it's still Social Security as far as his income goes. But it sounds like you're suggesting just keep the mortgage or maybe pay half of it possibly? I probably wouldn't pay half because, again, that's going to just deplete his reserves and he doesn't pick up the savings of the mortgage payment that he doesn't have once he pays it off. But by paying half of it, it doesn't change his monthly mortgage payment. So he still has the same outlay every month in his budget, the same scheduled mortgage payment. But now he's got, you know, let's say twenty five thousand less in reserves.

So I'm not a big fan of that strategy. So I think it would come down to either staying the course that he's on now, even at four nine nine, as long as he can fit it into the budget. Or if by pulling this money out and paying it off and getting rid of the mortgage payment and, you know, that still leaves him enough to cover the rest of his bills at a four percent withdrawal rate or less plus Social Security, then I could get on board with it. But I'd pay it all off. But I do it over two tax years. OK, I see. OK. And then a question for myself, if you don't mind.

Sure. I have a I have three retirement accounts, basically. I are IRA for one and the FRS, which I'm involved in the school board here in Sarasota. And I'm with one financial adviser. I talked to other guys that are involved with fiduciaries and they tell me, well, my account never goes down, but it seems like mine always does. So do you have any recommendations as far as a fiduciary goes versus a just a regular, you know, average everyday Joe? Well, I like the the fact that your adviser would be a fiduciary. They that just simply means they have to put your interests above their own and choose what's best for you.

But I would be suspect that somebody telling you their account never goes down. I mean, that's something we normally hear from our brother in law. And, you know, when we dig into that and I say that a little tongue in cheek, no disrespect to my amazing brother in laws. But, you know, the bottom line is markets go up and down and everybody's been down over the last year. Now, does that mean that we shouldn't have a fiduciary? No, I like the idea that your adviser would be a fiduciary. But the fact that you have a fiduciary doesn't mean your portfolio is not going to go up and down. That's just the nature of stock market investing. And that's why we take a long view. In the last year, stocks and bonds have been down and bonds have been down a lot. So if it's time to look for a new adviser who's a fiduciary, great.

But don't think that that means you're never going to lose money. We'll be right back. Thanks for joining us today on Faith and Finance Live. I'm Rob West. Let's head right back to the phones to Western Pennsylvania. Hi, PJ.

Thanks for your patience. Go ahead. Yeah. Hey, this is PJ. I wanted to ask you, I'm going to be selling my house.

I'm older, okay? And the only money I have in the world is the money I'll be getting from the house when I sell it. And I've been worried lately, man, with the banks, you know, the things that have been going on with them. And I wondered, is there anywhere else that I could send the money to? Because I'm worried about that, you know, they could, if things get bad enough, they can confiscate the money if they want to. If there's anything else, CDs or whatever, that I could have the money put into rather than a bank, because I got to use the same money to buy another house.

Even though I'm older, I'm going to buy another house. Yeah. Yes. I mean, you could buy what are called brokered CDs through a brokerage firm if you felt better about that. I'm not sure kind of what your primary concern is and whether that would alleviate it. You know, keep in mind, they just did the the stress tests today actually, or that the reports came out today. And basically the central bank does an annual stress test on twenty three of the largest banking institutions and they run scenarios to see whether they could weather a severe recession.

And, you know, basically what they came back with is that they all passed and they're in much better shape than 2008. Now, don't get me wrong. I understand there's some challenges in this country. I mean, we've got sky high inflation. We've got we're spending more than we earn. We've got massive debt levels.

So, I mean, there's some real challenges. We've got an aging workforce and demographics are working against us and we're having less babies. And not to mention, there'd be thirty thousand working adults right now that have been aborted. And, you know, life is far more important than the economic impact. But the economic impact is real. So, you know, I mean, we realize that's a factor here.

So I understand there's some real challenges. What I would just tell you is that any confiscation of your money would have to involve, you know, congressional leaders. And I think there's enough wisdom there in Washington with at least enough leaders that that would never happen, at least in the foreseeable future. You know, a central bank digital currency may be what you're hinting at here. That's years away, you know, and that's very unpopular among many congressional leaders.

And it would take an act of act of Congress for it to happen. And, you know, I think despite our challenges, we're still the biggest, best and strongest economy in the world. And the U.S. dollar really doesn't have anywhere close to a rival anytime soon. So I think given all of those things, where would I put my money? I'd put it in the bank. And I believe the backing of the full faith and credit of the United States government is still better than anything else.

Whether it's a brokered CD or a tin can in your backyard, I'd rather be in the banks, just given everything that I just shared. But give me your thoughts on that, PJ. Hey, one other thing, if I may. All right. One other thing, if I may.

And thank you so much for that. That's interesting and good to know. I saw these things where you could be your own bank on a on a new on a mortgage. I'm thinking about whenever I get another house, I, you know, I'll put this money, but I might have, you know, more money on it.

I haven't found anything yet. But what about these things that say you can be your own mortgage somehow? Yeah.

Yeah. It's called infinite banking or bank on yourself. It's not a scam, but it's, you know, the way it's sold feels like a scam.

I'm not a fan. It's very complicated. It often involves the use of a lot of debt, in particular, a home equity line of credit. You got to have a high cash, a lot of cash that you can flow through it.

So usually it's high income earners. Usually it involves several thousands of dollars in a software purchase up front just to manage it all. And any time things get that complicated, whether that's using whole life or a HELOC, you know, I think, you know, I stay away just because, you know, if you came to can't explain it, I wouldn't do it.

That's just my thought on it. It's pretty complex. I like to keep things simple.

And keeping things simple means spend less than you earn, avoid debt, set long term goals, have some margin in your financial life and give generously. PJ, thanks for your call today to Ohio. Hi, Ruth. Thank you for calling.

Go ahead. Hi, I'm just going to say we've listened to you for years and you guys really saved us. We had 80,000 in credit card debts and we did the rolling downhill and paid it all off in our house and felt wonderful to be debt free.

But a lot of things happened. And so we drained our emergency funds with waterproofing and my husband's parents ended up coming homeless. So now we have a home loan that we still have a year left on that because we couldn't leave them homeless. But we're doing great. But the problem is, is that we decided we didn't want to wait.

We took in a 17 year old foster child, which costs about $4,000 for the tutoring so he can catch up academically. We had to buy a whole new wardrobe. He had nothing, you know, and a whole bunch of other stuff. And the county keeps saying they'll pay us, but it's been over four months. We haven't seen a cent and credit card bills are coming due and I'm owing on them and I'm going to have some interest and I'm starting to get nervous. Did I jump the gun? We didn't want to wait because you know how life always gets in the way. The money is supposed to show up eventually. And I mean, this poor child, he, his mom OD'd, he had nothing. And his education at 17, they say is a fifth grade level.

And we just didn't want to stop just because money was tight at that moment. Yeah. So am I getting overly nervous?

Or am I? Well, you know, it's it's hard for me to know exactly how this is going to play out. What I do know is that you reaching out and caring for this child who was in significant need is on the heart of God. And what you're doing is incredible work, Ruth, and you all felt the leading of the Lord to do something when you couldn't see a way and you did it. And now you're going to have to trust God for the results. And I think part of that might be, you know, you, God is, Larry Burkett used to say, never late, but seldom early.

So maybe this comes through at 1159. Who knows? But maybe it's an exercise in faith. But what I know is you're doing amazing work. And I'm delighted to hear that. How do you proceed from here? Well, I think you just need to make the next wise decision that you can make. I mean, you, you made the decision to step out in faith and meet the needs of this precious 17 year old.

That's great. Now you've got bills that are coming due. So where do we go from here? Well, you keep pursuing every available option to get these expenses covered. I realize the government bureaucracy can slow that down. You're kind of in a waiting game. Let's pray that that comes through soon.

In the meantime, what do you do? Well, I think you could look at putting this on a credit counseling program with our friends at Christian Credit Counselors. You could get that down the interest rates down. And the great thing about a debt management program is if the money comes through, you can always pay it off at any time. You're not locked into that scheduled payment.

You can accelerate it, which is great. But at least that would get you on a track where if this does extend for a few more months, at least, you know, you're not spending, you know, 16, 20, 22 percent in interest. And you can reach out to them at Christian Credit Counselors dot org. And then while we're waiting, let's just pray that God provides in whatever way he wants to, whether that's a knock at the door from somebody in your church that, you know, God impressed upon their heart to help you guys or, you know, government assistance comes in.

Does that make sense? Yes, definitely. I just wanted to hear a reassuring voice and maybe another person praying.

Absolutely. Well, let's do that right now, Ruth. Let's go before the Lord. Father, we know that, boy, the meeting the needs of the least of these is on your heart. Thank you for Ruth and her husband and their faith that they've exercised their desire to help those that are hurting and in need. And Lord, I just pray you'd honor that you are the only cattle on a thousand hills.

It's all yours. And Lord, this didn't catch you by surprise. We just ask that you would provide for them, perhaps even in an unexpected way. And as a result, you would grow their faith. And may this even be a testimony to that 17 year old that's now living in their home. Give them wisdom as they navigate these interesting times that are not going to always be easy.

And yet we know that they honor you when they're done with the right heart. And so I just pray that you would intervene and we're going to trust you for that provision in Jesus name. Amen. Thank you, Ruth, for calling. God bless you.

Quickly to North Carolina. Anna, you'll be our final caller. Go ahead. Yes, Rob. Hope you're doing well today. I sure am. Thank you. Good.

I've got a brief question. I've recently gone through a very difficult divorce and my husband had kept me out of the finances. I'm totally clueless about financial matters as such that you discussed.

So I wanted to reach out to you. Where do I begin to try to secure my financial future? Do you have any professionals that you could lead me to in my area? I just kind of don't know where to begin and how to secure that future for myself. Yeah, let's do this first. I mean, of course, you could hire a certified kingdom advisor and you can find someone on our website who would help with financial planning and investments. But I think before that, I'd love to have and we'll make this our gift to you, Anna. I'd like to have a certified Christian financial counselor.

We have a number of them that we work with. Reach out to you and just help you get things in order. Get a proper accounting of your assets and liabilities. Help you figure out what do you have? What do you owe?

How do you get that all in one place? And then what is your spending plan need to look like? And what's a system that works for you that will allow you to control the flow of money so that you know what's coming in. You know when the bills need to be paid. They all get paid, but you're doing it with a balanced budget, a spending plan that allows you not only to meet your fixed and discretionary expenses, but also to solve for those things that align with your values, those goals that you have.

Saving for the future and paying down debt and giving generously. So let's do this. You stay on the line. Our team is going to get your information. We're going to cover the cost to have a certified Christian financial counselor reach out to you.

Spend a few sessions with you over the phone and get all of this set up. And it's just our way of saying we love you and we want to help you. Thanks for calling today. Well, that's going to do it for us today, folks.

Faith and Finance Live is a partnership between Moody Radio and Faith Vai. Thank you to Mara, Amy, Tahira, and Jim. Have a great rest of your day and come back and join us tomorrow. We'll see you then. Bye-bye.