Acceptable Giving

2 Corinthians 9-7 reads, Well, I'd first like to thank our friends at Christian Stewardship Network for joining us today. Our giving provides proof, to us at least, that we're doing the right thing. Other righteous acts like prayer and worship are less concrete. We may wonder if we're doing them enough, but we give ourselves the benefit of the doubt. That's not the case with our giving. The numbers speak plainly. Do you frequently check your watch as you study God's Word or pray, pressing on until you can prove to God and yourself that you've committed enough time?

I certainly hope not. That's a poor way to show your faithfulness, as it would be with your giving. But because giving always involves a specific amount, it's far too easy to think that giving more means we're more spiritual.

We think that giving 15% of our income requires more faith than giving 10%. So what sort of giving does God accept? Well, we can look to King David for an example of a generous giver. David likely gave billions of dollars worth of treasure to build the temple in Jerusalem. But it wasn't the size of the construction budget that pleased God.

It was the way that David gave to complete this massive project. No amount of giving can sway God one way or the other. He already owns 100% of anything we give back to his kingdom. He doesn't need the money.

What do you give to someone who has everything? Well, to quote David in Psalm 24 one, the earth is the Lord's and the fullness thereof, the world and those who dwell therein. You see, God owns everything because he created everything.

He's completely self-sufficient and needs nothing from us. But he does want to have a relationship with us. God requires us to give a portion of what he gives us back to his kingdom, because he wants us to be a part of it. God made us in his image, and he desires relationships. So he made us that way, too. And that's how we need to understand giving. David understood this, and we'll see in Psalm 51 how he acts properly.

Let's set the stage. The prophet Nathan had called out David for his adultery with Bathsheba, and sending her husband Uriah off to die in battle to cover his sin. That takes place in 2 Samuel 11, and in verse 15, David tells his battle commander, Set Uriah in the forefront of the hottest battle and retreat from him that he may be struck down and die.

Now, obviously, David sinned against Bathsheba and Uriah, but he understood that his sin born of covetousness was ultimately against God. Now to Psalm 51 and verse 16, where David reveals something about God that should direct us in how we give. He writes, David goes on to write, That's what God desires from us, a broken, repentant heart. And that's what David gave it. You see, we must let that be the basis of all we do, including our giving. We can mislead ourselves into thinking that our gifts in and of themselves please God and qualify us for his blessing. True, he's pleased by our generosity, but only if it's accompanied by a repentant and broken spirit.

Ultimately, God accepted David's offering, and that's why David is called a man after God's own heart. I hope that's an encouragement to you today. All right, your calls are next 800-525-7000. I'm Rob West and we'll be right back. Grateful to have you with us today on Faith and Finance Live.

I'm Rob West. We'd love to take your calls and questions now on anything financial. We've got some lines open, perhaps one for the question you've been wrestling with financially speaking. The number to call is 800-525-7000.

Again, that's 800-525-7000. Gabby T, answering your calls today and we'll get you on the air quickly and look forward to hearing from you, whether you're thinking about your spending plan, your debt repayment, maybe it's your giving strategy. You want to give more wisely, more intentionally. I'd love to talk about that. Or maybe it's your long-term savings or investments. Whatever it is, give us a call.

800-525-7000. You know, often we can allow idols to creep into our lives. Seventeenth century mathematician and theologian Blaise Pascal said, People made, or excuse me, God made people for relationship with himself, which is why we have that God shaped hole in our hearts. Unfortunately, we've been choosing other things besides God since the beginning of time. You know, often the things we try to cram into that God shaped vacuum are related to money.

Everything would be great, we might say, if we only had a bit more money or a bigger investment portfolio or a better house or a better job or financial security. You see, the minute you put yourself and your own financial desires in the center of your life, well, you and I have created an idol at that point. An idol replaces the Lord in our minds and in our hearts and ultimately has no power to satisfy us. Take work as an example.

Here are a few clues that your work might be an idol. Your self-worth rises or falls based on job success or failure. You give up rest, family time at church in order to put in extra hours. You can't take your mind off of work tasks, emails, calls and issues. You're stressed out, discouraged and exhausted by work. Maybe you believe that only financial security will keep you safe. You're obsessed with productivity, success, income and promotion. You believe your paycheck is your provider.

You make money, but you don't like to give money. If work is becoming an idol for you, here's what I would encourage you to do. Rest and turn to Jesus instead. Author Jim Neuheiser says, It takes faith to enjoy God's gift of rest.

In your financial distress, you are probably tempted to work seven days a week in order to improve your situation. Your flesh thinks that everything is up to you, but faith looks to God to meet your needs and trust that he will provide enough. Perhaps that's a message that you need to hear today.

I know at various points in my own work life, it's the message that I needed to hear as well. Because anytime we allow something to replace the Lord in our minds and in our hearts, well, it's ultimately going to leave us empty. And so may that be an encouragement to you today to look at putting God right in that God-sized vacuum, making sure he is our pursuit.

Because he's enough. Ultimately he does satisfy. And he allows our work to be an expression of his handiwork. Something that we do as unto the Lord as an act of worship. Well, when you and I approach our work that way, it puts everything in its proper context. We're living into our created order, why God designed and created us to be productive, to take his creation and improve it and order it.

But it keeps God at the center where we're playing to an audience of one. And hopefully that will be an encouragement as you think and pray today about any potential idols that you've allowed to creep into your life. What's going on financially? We'd love to hear from you today. The number to call is 800-525-7000. Again, with whatever financial question you have today, we'd love to tackle that call right now. Phone lines are open.

800-525-7000. We'll be going to your phone calls here in just a moment. Speaking of work, if we look in the news, the latest data is showing the job market remains really strong. In May, layoffs declined slightly and employers hired more workers, according to the Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey, known as the JOLTS report issued monthly by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Americans also quit their jobs in larger numbers since most workers quit for new employment. The uptick suggests a rebound in workers' confidence that they can find a new job, economists are saying. The May number wasn't all lollipops and rainbows, though. Job openings, a barometer of business demand for workers, fell by about a half a million in May. They're still well above, though, their pre-pandemic level. This strong jobs report is actually weighing on the market.

You might say, why is that? I thought a hot jobs data report would actually boost the market. Doesn't that signal a strong economy?

Well, it does. But what it also says is that the Fed may not be done with rate hikes because if this economy is not slowing in their view, as we've learned from Jerry Boyer week after week, well, they think they need to do more to slow the economy so that we can temper inflation. That means more rate hikes and, well, the market doesn't like that. So we're going to have to watch this seesaw, if you will, between an economy that's proving to be fairly resilient in the midst of these massive rate hikes and still a looming recession.

So we'll watch that. And of course, Jerry Boyer will stop by tomorrow to give us his update on the markets and the economy so we can find out what Jerry is thinking about in light of this hot jobs report. All right, it's time to take your phone calls today. Eight hundred, five, two, five, seven thousand is the number to call.

Again, eight hundred, five, two, five, seven thousand. We've got some lines open. Let's begin in Ohio today. Laurel, you'll be our first caller.

Go ahead. Hello, I'm calling to find out if you can recommend some kind of app or program for tracking, budgeting, reconciling your checking account. I'm having a hard time finding something that I feel like is user friendly and not over cumbersome.

Yeah, straightforward doesn't cost a lot of money every month. Well, Laurel, I've got an app for that. So the FaithFi app, we spent several years with a team of developers and they're improving it every day, but we built for this purpose because we wanted a simple spending plan app that was built on the tried and true envelope system with a modern, beautiful expression that you could connect to your bank accounts and credit card accounts and even your investment accounts. Download all of your transactions and then quickly have a place to see how much is left in each of my digital envelopes at any point during the month. What do we have left in eating out? What do we have left in clothing?

What about recreation? So you and if you're married, you and your spouse can open it up and have an instant look into where you stand in each of your envelopes. And the great thing is when it's gone, well, you can stop your spending in that particular category for the month. It's really easy to set up and I'd love to help you with a six month subscription to that. It would be our gift to you.

And we can even have one of our certified Christian financial counselors help you set it up and make sure it's going to work for you. So, Laurel, if you stay on the line, we'll get your information and we'll tell you how you can take advantage of that. How does that sound? Really great. Thank you.

Awesome. Stay right there. Tahiro, pick up the line and get you all your information and we will make sure we get that right out to you.

We're going to take a quick break when we come back. More of your phone calls and questions today on anything financial. So call right now. Get in the queue. We've got some lines open and we'll tackle your financial questions just on the other side of this break. The number, 800-525-7000.

That's 800-525-7000. Give us a call. We'll be right back on Faith and Finance Live.

Stay with us. So glad to have you with us today on Faith and Finance Live. We're taking your calls and questions today on anything financial with a few lines open. The number to call is 800-525-7000. Again, 800-525-7000. Let's head to Florida. Donna, you'll be our next on the program. Go right ahead.

Hi. So I want to find out if I should refinance my mortgage at this time. I know I have quite a bit of equity and the reason why I want to do it is because the payment is now a lot higher than it was. It jumped up a whole $600 and it's kind of difficult to make the payment in one, you know, like in one full swoop.

I'm ahead by two months though. Okay. So do you have a variable rate mortgage, Donna?

No. Right now it's fixed and I do believe it said 375 if I'm not mistaken. All right. Well, that's a great rate, especially if it's fixed in light of where we're at now because we're at six and three quarters.

You'd be a full three points higher, which would make that monthly payment even more difficult. Why did it jump up? Was it related to your escrow on taxes or insurance? I believe a combination of both. Okay.

Yeah. Well, you need to get to the bottom of that and figure out what's going on. So I would call your mortgage servicer and just ask them to give you a heads up on why it increased by $600 a month. I suspect your property taxes went up or perhaps property taxes and homeowners insurance, especially with you being in Florida. It's probably all related to homeowners insurance, just given what's going on there in the state of Florida. So if that's the case, your mortgage is not the culprit.

You would have to pay that homeowners insurance regardless. It's just that there, if I'm right, they're escrowing for it and they're seeing that bill going up and they're saying, well, we're going to have to collect that from you. If that's what it is, there would be no other reason with an amortized mortgage that has a fixed rate. Why you're more while your payment would increase apart from the escrows on taxes and insurance.

So I would get to the bottom of that, though. But if that's the case, that's not a mortgage problem. That means you need to perhaps go shop your homeowners. And I realize that's going to be challenging, just given the environment we're in right now, especially there in the state of Florida. So I would hang tight on that mortgage. Just try to make your budget lean and mean.

You know, once the big three are in check housing, which I realize is the problem right now, food and transportation, you know, then we we really need to just go to work and trying to dial back any unnecessary spending to free up extra margin. So you can keep that mortgage current until either, you know, things stabilize there in Florida if it's in fact homeowners insurance or until you can find another carrier that's a little less expensive. Does that make sense? Sure, that makes sense.

Okay. So you said it doesn't make sense to refi just because the rate is a lot more a lot more higher than what I'm already at. Well, again, I want you to get to the bottom of that, because if you're right, and you have a fixed rate mortgage, the only reason that payment is going up is related to escrows, which would be taxes and insurance. And an amortized mortgage has this consistent monthly payment every month, if there's a fixed interest rate. Now, if it's a variable rate, and you're wrong, and it was 375, and now it's up to five or six, well, that would be the reason. And maybe it's a combination of the two. But if it's in fact, a fixed rate mortgage at three and three quarters, I wouldn't touch that mortgage.

And in fact, there's really no reason even if it's not to refinance right now, you'd probably want to wait a couple of years until rates come back down to lock in a fixed rate mortgage if you don't have one now. But if you do, then you need to look at the the escrows. That would be the culprit. Okay. All right. Thank you so much. I appreciate it. You're very welcome. Thanks for your call, Donna.

We appreciate it. 800-525-7000. We've got some lines open today. We'd love to hear from you. You can call right now. Let's head to Lake Worth, Florida. Hi, Orlando.

Go ahead, sir. Hey, Bob, how are you doing? I'm doing great.

Thanks for calling. Yeah, I have a house that I've been putting in the market for almost a year. No good results. I guess we burn it, you know, putting the price high and then down and, you know, no results, positive results. I wonder if it's good advice to keep going on the sale or renting it out or the problem I have is that because I was going to sell it, I didn't consider refinancing and I have an adjustable mortgage.

And within six months, within six months, my mortgage went like $500 up. Yeah. Are you moving either way? Are you moving out of the area?

Why are you selling it? Downsizing. You're downsizing. Okay. So you're staying there in Lake Worth.

You're just trying to buy something smaller. Yeah. And another thing is, you know, that all our savings is, you know, in the profit of the sale. Sure.

Yeah. So you don't want to rent it out because you're going to need this money to buy the next home. And if, in fact, you've counted the cost and you understand what it's going to take to get into that, quote unquote, downsized property. And it is, in fact, going to help you accomplish your goals, whether that's, you know, lowering that monthly payment, which right now is going to be a difficult time to get a mortgage because that mortgage is going to be up, you know, six and a half percent plus. And, you know, you're just going to have to factor that in because that's making home affordability more challenging. So even though you're buying something smaller there in Florida, especially in Lake Worth, that's a red hot housing market that on top of the fact that rates are now much higher. And I realize with that variable rate mortgage, you've got the same thing with your current home. But you're just going to need to do the homework before you sell it because there's a lot of costs associated with selling and do your homework to make sure there is something that's smaller that you can buy that ultimately accomplishes the goals.

Because usually when we're downsizing, we're doing it to save money, less upkeep, less utilities, less mortgage payment, that kind of thing. Now with regard to the current home, there's no reason this home shouldn't be selling. If it's been sitting on the market for a year, it means you didn't price it right. And did you try to do this yourself or did you have a realtor? No, I have a realtor that we're not happy with. Okay. So I'd find another realtor maybe through your church, maybe drive around, see who has the most signs in your neighborhood or in the surrounding neighborhoods who really specializes in your area. If you price this house right, you should get a bunch of offers in a very short period of time.

But I want you to do the homework first to make sure that what you're going to buy would ultimately accomplish your goals so you don't end up selling this and then you're surprised you can't get what you need and you're in a really tough spot. Thanks for calling Orlando. We'll be right back on Faith and Finance Live. Stay with us. Well, it's great to have you with us today on Faith and Finance Live.

I'm Rob West. This is where we apply the wisdom from God's Word, the principles and passages we find in Scripture to this high calling you and I have of being stewards of God's resources. Well, we're stewards of time and talent and relationships and God's Word and our skills and abilities, but that also includes stewards of the financial resources that God entrusts to us because he owns it all and that makes us the caretakers or the managers of all that God has entrusted to us. So let's be wise and faithful in that holding it loosely, saving appropriately, living with contentment and giving generously. We'd love to help you with that with whatever you're thinking about today financially.

Perhaps there's something you've been wrestling with in your financial life as you live, give, owe and grow your money. Well, we'd love to talk about it. The number to call is 800-525-7000. We've got a few lines open today.

800-525-7000. We'd love to hear from you right now. Let's head back to Florida.

We're spending a lot of time in Florida today. Hi, Judy. Go right ahead. Hi, Rob. I love your show. I listen to it every day and you do an amazing job of helping us people. Well, that's very kind, Judy. Thank you for that.

I appreciate it. So what I wanted to know was I'm 76 and my husband's 81. And like 19 years ago, we gave our money to a financial adviser who was the financial adviser of friends of ours that lived in our gated community, but we never met him or anything.

And I think maybe about 20 years ago, I was only 56. And so we, I don't think, have made $3,000 in the 19 years that he's had our money. So I wanted to know. I heard about something like I know you have the Christian financial adviser. So I wanted to know, should I contact them and see if they can take our money and do something with it? Or I heard about some other kind of financial adviser that, and I can't remember the name, but they don't make any money unless you make money.

Do you know what I'm talking about? Well, so a couple of thoughts here. I mean, first of all, I'm surprised to hear about this portfolio. So how much did you invest with this adviser 19 years ago, roughly?

I think it was like maybe $91,000 or $93,000. And that's basically all we have. Okay. And have you been pulling money out of it along the way? No. No, we haven't taken any money out at all. And in 19 years, basically what you put in is about what you have today. Yes.

Yeah. Do you know what it's been invested in? Was it stocks or bonds or both?

I think he like read it around, but he put it in what he called like safe things because we were older. You know, if you're younger, you have time to wait for the market to come back up if you have, you know, stocks or whatever. And so maybe three years ago, I called him because I do most of the financial stuff. I've refinanced both of the houses we've had. Our interest rate is 2.75 on our house now.

But I called him with my husband and he said we wanted him to take like 25 to 30 percent of that money out and put it in something that was more... I'm not sure what the word... Aggressive, maybe? Yes. That's good. I'm sorry. No, it's okay.

I'm like not sure what to do. And I listen to you all the time. Well, I appreciate that.

Sure. Well, yeah, I mean, I'm a little surprised. I hate to play armchair quarterback here, but, you know, over 19 years, this money, with you taking nothing out, there's no reason that it shouldn't be significantly higher. I mean, I realize it's probably not been in all stocks if he was trying to protect it. Maybe he was in more fixed income type investments, but even those have done well. I mean, the S&P 500, which is one of the broad market indexes of 500 large cap U.S. stocks, I mean, that's done over 7 percent a year annual, you know, on average 7.6 percent a year for the last 20 years. So you would add a pretty significant increase. That's not 7 percent over 19 years.

That's 7 per year on average. And so that is a little confusing to me. And I'm not sure why, you know, he hasn't been coming to you along the way saying, hey, I know this is not growing. Let's do something different.

I mean, I know this is all you guys have. We want to be very conservative, but we also need it to be working for us, especially when you all were in your 50s. So, again, I don't know the whole story, but just based on what you're telling me, there's a few things that don't add up. If you wanted to make a change, you certainly could do that. The thing you might run into is for some advisors, including certified kingdom advisors, $100,000 would be below their minimum.

So many times they'll have a minimum account that they're able to serve, and in some cases that might be a quarter of a million or higher. But it would be worth asking some of those certified kingdom advisors in your area if this would be something they would be able to take on. And you just go to our website, faithfi.com. That's faithfi.com.

And then click Find a CKA, and that stands for Certified Kingdom Advisor. You could also check with our friends at soundmindinvesting.org, soundmindinvesting.org. That was founded by our friend Austin Pryor, who was very, very close with Larry Burkett, and they do a wonderful job, godly men and women serving investors of all sizes, including those with assets below $100,000.

And so that would be another option that you could consider. In terms of how advisors get paid, I mean, typically in this space, and I recommend this, they get paid a percentage of the assets under management. So they don't get a raise unless your account grows, but they still get paid even if it's stagnant. So you typically wouldn't find a scenario where they only get compensated when your account grows. That's just not the way it works unless you're in some sort of aggressive strategy like a hedge fund, but that wouldn't apply here. So you're going to pay them a percentage of the money that they're managing, whether it stays the same, goes down, or goes up.

But the only way they're going to make more money is if it grows, and if they lose you money, well, their fee is going to be less, because 1.5% or 1% of $80,000 is less than 1% of $90,000 or $100,000. Does all that make sense, though? Yes. Yes, it does.

Yeah. So I would... Because you do make sense. Well, I appreciate it. I would, Judy, reach out to a couple of CKAs in your area. Again, you could find one or two or three to interview at faithfi.com, and then you could also check with soundmindinvesting.org, and I think perhaps you could get into a situation where you have somebody who's being a little more proactive, giving you a chance to grow this money. For instance, bonds are going to do well in the next couple of years as interest rates come down once they start down.

So getting this account positioned in a way to take advantage of that recovery in the bond market and also in the stock market to a lesser degree, because you all are in your 70s, you know, is going to be really important. So finding that advisor now I think will serve you well. Okay. Well, I really appreciate your help. Well, you're welcome. And I hope that my question helped other people, too.

I'm confident it did, Judy. God bless you as well. Tell your husband we said hello. Thank you for your kind remarks about the program and for being a faithful listener. We appreciate that. May the Lord bless you. Hey, we're going to take a quick break.

Jeanette there in Indianapolis, I know you have a credit card. You're waiting patiently. I'm looking forward to getting to your question just on the other side of this break. So if you can hold the line, we will get to you as soon as we return. And by the way, we do have room for your phone calls in our final segment. We've got some lines open. I'd love to hear from you today with whatever you're thinking about financially. Let's tackle it together.

See if we can apply the wisdom from God's word. 800-525-7000. You can call that right now. We'll be right back. Great to have you with us today on Faith & Finance Live here on Moody Radio. I'm Rob West taking your calls and questions here in our final segment. 800-525-7000. You can give us a call.

To Indianapolis we go. Jeanette, thanks for your patience. Go right ahead. Hi, Rob. How are you? I'm doing great. How are you today? Oh, I'm doing good. I just have things for asking. Glad you're doing good.

I just have a basic question. How do you get out of credit card debt when you're on a fixed income? Yeah, you know, it's really challenging, Jeanette. The starting point is to, and I realize this is easier said than done, but you've got to break the cycle of the spending on the credit card beyond what you have the ability to pay off every month. So let me ask you this. Are you able to make the minimum payment on the credit cards and cover all of your bills without adding more debt to that credit card on a monthly basis? No. You're not?

Okay. How much are you going underwater every month? Well, I'm basically, I've had, I'm not doing, I mean, I've stopped on my credit cards and I've got probably seven or eight. And what I'm doing is trying to get one paid off at a time. But, you know, it's affected my credit and I don't know what else to do, really, other than, you know, just still keep that approach, just trying to get one paid off at a time.

Yeah. Well, I have a better option for you. It is going to mean that you need to be able to, you know, keep those minimum payments current, but we're going to be able to get the interest rates down. So my first call for you in this situation, Jeanette, would be to our friends at Christian Credit Counselors. Christian Credit Counselors.

You'll find them on the web. Do you use the internet? Oh, yeah.

Okay. So just go to christiancreditcounselors.org. And set up a phone call.

There's no cost for this. And what they're going to do is a couple of things. Number one is they're going to look at what credit cards you're working with, who are your creditors, and they're going to tell you how low they can get those interest rates. So right now you might be paying 18, 20, 22% interest. They're going to get those down to probably between, you know, 8 and 12%, which is going to really help, because now as you send a monthly payment, more of that is going to principal to reduce the balance instead of just paying the interest. And then they're going to work with you on a budget to understand exactly what you have coming in on your fixed income, what your expenses are, and then they're going to tell you what that monthly payment would be that you'd need to send to them for them to then pass on to all of your creditors. But the difference is as you send that level monthly payment to them every month and they pass it on, now you're going to get those balances coming down much quicker because you're at a lower interest rate and you're going to be an on-time payer every month. So that will help to rebuild your credit over time.

And if you can stick with that every month sending that budgeted amount that you'll come up with and they'll tell you what it is, then you'll be able to pay these debts off 80% faster than if you try to do it on your own. So I would start there as where you go next. Does that make sense? Yes, it sure does. Okay.

I had a feeling you might say that. Just go to that. Yeah, so debt management is... Well, I'm glad you did, but debt management is my preferred approach. I mean, the other options are you snowball it yourself, which is probably what you're doing. You pay all the minimums and then you take whatever extra you have every month which I realize money's tight and you send it to the card with the lowest balance. And then when that one's gone, you move to the next one and when that one's gone, you move down the line.

That works. The problem is if you have more than $4,000 in debt, the interest rates are just eating you alive. And so that's where Christian credit counselors will help you get the interest rates down.

The other two options are just not even options in my mind. Debt settlement is where you stop paying them, let them go into collections and then try to negotiate with the creditors. I would never do that. And then the other one is debt consolidation where you take out a new loan, pay them off, and then you pay the new loan company. The problem is oftentimes you have a longer payback period and you don't solve the real problem, which is overspending. So then six months or a year later, now the credit card debt's back on top of the new consolidation loan. So I wouldn't do either of those.

I like debt management and Christian credit counselors are the folks to work with. Okay? Okay. Thank you. You are welcome. God bless you, Jeanette. Thanks for calling.

To Tennessee. Hi, Gail. Go right ahead.

Hi. I was wondering about buying some iBonds or investing part of my savings. My husband passed away a little over a year ago and he had a retirement account that's between, it's not quite $30,000, but $600 a month of it goes into our savings account and it's just been sitting there. So I would like to put that somewhere where it will get a little more interest than it's getting now. Yeah. Very good. How much do you have, how much have you built up in that account, Gail? There's probably about $50,000, maybe $50,000.

Okay. And what are your expenses on a monthly basis? Well, I don't have the exact number, but our house is paid for.

So really all I have is utilities, you know, our insurance, house and car insurance. So maybe a couple of thousand a month, would you say? Yes.

Yeah. So I wouldn't use iBonds. I mean, iBonds were attractive about a year ago, but they're not any longer because they're only paying 4.3%. That would last for six months. And the next time the rate is published in first of November, it's going to go down below 4.3. And you can only put in $10,000 and you can't touch it for a year.

And if you take it out in less than five years, you're going to have a small penalty. So I would just go to a high-yield savings account, which is right now paying over 4%. So I'd open an online high-yield savings account at one of the online banks. You can find the best one paying the best rates at bankrate.com. They'll rank them for you and show you who has the best rates right now. It might be Marcus.

It might be American Express. I mean, you could look around and find the one that's the best fit for you. The thing is, though, typically I would say in this season of life, six months' worth of expenses at the most a year. But for you, that's only somewhere between $10,000 and $25,000.

You've got twice that. So if you're going to continue to add $600 a month, $7,200 a year to this, might you want to think about either taking a portion of it and buying a CD to get a little bit better yield? Or would you want to start investing some of it systematically and trying to grow it? Tell me what your thoughts are and kind of how secure you want this money to be beyond what I would call your emergency fund, which in your case is probably somewhere between $12,000 and $24,000. At this point in my life, I'm not willing to take any risk.

Okay, yeah. So then what I would do is I wouldn't do the iBonds. I'd put it into a high-yield savings. That's going to give you 4% plus with FDIC insurance. So backed by the U.S. government, and that'll throw off a good amount at $50,000. That'll give you an extra couple of thousand a year in interest. And then if you want to get a little bit more, maybe you take half of it, $25,000, and put it into a CD. And you could maybe get 5.5% if you'd be willing to lock it up for a year. And that would be FDIC insured, so guaranteed by the U.S. government. How does that sound?

That sounds good. Now, the 5.5% on the CD, that's no risk? That's just a CD? That's correct. And it'd be FDIC insured, which means it's backed by the U.S. government. Okay. And I wouldn't have any penalties unless I took it out early, correct? That's correct.

Yes, ma'am. And so the place to go to find the best online bank, which is typically what you're going to need to get these higher rates, not a brick-and-mortar bank, but an online bank, is bankrate.com. And they can tell you which of the online banks is paying the best rate right now. If you wanted someone who shares your values, you could look at Christian Community Credit Union. They've got a CD in the 4s, and you could go to joinchristiancommunity.com.

But apart from that, I think bankrate.com will give you what you're looking for. Gail, I'm so sorry to hear about your husband's passing, but I'm delighted to talk to you today. And if we can help you further along the way, let us know. God bless you.

To West Chicago, Anthony, you'll be our final caller. Go ahead. Yes. I so enjoy your program. Thank you.

Thank you, sir. My question is that I have some money in savings, about $450,000, but everything that I have been reading lately is pointing to the possibility of a severe meltdown here financially in this country. And then we're looking at the situation with our national debt being so high and possibly very difficult to benefit and handle the interest. What's your feelings about possibly buying some stronger currency, possibly like a Swiss franc or so on?

Yeah, the challenge is there really is no stronger currency, Anthony. I mean, I hear you on the challenges we have in this country, but I would disagree with that hypothesis that we're headed for a meltdown of some kind, either a collapse of the U.S. dollar or the U.S. economy. Yes, our debt levels are way up and we need to rein in our spending and reverse course there. We absolutely can handle the current debt levels we're at. Economically speaking, there is no other rival that's been stronger than the U.S. economy. We do have longer term trend issues with demographics and debt and overspending. We do have some challenges, but there's not another contender for a world reserve currency anywhere close to the U.S. dollar.

So I think your best option is still a properly diversified stock and bond portfolio, investing in companies with real sales and earnings and for bank products banking in the United States backed by the U.S. government. I think that's your best option. If we had a severe issue down the road, it's going to be much further down the road, in my opinion. Anthony, thanks for your call today. That's going to do it for us, folks. I've got an amazing team making all of this happening today. It's Tahira, Amy, Jim and Gabby T. Couldn't do it without them.

Faith and Finance Live is a partnership between Moody Radio and Faith Fi. Have a great rest of your day and come back and join us tomorrow. We'll see you then. Bye bye.