The Christian View of Retirement

There are plenty of Christian retirement plans out there, but is retirement itself actually biblical?

Hi, I'm Rob West. The answer depends on your definition of retirement. And for Christians, that should be quite different from the world's view of retirement. I'll talk about that first today, and then it's on your calls at 800-525-7000.

That's 800-525-7000. This is Faith and Finance Live, biblical wisdom for your financial journey. So the world has plenty of expressions for retirement, the golden years, hanging up the cleats and getting the gold watch, also sitting back in your rocking chair. The world's idea of retirement is saving as much as you can so that someday you can simply stop working. The world sees work as a negative thing, toiling for years under a mean boss so that one day you have enough cash to kiss work goodbye. But that is absolutely not a biblical view of work or retirement. God is our true boss. Colossians 3 tells us, Whatever you do, work heartily, as for the Lord, and not for men, knowing that from the Lord you will receive the inheritance as your reward. You are serving the Lord Christ.

Work predated the fall. The Lord put Adam to work in the Garden of Eden, and nowhere does the Bible say we can quit our service to him when we have enough money saved up to live a life of leisure. Further, God himself is a worker. In John 5.17, Jesus says, My Father is always at his work to this very day, and I too am working. Interestingly, the Bible actually does address retirement one time, but in a very narrow circumstance. Regarding the Levitical priests, Numbers 8, 24, and 25 reads, From twenty-five years old and upward they shall enter to perform service in the work of the tent of meeting. But at the age of fifty years they shall retire and not work any more.

God's word doesn't tell us why they were to stop their labors, but one thing we can be pretty sure of, that passage doesn't apply to us. So how should Christians today think about retirement? Well, I think it's helpful to realize that the world's view of retirement, that is, ceasing all work, is a fairly modern concept. Before the twentieth century, people generally worked as long as they could. Then along came social security and pensions, and retiring at age sixty-five came to be seen as an entitlement. But as Christians, our service to the Lord never ends. The apostle John was still writing and preaching in his nineties.

Second century pastor Polycarp testified that he'd served the Lord eighty and six years as he was being martyred. Those are two excellent role models for how we should view retirement. By now though, you're probably thinking, well, why are we saving all this money then if we're not supposed to retire? Well, the simple answer is because it's prudent and a wise use of God's resources.

People are living longer now than in previous generations. Many of us will reach a point where we are physically unable to work, or work as many hours as we can now. We have to prepare for that. Proverbs 21 20 says, precious treasure and oil are in a wise man's dwelling, but a foolish man devours it. Of course, that's prudent for everyone, believer and non-believer. But as Christians, ideally we want to save for the day when we can increase our service to God. Think of it as retiring to something, not just from something. A good example might be a business person who retires and then goes into the mission field, or finds another calling to serve God. Or it could be your lifelong investing gives you resources later in life to give more generously. The more you have saved from the resources God has entrusted to you, the more time and treasure you can give back to further his kingdom. So here at Faith and Finance, when we use the word retirement, we're definitely not talking about ceasing all work.

Our goal is to help people be faithful stewards of God's money, so that one day they can serve him more fully. The bottom line is, it's prudent and entirely biblical to save for the day when you can no longer work as diligently as you do now, but knowing that in some capacity you want to serve the Lord as long as you can. So, start saving for so-called retirement as early as you can to achieve the benefit of compound earnings. We recommend putting away 10 to 15% of your income. Do this in a tax-advantaged retirement plan like a 401k if your employer provides one, taking full advantage of matching contributions if they're available. If your employer doesn't offer a 401k, well, open a traditional or Roth IRA. That way, you'll be prepared for whatever the future brings.

And keep in mind, the longer you have before retirement, the more likely you are to benefit from choosing a Roth over a traditional IRA. All right, your calls are next, 800-525-7000. That's 800-525-7000. I'm Rob West, and we'll be right back on Faith and Finance Live. So thankful to have you with us today on Faith and Finance Live. We'd love to have your calls and questions now on anything financial. Let's turn the corner and tackle what you're thinking about in your financial life, allowing you to apply biblical truth to your financial decisions and choices.

800-525-7000 is the number to call. You know, my friend and mentor Ron Blue like to say, biblical wisdom is always right, it's always relevant, and it's never going to change. What else can we say that about?

Well, nothing. It's God's word, it's the source, and it's relevant to every decision we make. And so that's what we want to do here on this program each day is help you think biblically, looking at everything you have, all that you've been entrusted, which is far bigger than God's money. But let's look at your finances through that biblical lens, and then let's apply confidently the wisdom from the Bible, the big themes, what it means to not make the temporal our treasure, making God our treasure, being rich toward God, but then ultimately allowing money to be a tool to accomplish God's purposes.

But also realizing that we have to make day-to-day practical decisions as we live, give, owe, and grow. Well, we want to do that in light of Scripture, holding it loosely, giving it generously, saving appropriately, all of those things under the Lordship of Christ and inviting God into our financial lives because here's what we recognize. Our financial journey is one of the key ways that God shapes our spiritual journey and when we understand that and allow money to tell a story or the way we handle money to tell a story about what's most important to us, well, it's a game changer because God owns it all and money is a tool. We're a steward of God's money and money issues are ultimately hard issues.

The late Larry Burkett used to say that the way we handle money is one of the clearest indicators into what's going on in our lives spiritually. That's a big idea if we stop and think about it. So how can we help you do that today in whatever you're thinking about? We've got lines open, we'd love to hear from you. Whatever you're up to today as we head into a long weekend, give us a call. 800-525-7000. Again, that's 800-525-7000.

Let's begin today in Aurora, Illinois. Hi Jeremy, go ahead sir. Hello sir, how are you?

I'm doing great, thanks for calling. Yeah, of course. I found out from my work that they don't have any retirement and I guess I don't have a 401k set up yet. I talked to them, they'd have no matching so I was just wondering if I should set up with them or if I should set up like a Roth somewhere else.

Yeah, absolutely Jeremy. So they have a retirement account but they don't offer matching or they don't even offer a retirement account? I have to set up a 401k which I thought it was already set up but it's not so I would have to set that up and they do not match at all.

There's no match. But if you go through the process of enrolling in the 401k, you do have one available, you're just not going to get any matching, correct? Correct, so I don't know if I should just do that or if there's something better out there like a Roth?

Yeah, it's a great question. So normally we would say start with the 401k, max out the matching portion, then flip to the Roth. In your case, because they're not matching, there's really not any compelling benefit to contribute to the 401k apart from there's a much higher annual contribution limit. So in your 401k you can put in for 2023, $22,500. As a person under the age of 50 in a Roth, you can only put in $6,500. So if you're just getting started, that may be all you can do. But if you had the ability to do more than $6,500, that's where the 401k even without matching is going to be helpful.

So I'd open that Roth, I'd fully fund that $6,500 between now and the end of the year, and if you can get more going into the 401k, well that's great because I think your goal should be 10 to 15% of your pay going into retirement accounts regardless of whether that's the Roth or the 401k. It doesn't matter how you break it up, the goal is just 10 to 15% going in. Now, you may not be able to do that right now and that's fine, that would give you a goal to work up to that, but at least you would be headed in that direction. Does that all make sense?

Yeah, it does. I was looking into trying to do like 10% every paycheck or whatever that turned out to be. Okay, very good. Yeah, so if that's really the goal, then what you want to do is have that come right out of your paycheck, just set up an automatic transfer to the Roth.

Again, that's probably going to oversubscribe, maybe not this year because you might be starting in July, but once you hit the max for the year on the Roth, well at that point you want to look to flip over to the 401k and you're going to want to find a balance as you project out what you can do per month, especially heading into next year, tell your HR department how much you want coming out of your check going into the 401k so that you fully fund the Roth and then get the balance going into the 401k every month. Perfect, thank you so much. Alright Jeremy, we appreciate your call today. 800-525-7000 is the number to call. We do have some lines open today, so whatever you're thinking about financially, we'd love to tackle it with you, whether it's your spending plan, your debt repayment, maybe it's thinking about retirement, where we started today, really looking at it through a biblical lens and considering how to approach that season of life with regard to your lifestyle and your spending plan, how do you maximize the assets that you have, maybe it's your giving journey, you want to talk about how to give wisely, whatever it might be, give us a call, we'd love to tackle it with you.

800-525-7000 is the number to call. Let's tackle an email here today, we like to get to as many of these as we can during the broadcast, they come into us at AskRob at FaithFi.com, feel free to send one along. This is a great one, Don is saying, I tithed on a large inheritance, the amount I tithed is more than my average annual income. Does that automatically mean I'll be audited by the IRS?

It's a great question, Don. Since inheritances are not considered income for federal tax purposes, you won't report the inheritance itself on your 1040, you probably will report the charitable contribution of the tithe, however, because it likely will be greater than the standard deduction, which means you'll itemize and therefore it'll show up. That said, you may hear from the IRS because it may appear to them that you're not reporting income if you're able to make such a large charitable donation. So just be prepared to show proof that you inherited a large sum and that you gave 10% of it to charity, make sure you get a receipt from your church, that would satisfy any inquiry from the IRS. Let me also suggest you consider using a CPA to do your taxes this year. If you don't normally, that person is likely skilled at avoiding an audit, perhaps by including additional paperwork or a written statement with your return. Also, your CPA could represent you if you're audited.

Remember, this doesn't mean you'll automatically be audited, it's just that this kind of sizable charitable contribution when out of the norm for you and way beyond your income for the year is just going to make you much more likely to have an audit. So again, I think it might be worth you making this the year that you use a CPA. We appreciate that. We're going to head back to the phones in a moment. Shawna, I want to give you plenty of time for your question and I'm coming up on the break, so you stay right there. By the way, we do have some lines open today.

800-525-7000 is the number to call. Let me also mention, folks, that if you haven't checked out the FaithFi app, we'd love for you to do that. Here's the reality. Folks are going into the FaithFi community both online and through the app every day and posting questions, sharing ideas. It's really this vibrant community of men and women who are just wanting to be faithful stewards of God's resources. It's just one of the many benefits you can access through the FaithFi app and participating in the community, accessing all the content. It's absolutely free. So why don't you download the FaithFi app today and join our community of stewards when you head to faithfi.com.

That's faithfi.com. Just click the app button. We're going to take a quick break and back with your questions just around the corner. Lines are open. 800-525-7000. Call right now and stick around. If God owns it all, then that means we're money managers of the King of Kings resources. It's a pretty high calling.

We want to get it right. We want to help you do that using the Council of Scripture. And when you do, we know it will change your life, not because of anything we said, but because God's Word is living and active. And when we apply the principles we find in Scripture, well it makes all the difference.

In fact, listen to one listener testimony right now. I just wanted to say, other than Mr. Burkett, you are the only one that I've ever listened to on the radio that told the truth about giving. Especially dealing with tithes. We try to teach people you don't pay your tithes.

You pay a power bill, you pay a water bill, a house payment, and you don't like doing that. But when you do like y'all say and learn what the true meaning of giving is all about, it changes your life. And I listen to you religiously daily because I know I'm going to get the truth and I'm going to get the true meaning. And I just want you to know, I really appreciate you being the man of God you are and teaching people the true meaning of giving. And I would challenge anybody out there, take three months and learn what the meaning of giving is and see if it don't change your life. Instead of paying your tithes at church, start giving. Just give it. And learn what the true meaning of giving is that y'all teach. Well, you know, it's not about me, that's for sure. And I appreciate he was very kind. But the big idea here is that God's Word does change your life. And that's what we talk about beyond me.

There's a huge team, our radio broadcast team, but also the team that works on the app and the developers and the writers and those that handle relationships and those in customer service. All of us here at Faithfi have one mission and that is to serve God's people to help you to be a wise and faithful steward. And one of the byproducts of that is the ability to give generously. I love what that caller said when he said, you know, it's not about paying your tithe, let's give. And I love that he said, why don't you just take three months and try and see what God does.

Giving breaks the grip of money over your life and it allows you to experience real joy as you're connected and hardwired into God's activity. That's what you're funding when you support this ministry. And let me just take a quick moment and then we'll head right back to the phones.

We've got some folks that are waiting patiently to get on the air. This is the last day of June, which is a big day for us because this is the last day of our ministry year. This is the day where 12 months of ministry comes to a close and we're so close on that portion of our budget that's allocated to listener support, just $10,000 away for the entire year. And so if you'd like to make a gift, you're a part of the faith and finance live community, a gift of any amount would go a long way today before the end of the day when you head to faithfi.com and click give. Again, a gift before the end of the day would be a really big help. Faithfi.com and then click give.

Thanks in advance. All right, we're going to take your calls today. 800-525-7000. Quickly to Cleveland. Hi, Carol. Go right ahead. Hi, I'm the trustee of the family family trust.

My mother passed away. We're selling her condo and it'll be about $250,000 that will come from the sale of that. I'm questioning if I have more taxes to pay because it's an irrevocable trust and how the distribution should go.

I know I can't rush into it, but just need a little guidance. Yeah, so a trust figures its income tax liability in much the same way as an individual does and is allowed most of the credits and deductions that an individual is allowed. Similarly, deductions not allowed to individuals are not allowed to trust. And that's true right up to the point of the trust making distributions. Now, beneficiaries of a trust typically pay taxes on the distribution they receive from a trust's income rather than the trust paying the tax. However, beneficiaries aren't subject to taxes on distribution from the trust's principal, the original sum of money put into the trust. So when a trust makes a distribution, it deducts the income distributed on its tax return and then issues the beneficiary a form, a tax form called a K-1, a schedule K-1.

And that indicates how much of the beneficiary's distribution is income, interest income versus principal and how much the beneficiary can claim as taxable income when filing taxes. So it can get a little complicated. I hope that helps you understand it, though. Does that make sense? Perfect.

Yeah, I was looking for those magic words and K-1 and all of that. And I appreciate what you shared. Thank you so much. All right, Carol. God bless you. Thanks for calling today.

Eight hundred five to five seven thousand. We've got some lines open today. We'd love to hear from you. By the way, Jerry Boyer will stop by a little later in our broadcast. Give us an update on the markets and the economy. And he'll weigh in on this huge decision today out from the Supreme Court. If you haven't heard yet, the Supreme Court ruled six three that President Biden exceed in his authority with a plan to forgive four hundred billion dollars in student loans.

It struck down President Biden's student loan forgiveness plan. We'll talk about that with Jerry and get his insights on it to Chicago. Hi, Lynn. Go ahead. Yeah. Thank you for taking my call.

I appreciate it. I am considering I'm sixty seven now. I'm considering moving some of my IRA away from stocks and into bonds.

And I was wondering, what's the best way of doing that and and timing of it? Yeah. How much do you have in that IRA, roughly? A hundred thousand or a million.

I'm sorry, a million. OK. And have you been making the investment decisions on that yourself, Lynn? No, I haven't. OK. So you have an adviser that is which. Yeah.

As far as what stocks to to invest in and that. No, I don't. OK, I see.

So you are making the decisions on which stocks. Is that right? No, they are.

They are. Got it. Got it. Got it.

No, my apologies. Yeah. So I would just do it over time. You know, this is a great time to have bonds. I'd be looking at which stocks, especially now that the markets rallied a good bit this year, although it's been fairly narrow in terms of the amount of stocks impacted, we we have rallied quite a bit. So I think this is a good time because I think bonds will do well here.

I'd probably do it over six months, determine what your total allocation should be, stocks and bonds, and then just systematically move out of those stock positions based on which ones haven't really lost value. And and then over into the bonds. Hang on the wine. We'll talk a bit more and we'll be right back. Great to have you with us today on Faith and Finance Live.

I'm Rob West. We're taking your calls and questions. Eight hundred five to five. Seven thousand. We've got a few lines open. Eight hundred five to five.

Seven thousand. Let's head to Chicago. Shauna, glad to have you back with us. You were holding patiently. We lost you. And I'm delighted to get you on the air.

How can I help you? Thank you. To make it quick, I have a Small Business Administration loan. It was originally one hundred seventeen thousand and I didn't pay much on it for or anything on it for a couple of years.

And so it has more now. And so I've been thinking to try to pay it off as quickly as possible. But my accountant says, no, just pay your monthly payments what's required and don't worry about it and use that money some other way.

I am nearing retirement age. So I'll leave it right there. It's a Small Business Administration loan and I might be going into an employed situation also. OK. So how much do you owe on that SBA loan?

I think it's like one hundred and let's say one hundred twenty five thousand. All right. And you have the ability to pay it off.

Is that what you're saying? Well, theoretically, I might. I guess the thing would be what to pay off first. We have a home.

We're still paying on one car. OK. Yeah. And you're able to cash flow that debt service out of the operations of the business? The business is changing, so I'm not quite sure what's going to happen.

I called you a couple of weeks ago with a couple of job options. And right now, neither one of them is an option. It looks like. I see. So I'm not quite sure. So what would you do? Would you sell the business? Is it does it have value? No. No, I was just assuming that I can get another job that would have good cash flow. The question would be where should my focus be on using that money?

To be in the best situation. Is the SBA loan personally guaranteed? I think so. OK. It is a corporation. Right. But if you guaranteed it personally, even if the business went under, you still owe the debt, right?

Most likely. OK. What is the interest rate on that? Three point seventy five. OK. And what other debts do you have? We only owe about eighty five thousand on our house and about twelve thousand on a car, maybe. OK. And what's the interest rate on that? The house has been going up because it was not a fixed rate. And you had advised me not to try to refinance right now while the interest rates are possibly hopefully coming down. Right. So I'm not sure the interest rate right now.

It was getting around seven. OK. Yeah, that's challenging. Well, I'd probably focus on that home and try to get that down as you're able. Do you have six months of an emergency fund? Not really.

OK. So I'd start there. I have a small business.

I mean, I have a set by array that has about two hundred fifty thousand or so. So I do have some funds I can take out now. Well, I would start by focusing on building up that emergency fund.

Number one. Number two, I would get with an adviser who can really look at your financial situation because you've got a lot of moving parts here. You've got a business. You've got some uncertainty in your future with regard to the business and your employment. I'm not saying you're in a bad position, but obviously that's a lot of debt for a business that may or may not be viable and may or may not and you probably can't sell. So I think the the key moving forward is, you know, to really do some planning. But I think, you know, given anything, having that emergency fund is going to be key and then keeping enough cash flow to service all the debt moving forward. Obviously, I don't like that interest rate at seven percent. So I'd focus on that if you have extra or margin that you can apply toward any of the debts.

But beyond that, I would connect with a certified kingdom adviser just to have somebody look at your overall financial picture, help you do some planning on how to structure the debt, help you make some decisions with regard to your income and employment moving forward and just walk alongside you as you navigate the business and your personal finances. Does that make sense, Shauna? Yeah, it does. How would I find one? Yeah, on our website. Just head to faithfi.com.

That's faithfi.com and click Find a CKA and you can do a zip code search. You can interview two or three at that point. All right. Sounds good. Thank you. Very good. We'll talk to you again hopefully real soon if we can help along the way. God bless you.

800-525-7000 is the number to call to Pennsylvania. Hi, Kevin. Go right ahead. Hi.

Thank you so much for taking my call. I just had to retire early. I'm only 58. I retire due to medical reasons and it came as quite a shock. The situation with us is we don't have anything saved for retirement. But I will receive a state pension and I do receive disability from the Veterans Administration. I'm trying to get a disability pension. If I get that, then I'll get my pension at the normal retirement rate. But if not, even with the reduced rate, I would still be at the income level I am now like when I was working and then won't be able to collect Social Security until I'm 62. But my wife now, she is 61 and she'll be 62 in December.

And she has a teacher's pension and then she'd be able to draw Social Security. I don't know. I guess I'm just worried about our situation. I do have a 503B.

There's not much in it. And I was considering just taking a lump sum because then I can pay off my truck and that's $300 monthly payment that's gone and I'm going to save about $300 a month in commuting costs from not going to work. Just looking for your advice.

Yeah. Well, I think the starting point is to kind of lock into your spending plan. What does it take for you to fund your lifestyle every month in retirement and then look at the income sources you have, which prior to taking Social Security is, I guess, only the pension.

Is that what I'm hearing? Plus, potentially the 403B? Well, I have the pension. The 403B, I was going to take his lump sum to get the truck paid off and then I received VA disability compensation each month. And with just the VA disability and the pension, it'll put me at my current income level.

So that won't decrease. All right. And so you've got the income and obviously at some point down the road and I'd wait as long as you can once you and your wife start collecting Social Security plus her teacher's retirement and you're saying she's eligible for both teacher's retirement and Social Security. Is that right? Yes, because with our pensions, we both paid into Social Security.

Okay. So if you can cover your bills through your disability and your pension, then that's key. And then you'll just add more income as you take Social Security. So I delay that as long as you can. How much do you owe on the truck?

About $3,000. So that'll pay that completely off. So that's great.

Yeah. So just that'll be taxable, but that makes sense. That'll further reduce your monthly lifestyle expenses.

And I think you're in pretty good shape there. I mean, you've got guaranteed income and it's only going up. So I would hold off on that Social Security as long as you can because you're going to take 30% haircut plus if you take it at 62 versus full retirement age.

Every month or every year you wait, you'll add 8% up to your full benefit. Hopefully that's helpful to you, Kevin. Thanks for calling today, my friend.

God bless you. We'll be right back on Faith and Finance Live. Delighted to have you with us today on Faith and Finance Live.

I'm Rob West. We're going to head to the phones here in just a moment, but first Jerry Boyer stops by each Friday with his insightful analysis on the markets and the economy. And Jerry, as we head toward 4th of July this weekend, where do we find ourselves economically?

What's the, what's making news today? Well, everything I said to you this morning is false now because that's how it works. I mean, it has been eight hours, so that's a long time.

Yeah, exactly. It's an eternity in a current market environment because again, we've talked about this a lot. Markets are almost always moved not by whether the businesses are doing well or, you know, by the inherent dynamics of the economy. They react in response to what people think the Fed is going to do. What's the Fed? The Fed is our central bank.

Why does that matter? Because something's happened over roughly the past dozen years where it went from being just a central bank to being essentially the largest investor in the world, a $10 trillion investment portfolio. So when it's buying, things go up. Or when it's expected to buy, things go up.

And when it's expected to sell, things go down. And so earlier today, the inflation data came out, the personal consumption inflation data. That's the inflation measure that the Fed likes to target. You know, there's different ways to measure inflation. You can look at the inflation rate of just a theoretical bucket of things that people might buy. That's CPI. Or you can look at the inflation of the things that businesses create. Well, that's the GDP inflator, right? Or you can look at what people actually buy, not the theoretical bucket, but maybe ground beef prices go up too much so they buy ground turkey instead. So that, you know, you change that over a little bit.

That's the one they look at. And that one came in with lower inflation than expected and lower than it's been in the past. And so you would think that's good news, right? So, but it creates a situation where you get essentially, how will the Fed respond to this? And you know, the Fed is essentially, the expectation is that the Fed is probably going to be a little more neutral than they thought before we talked. And so markets are responding to that.

So, for instance, gold is up. You know, that's an inflationary call, right? So inflation goes down, which you would think that that would cause inflation hedges to go down, but no, they go up because essentially, you know, oh, the Fed doesn't think it's going to have to fight inflation, so it will respond accordingly. I know that's like a hall of mirrors and it's confusing, but that's the reality of it. That when inflation is low, the thought is, okay, well, the Fed won't fight inflation anymore.

So they'll be easier. And so they'll debase the currency more and markets go up in response to that. And that's what we saw today.

Jerry, as we head into the 4th of July this weekend, you and I have talked a good bit in the past just about what we have here in the United States, the strength of our economy. And it, you know, when we look at it versus nations that were far older and you look at it on a chart, I mean, you just see the U.S. just take off like a rocket ship. You know, there's a reason behind that. And it goes back to a biblical worldview of our founding fathers. Isn't that right? Yeah, it's a biblical worldview that we got from our founding fathers and they got it from the United Kingdom before the rise of the absolute monarchy, which we rebelled against on the 4th of July 1776. But before that, England was the freest nation in the world.

And before that, it was the Netherlands. And that was traced directly to the idea of the adoption of biblical ideas, specifically that commerce is good, that all believers are priests, that you don't have to just be a priest to be a priest, you know, but that the janitor is a priest and the mom is a priest and the farmer is a priest. Now, I don't think that janitor is in the Reformation, but you know, every, the Smith and the Miller, these are all priests and that's a sacred calling. And what happens is when that takes place, people now can run to the glory of God being wealth creators and we change institutions. So we protect private property and we weaken the power of the king and the power of the state.

I think it's appropriate that just before the 4th of July, we get a ruling from the Supreme Court that says the president of the United States cannot, with a wave of his pen, forgive debts. That's almost a divine prerogative, right? Or it's like a monarchy.

Well, we don't have a monarch here. And so the creation of those institutions made the United States so prosperous that not only did it catch up to nations that have been civilizations that are two or three thousand years older, but leapfrogged over them. And they're still where they were a thousand years ago and we're where we are now. Now, I know we look at a lot that's going on in America, especially we as Christians and we see a lot going wrong. And we talk about that a lot as Christians because we want to correct it because we're concerned about moving in the right direction or moving, worried about moving in the wrong direction. But we can forget how much in the right direction we are. We can forget how much we have.

That is truly great as a biblical patrimony. And so I see us more dominated by fear than is appropriate. Not because there aren't concerns about trends, but because even after decades of bad trends in the United States, we are still so much better than the rest of the world. So one of the reasons the markets went up this week is because China is stumbling. China is a billion and a half people, and they still haven't really surpassed us in the size of their economy. For almost two thousand years of history, China was the largest economy in the world. And about 1880, we passed them. We settled the issue of human slavery and human rights. And then God, I think, allowed us to go on to become the largest economy in the world, you know, far bigger, even greater than India and China, which are vastly larger than us in terms of population.

And if we if, you know, and China still hasn't caught up and they're stumbling and they might never catch up, because it really it's not size that matters. It is the world view. And for all the problems in the United States, our world view still is deeply influenced by Christianity. And we're not done yet. And you look at some of the Supreme Court rulings this week and you look at some of the pushback to what's been going on in corporate America.

The Christian witness is not gone and it is in some sense prevailing more than we might believe. Jerry, that was really helpful and just great insights there. Just one more quick question and then we'll let you go. You obviously touched on the decision 6-3 on the part of the Supreme Court to strike down the President Biden's student loan forgiveness, where he was, as you said earlier this morning, saying that we should he's calling it loan forgiveness or cancellation.

It's really a transfer from that which is owed by borrowers to the national debt. Obviously, you're in agreement based on what you're saying here. Yeah, oh, absolutely.

I mean, the only problem is who are the three? Well, I mean, the president has no authority whatsoever to do this. This anything having to do with the purse strings is Article 1 power. That's the Congress. There's no doubt from a congressional standpoint, this is their authority from a constitutional standpoint under separation of powers. So it should have been 9-0.

But I'll take 6-3. And as you said, I think you said it very well. But this isn't debt forgiveness. This is debt transfer. So debt is being transferred from people who have college debt who tend to be more affluent in general than society in general. Not everyone goes to college and it tends to be more affluent people. I understand a lot of middle class people go to the college, but still college graduates are a more affluent group than others.

And those who have the most student debt tend to be people who went to graduate school, even more affluent. So we are transferring debts from people who went to whatever law school, medical school. We're transferring it on to whom? On to everybody else in the form of the national debt.

So we're taking it off of them and putting it on my grandkids. It's not debt forgiveness. It's debt transfer. But the thing is they had a choice whether to take on that debt. They took it on voluntarily. My grandson, my grandkids, they didn't have a choice about whether to take on this debt. It's completely involuntary. It's involuntary servitude. So to transfer debt from somebody who voluntarily took it on and to put it on somebody else to me is grotesquely unjust.

Yeah. All right, Jerry. Well, appreciate your insights, my friend, and a great reminder about the privilege we have here living in this country that bestows upon us incredible blessing and that we should celebrate that and be thanks to the God who gives us those blessings, the giver himself. So God bless you, my friend. Happy Fourth of July. And same to you. God bless you. All right. Absolutely. All right. Let's round out the program here to Washington State. Hi, Kim.

Go right ahead. Yes, my husband and I pastor and we have a woman in our church who is 60 years old. She is on Social Security disability. He receives twenty six hundred dollars a month. That's her only income. She just received a letter from the Department of Retirement Systems for Washington State that she is receiving twenty two thousand dollars.

It's a beneficiary account transfer. She called on that to see what that is. And it's her ex-husband who has now passed, who passed away a couple of years ago. He had named her many years ago as a beneficiary for one of his retirement accounts. And anyway, she's just wondering whether she has to pay taxes on this twenty two thousand. She did call Washington State.

They said, no, we are just trying to confirm that. Yeah, I would check with a tax professional just because these can get complicated. I mean, generally what she receives as, you know, as a death benefit would not be taxable. Obviously, if she draws income on that or it's in a qualified account of some kind, then it would be taxable as it comes out. But the actual receiving of the asset isn't taxable in and of itself. But I think this is, you know, anytime you have something unusual that's not just a part of your normal routine, it's always a good idea to get professional tax advice, somebody who can look at the actual document on what's being sent and consider all of the factors here and weigh in on whether she needs to pay tax on it.

So I wouldn't be able to give you a definitive on that without seeing much more. But I think you can certainly engage a tax professional, maybe somebody in your church that could help her today. We appreciate you calling on her behalf, though, Kim. God bless you and have a great Fourth of July weekend. Vanya, we don't have time for your call, but I see your question, which is better, save for an emergency fund, pay off debt or do both? I would say if you have credit card debt up to fifteen hundred dollars in an emergency fund, then focus on the credit cards.

If it's not credit card debt, then I'd go up to a full three months expenses and then focus on the debt. That's just my best advice. Have a great weekend, Vanya. And thanks for calling today. Faith and Finance Live is a partnership between Moody Radio and Faith Fi. Grateful for Mara, Amy, Dan and Jim. Couldn't do it without them. You have a great holiday weekend and we'll see you real soon. God bless you. Bye bye.