3 Principles of Stewardship

Christians are supposed to be different calls at 800-525-7000.

That's 800-525-7000. This is Faith and Finance Live, biblical wisdom for your financial journey. So the first principle we must understand about stewardship is ownership. God owns everything. He created everything, so that just stands to reason. And Scripture is very clear about this. Psalm 24 one and two reads, The earth is the Lord's and the fullness thereof, the world and those who dwell therein. For he has founded it upon the seas and established it upon the rivers. And in Deuteronomy 10 14, Behold, to the Lord your God belong heaven and the heaven of heavens, the earth with all that's in it.

And finally, Psalm 50 verse 10, For every beast of the forest is mine, the cattle on a thousand hills. Well, now that we've established God's ownership, let's look at this from another angle. If God owns everything, that means we own nothing. That's a difficult concept to grasp because we possess a lot of stuff, a house, a car, a bank account. We hold those things, but we don't own them. God does.

We own nothing from the change in our pocket to the clothes on our back. God owns it all. And we're to use those resources wisely and in obedience to the Lord. You see, if we become arrogant about who's done what, it's good to remember that even the skills and abilities we have to acquire wealth belong to God. They're only on loan, if you will, and we're to use them to glorify him first and foremost, not to enrich ourselves.

Deuteronomy 8, 17 and 18 makes this clear. It reads, Beware, lest you say in your heart, my power and the might of my hand have gotten me this wealth. You shall remember the Lord your God, for it is he who gives you the power to get wealth, that he may confirm his covenant, that he swore to your fathers as it is this day. So God owns everything. We own nothing. That's the first principle of stewardship.

The second principle is responsibility. You see, as stewards, we have no rights over what we temporarily possess by the Lord's provision. But we do have responsibility to use those resources wisely for his purposes. There's nothing wrong with enjoying God's provision, but we must seek the balance between that and using his resources for his purposes. This is defined in 1 Timothy 6, 17, which says, As for the rich in this present age, charge them not to be haughty, nor to set their hopes on the uncertainty of riches, but on God, who richly provides us with everything to enjoy. They are to do good, to be rich in good works, to be generous and ready to share. One day, each of us will stand before the Lord to give an account of how we used his resources, just like the servants in the parable of the talents. The difference is, we'll be accountable for everything, not just money, but our time and abilities too. Those are all resources God has given us, so we must use them wisely.

How do we know where to draw the line? How to enjoy God's provision without clinging to it and claiming it for our own? I think that's something each of us must determine in quiet prayer with the Holy Spirit. Romans 8, 26 reads, Now the third principle of stewardship is reward. I think we have reason enough to be good stewards because of what God's already given us, the priceless gift of his Son for our salvation. But he promises even more blessings when we're faithful stewards.

Colossians 3 reads, Jesus himself tells us in Matthew 25, the parable of the talents, We all want to be declared good and faithful stewards. All right, your calls are next, 800-525-7000. This is Faith and Finance Live, biblical wisdom for your financial journey. Stay tuned, we're just getting started.

Much more to come just around the corner. I'm Rob West and we'll be right back. Great to have you with us today on Faith and Finance Live. I'm Rob West. All right, it's time to take your calls and questions today.

We'd love to hear from you. We started today by talking about stewardship. It's really the big idea as it relates to our life after we give our lives to Christ. Once we place our trust in him through the shed blood of Jesus on the cross, we're reconciled to the Father through what's called the substitutionary atonement, putting us in a right relationship with God for the forgiveness of sin.

Then it's about stewardship. What are we doing with what we've been given, recognizing this is not our home. We look forward with an eternal perspective to what is to come and yet we're here to glorify God and to proclaim truth and to bring those along with us as we share through the Great Commission, the gospel. And one of the ways we can do that, a testimony to the world, is how we manage God's money. And we'd love to talk about that today as you think about the practical decisions and choices you're making today.

We want to help you be a wise and faithful steward. So give us a call with whatever financial question you have. 800-525-7000. Again, that's 800-525-7000.

We're going to begin today in Indianapolis. Hi, Shelley. Thanks for calling. Go ahead.

Hi, thanks for taking my call. My husband and I have two paper savings bonds. One is a series EE for $100 worth about $111 and would finish gaining what a little bit of interest has left in six years. The other is a series I bond made out for $5,000 that's currently worth about $18,000 and change, and it could go on to 2030. So we're finding, we decided to cash in the $100 bond because it seems like just a waste sitting there might as well have the cash. And we're finding it difficult to cash it because the credit union where we do our banking doesn't do bonds. So with all the trouble that we're having finding a way to cash that, we're starting to wonder if we should cash in the big bond while we can because in seven years, oh, with digital currency and everything going on, we're wondering if we might as well just take our money and cut our losses.

Yes, I just wondered what your input is. Yeah, I think there's probably a better place for you to deploy these funds get a better return on it have complete liquidity as well. You know, with the paper bonds, a lot of the banks are in credit unions do not any longer redeem those bonds in many cases they do and still the majority of them are redeemed paper bonds through a local branch, but they don't have to they can refuse to do that.

Certainly, if you don't have an account there but even if you do not all of them will and that's obviously what's going on in your case. So, yeah, I like the way you're thinking you would need to do this directly with Treasury Direct. And you would want to go on their website at treasury direct.gov and download the form it's 1522 is the form 1522, you'll fill it out if you're cashing in a bond worth more than $1,000 you have to get your signature certified. Then you'd send the form in to the end the bonds to the address on that form. And then the Treasury Department would either send you a check or you can complete the section of the form that allows for a direct deposit and then they would just redeem it. Credit whatever interest is to be credited and then either send you a check or do an electronic transfer but I think you're right Shelly, I think there's better places for you to deploy this money. Okay, well, I appreciate that. I made the question as brief as I could, a little bit more background I looked into Treasury Direct. When you go on the phone and hear the recording. It says, if you're wanting to cash out a bond, get the form from the website, send it in, and it will take us at least seven weeks to process it.

And if you're calling about a problem be advised it's going to take 20 weeks to resolve it. So, we have found a local bank that will cash the smaller bond and I think what we'll do is open a savings account with it and then cash the other bond through them and keep the account open for a year to make them happy. But I just wanted to throw it out. I'm not real comfortable with sending that kind of stuff through the mail to the Treasury Department.

Okay. Yeah, well, obviously, if you can find a way to do it through a local bank, that would be great. Otherwise, unfortunately, you know, bonds these days are electronic. But with those paper bonds, you would either have to use a local bank or you would have to use, you know, the form and the mail to go directly to the Treasury. Those would be the only two options.

So, it sounds like you've come up with an acceptable solution, but I think the big idea is right, Shelley, around you redeeming this money and then thinking about it in light of your values, priorities, and goals in terms of how you'd want to redeploy and either keeping it still very safe but trying to get a better rate of return through maybe a CD or, you know, a Treasury bond which you don't have to buy in the paper bond or just a high yield money market or savings account or deploying it in, you know, whether it's corporate bonds or stocks or whatever that might be. Okay, great. Thank you. Yes, ma'am. Thank you for calling today.

We appreciate it. 800-525-7000 is the number to call. Again, 800-525-7000. We've got some lines open today. We'd love to tackle your financial question. You can call right now.

To Aurora, Illinois. Hey, Kevin, thanks for calling, sir. Go ahead. All right. Thank you for taking my call. I love your show and the work you do. I appreciate it.

So, thank you. I was out of work a few years ago back in 2017 and, well, before then, but I went from temp job to temp job, but over the time I had to see medical doctors just for minor things and all those bills piled up. So I go, I'm getting ready to pay arrangements to make payments on them, and I look up my credit score, my credit report, and I have two different creditors, but these debts seem to mimic each other for the exact same amount. And my question is, can two different creditors attain the same debt, and if so, how do I know which one to pay off first and only so I don't get phone calls saying, hey, you still owe this debt when I know I paid it off? Yeah.

Yeah, very good. Well, you'd want to chase that down to find out which one is accurate, what may have happened. Do you happen to know whether this was sold to a collection agency?

Well, it's in collections, yeah. So one is probably the original creditor and then that just has stayed on the report, and then the other is the collection agency that purchased the debt and now they're reporting as well. So one is inaccurate because when it was bought by the collection agency, it should have been zeroed out and it wasn't. The easiest way to handle that is to dispute that with the credit bureau, and they have to either verify that it's still accurate, which they won't be able to within 30 days, or they have to delete it. And then you would pay it with the new creditor. What I would do is contact each of those, probably starting with not the original creditor that you had the medical services provided through, but through the second one, which is probably the collection agency. Contact them, have them send you an updated statement so you've got a record that it is in fact owed, and then pay that, get confirmation in writing that it's been paid in full, and then dispute it on the credit report related to the first entry. And when they can't verify it, they'll delete that one or update it to show that it's a zero balance, and then both of them should be zeroed out as well.

The other thing is any negative information related to medical debt now based on new legislation has to be removed once it's satisfied, so you can get this completely cleaned up once it's paid off. I've got to take a break, Kevin. You stay on the line. We'll talk a bit more off the air.

I want to see if you have any questions related to any of that. We appreciate your call. We'll be right back on Faith & Finance Live. Stay with us.

Great to have you with us today on Faith & Finance Live. I'm Rob West. We're taking your calls and questions.

We've got a few lines open, 800-525-7000. We were talking to Kevin before the break in Aurora. He's got some medical debt that he owes. It went into collection. Problem is he's showing two different collection agencies on his credit report, and both of them are showing he still has a balance.

This is not uncommon. One's probably purchased it from another, and they didn't update the credit file, so one should be showing a zero balance, the other, of course, that he still owes it. What we decided was off the air, he's going to pull his credit report, look there for the phone number that should be provided with each account, including collection agencies, contact them, have them issue a current statement to him. What we'll probably find is one is showing a zero balance, the other is showing that he owes it.

Once he confirms that, he knows which one to pay, and then he can dispute the other one with the credit bureau, and they'll have to delete it once they can't verify that it is, in fact, still owed. Kevin, I know you had a second question. Go ahead with that. So the company that I currently work for was a family-owned business, but a federal contractor just purchased us February earlier this year, and I've had like $22,000 plus in a 401k that I have to decide by the 30th what to do. So I was wondering, should I keep it in a 401k with this company called Voya, which, you know, I'm not, they're kind of limited in what you can do. You can only take out two loans a year, and if I have an emergency and I've already done the two loans, I'm in trouble.

But I just want to know, what are the benefits of just a 401k and a raw 401k? Yeah. Are you now working for a different company that also has a 401k? No, it's the same company, but we were just purchased by someone else. Oh, I see. The family sold the business to a federal contractor.

All right, so you have the ability. Did they change to a new 401k administrator? Yes, we were under Blue Star, and now we're under Voya.

Okay, so they moved it over. Now, are you contributing actively to this 401k moving forward? Yeah, they're taking out of my paycheck now, but the other one is still, you know, with Blue Star, but I have to decide by the 30th or 31st, whatever, what I'm going to do with it. If not, they're just going to take it out and send me a check, which means I have to pay taxes on it. Yeah, you don't want to do that. You'd either want to roll it to an IRA or just roll it over into Voya and then start contributing moving forward. I would just roll it into Voya if that's where you're going to participate moving forward.

Here's the bottom line. You want to be growing your wealth tax deferred or tax free through traditional or Roth 401k. So you have something in retirement that can supplement your income, Social Security plus whatever you're able to put away during your working years.

So your working years are, you know, your well, your income is your most powerful wealth building tool as you put it away and grow it on a compounded basis. And a retirement account is really effective in that because it's going to make sure that the taxes don't put a drag on the investment returns because you won't have to pay capital gains whenever you make money because it's inside that retirement account which shields it from the taxes. Now, the benefit of the Roth is you put in after tax dollars, but it grows tax free. And in retirement, you never have to pay any taxes on all the gains. The benefit of the traditional 401k or IRA is that you're putting in pre-tax money, you take a current year tax deduction, then it grows tax deferred.

Again, the tax is not putting a drag on the investments, but when you get to retirement, now you're pulling it out and paying tax on it in retirement when in all likelihood your income is much lower because you're no longer working. So I like you using the 401k. I'd probably opt for the Roth over the traditional if you have the choice. And I'd put in a goal of 10 to 15% of your pay into that 401k every pay period. You know, that doesn't replace you doing some real retirement planning with a professional, but it's a good starting point as a rule of thumb just to say how much should I be putting away on a monthly basis, assuming you have the ability to do that. So you're saying a Roth 401k is better than a regular 401k because I can put more in?

No, you can put the same amount in. It's just that it will grow tax free and that's a powerful tool. You don't get the current year deduction, but you have the ability to grow tax free. So when you pull it out in retirement, you pay zero tax on all the gains.

It's just a great option. I prefer it over the traditional IRA for somebody who's younger, who's got time on their side and can let this money compound and grow. The benefit of rolling the old 401k into the VOYA that you'd be continuing to fund moving forward is you would have the ability to just simplify things. Now, if that was put in pre-tax, you'd have to put that in the traditional version or you'd have to convert it and pay tax on it now. So I'd probably roll that into the traditional 401k, but new money I would consider putting in the Roth 401k.

Does that make sense? I think so. Okay. It's a great option for you. You can put in up to $22,500 if you're under the age of 50, which gives you the ability to put away quite a bit of money.

And it's going to allow it to be invested and the taxes won't be a factor until much later down the road. So hopefully that helps you, Kevin. We appreciate you calling today, my friend. God bless you. Quickly to Tim in Indianapolis. Go ahead, Tim. Hey, thanks for taking the call.

Appreciate you guys and what you do. The topic is company pension buyouts. I retired from a company after 32 years in January of 2020, and currently they have a pension buyout program. Since then, I've been employed, really no need to draw on the pension.

So we deferred that. But the current amount, I was curious to get your input when looking at the buyout we've projected based on our financial plan, you know, our future lives and how many months we're going to live and done our calculations. But I was curious what your perspective was on how to look at those amounts and if you had any recommendations in that area. So you have the option to get either a lump sum or an income stream for life.

Is that what they're looking at? Yeah, there's there's either a lump sum, a monthly annuity payment or just continue to defer at a later date. Yeah, got it. All right.

Yeah, that's helpful. Let's do this. I've got to take a quick break when we come back, Tim.

We'll tackle that and talk about how you should think about making that decision. This is Faith in Finance Live. Catherine, Sean, coming your way.

Plus, all the lines are full. So a lot more questions just around the corner. Stick around. Great to have you with us today on Faith in Finance Live. I'm Rob West. We're taking your calls and questions today.

Just before the break, we were talking to Tim in Indianapolis. His company has his pension is being bought out by another company and he's being given the option of continuing to allow it to be deferred inside the pension. Converting it to a monthly annuity payout or taking a lump sum.

And, you know, this is a classic example of what we see happen all the time when these pensions are purchased like this. And, you know, ultimately, Tim, I think, you know, I'll give you some rules of thumb and some thoughts on this. I think, you know, because this is a pretty significant decision, it's probably worth you visiting with an adviser to really take this a little more in-depth. But it really comes down to first kind of what they call the internal rate of return.

And you can use, you know, any number of free online IRR calculators online. But basically what it's going to help you understand is what is the value of that lump sum versus the value of that pension payout. Whether that's for a single life or a joint survivor pension option, and it's going to tell you based on what life expectancy you put in, what rate of return you need to achieve in order to, you know, outpace it with your own investments.

And so once you have that IRR calculation, then you know, OK, you know, what kind of deal are they giving me based on the assumptions you make about your life expectancy. And then we need to look at the trade-offs. Obviously, without the lump sum, you don't have access to the principal, which could be a benefit if you needed that money for any reason.

You don't have an inheritance to leave because it goes away at the end of your life or the life of you and your wife versus being able to pass it on. And then there's kind of the non-financial side, just how much do you value guaranteed income versus the ability to make more. But with stock market risk, you know, whether this is going to meet an income gap. So you'll have peace of mind knowing that, OK, you know, with this plus Social Security, we don't have to think about where money is coming from and market volatility because we know at least our income is guaranteed.

And, you know, we really place a high value on that. You know, we need to look at are you wanting to leave something to the kids or no, the kids are fine and they're getting enough elsewhere. Do you value the income or do you value having access to the principal? So I think as you look at these things, both the internal rate of return that would have to be generated in order to offset or outpace the value of that income stream on the investments of the lump sum versus, you know, the tradeoffs of no access and the inheritance. And then the loss of purchasing power because of inflation over time. And then those non-financial issues that I mentioned, I think ultimately it'll become clear to you kind of which is the better option for you. Does that make sense?

Yeah, I really appreciate it. And that's great advice to take this to our financial advisor to run some analysis on. But I think what you're saying is true from the standpoint of what's the value of the money now projecting a rate of return versus the security of having kind of a monthly income stream. And always, you know, the always the big question is, you know, our days are numbered. He really knows the days. That's right. Only the Lord.

Yeah, that's for sure. So we do the best we can in our planning and we keep our trust squarely in him, not in our bank accounts or our investments. But we also need to be wise as stewards. And that's why we seek wise counsel and and try to make the best decisions we can.

So hopefully that gives you some food for thought. And as you continue to process this with some professionals, I think you'll you'll be able to make a really good decision. God bless you, my friend. All the best to you. Thanks for being on the program.

To Punta Gorda, Florida. Hi, Catherine. Go right ahead. Hey, so my name is Catherine. I am 25.

My husband is 30 and we have a toddler and then one on the way. So I'm telling you that. So you have that all for your question. But the question really is, we've got about 200 grand in the bank and about 100 grand of it just sits there and nobody touches it. You know, we only add to it but we we really, really rarely take from it. It was in a CD getting about 4%. And now it's in a just a savings account still getting 4%.

But I feel like I need to do something more with it. Yeah, just kind of sitting there. Yeah, so is there a total of 200?

Is that right? Yeah, between both of us, because I came, you know, to we've only been married about, I guess just two years now we just hit. And my husband's self employed, I stay home with the kids, I kind of work from from home, but I'm not working very much anymore. It's mostly just collecting the residuals that are, you know, in the system, I'm in the insurance industry.

So, you know, not a whole lot of work for for making some decent money. And we have a fully funded Roth. So, and that's not, you know, that's in addition to what we have in the bank. So, you know, we're working on the retirement part because we're self employed. So there is no 401k. So we did the Roth IRA when I was back in high school just to get a head start and use time on our side because yeah, why not love that. You know, and the college funds for the kids are there.

We did Florida prepaid. So that's done. So now it's, you know, we have an emergency fund. So it's really just kind of what can we do with it? So it doesn't sit there and just collect 4% I feel like it can be doing better.

Should I just keep contributing more to the Roth? Yeah, well, okay, so a couple of thoughts here. One, congrats on that one on the way.

That's exciting. So you guys will have to I love that you've been thoughtful about, you know, putting some money away for college, you got the prepaid there in Florida, which is one of the best prepaid plans in the country there in the state of Florida. You've got plenty of disposable or discretionary income and obviously you're continuing to add to your savings. I think the thing I would consider is that portion that you truly designate as your emergency fund, we just need to be comfortable with the 4% and, and the fact that it's not going to make much more than that, at least we're getting that now.

But the by definition on an emergency fund really needs to be liquid and safe because you need it for the unexpected and therefore we don't know when that's going to come. So I would start by carving out of that 200 what is truly your emergency fund, which then frees you up to think differently about the rest. So let's say you say that's six months worth of expenses, whatever that is, let's say that's, I don't know, 5000 a month, I mean, that would be 30 grand. If it's more than that, it's more if it's less, it's less, but whatever it is, let's just be comfortable with that in the online savings account.

Then the rest of it, we look at our goals and say, all right, if college is funded, then what else do we have? Do we need to replace a car, you know, in the next three years and we want to do that with cash? Well, let's push that off, you know, into a car replacement fund. But once we've identified kind of the goals that we have in the near term or medium term, then I think the question is, how do we get as much of this remaining into a tax deferred environment so that it can grow and compound and be invested, but in a in a tax deferred way, looking for the long term? Yes, continue to fund the the Roth, but you can only put in this year 13,000 between the two of you. And I assume you're going to want to be able to put away more than that. So you probably want to look to a SEP IRA, SEP, as a self employed person where you can put in this year 25% of compensation or $66,000, whichever is less, that's going to act like a traditional IRA where you get the deduction. And then you could invest that I'd use Fidelity or Schwab to open that.

But that's going to allow you to pump, you know, a good bit of money in there in addition to the Roth, so that you guys, you know, have enough and then I'd probably do some planning with an advisor, just to really set some targets for your retirement savings. So you're not doing it mindlessly, but you have a real clear goal in mind. I want to get your thoughts on all that, Catherine. So stay right there. We'll talk on the other side of this break. We'll be right back. Hey, great to have you with us today on faith and finance live.

I'm Rob West coming up in just a moment, Jerry Boyer stops by with his market and economic commentary. But first, before the break, we were talking with Catherine and Punta Gorda. Catherine was sharing that she and her husband, he's self employed, she does work some from home, they have two small kids, actually, one on the way and one toddler. They've got a couple $100,000 that they built up in the bank, we were talking about segmenting a portion of that as an emergency fund, but leaving it there in savings, so it is truly available and taking the rest. And once she's defined, kind of any medium term goals, like a car replacement, they've already funded college, and moved money for that, then trying to get as much of the rest into a tax deferred account, because they don't have a 401k as self employed people, perhaps a SEP IRA.

But give me your thoughts on all that, Catherine. Yeah, so I think I need to look at what the IRA is that I have now all I know that it's a Roth. Do you think it's a SEP or probably not?

Probably not. If you remember it to be a Roth, and you set it up as a in high school, it probably is a Roth. And that you would be limited to $6,500 each under the age of 50. So that you could only put in a total of third 13,000 a year, which is why whether you use a solo k or what's called an individual 401k, or a SEP IRA, you know, it allows you as a self employed person to put away a little bit more money so we can get up closer to that typical target we use of 10 to 15% of your pay, you know, going into a tax deferred environment.

Okay, so should I just keep contributing to that, then? To the Roth or just do the Yeah, yeah, I'm just not sure that's gonna give you a you guys enough. So I would fully fund those Roths every year. But when you get up to that 13,000 I'd try to, you know, that's where I, you know, if you look at your total compensation, you're probably going to want to put away more than that. And if you did and had the ability to, for retirement, then when you get to the max contribution on the Roths, that's where that SEP IRA can be helpful because it gives you the ability to put away up to 25% of his compensation or $66,000. So you've just got a lot more room for contributions.

Okay, and you can do more than, than the 13,000 a year? Oh, yeah, you can have a SEP and a Roth so you can fully fund the Roth. And then you'd be able to do the SEP in addition to that.

Oh, wow, I didn't Okay, I thought it was one of Oh, my gosh, okay, well, that changes everything. Yeah, you can only contribute to up to the the 13,000 a year in a traditional or a Roth. But with a SEP, you could have it in addition to that. All right, well, thank you.

I will get with my financial advisor and look into that. Thank you. Okay. We appreciate your call today very much. God bless you, Catherine. Before we head back to additional questions, Jerry Boyer stops by each Friday.

Jerry, always great to have you. I know last week, you weren't here because you were at a conference for folks who work in the corporate engagement space. Jerry, it just seems to me like, perhaps these corporations are waking up, I don't know, maybe you disagree, but waking up to the fact that shareholders are increasingly taking issue with them not focusing on the primary business and using business profits to push political agendas. But am I am I missing something? No, I don't think you are missing something. I think that's exactly what's happening.

I did almost 100 annual meetings this in past three months, which is the annual meeting season and ask questions at most of them. And I can tell you that some of the companies that are most associated with taking controversial positions on cultural or political issues. Even they said we want to be neutral. Now, some of them said we are neutral. And we've always been neutral. And then I just went to the archives and said, well, let me quote you back to you.

You know, let me quote what you said when Roe versus Wade was, you know, was reversed. You weren't neutral, but it's never too late to get out of the politics and, you know, get back to the finance and get back to the business. So some of them are saying we're moving towards neutrality.

Some of them are saying we always were neutral. Some of them are I've been, you know, talking to some of them. I mentioned earlier to you a group that almost nobody knows about, which is incredibly important, which is there are these organizations, they're very much in the background, very invisible, called proxy advisory services like ISS and Glass Lewis.

And together, they have something like 95 to 97 percent market share. And if you are using an ETF or a mutual fund, there is a pretty high probability that they are using those proxy advisory services to decide how to vote on things, on proposals that are on the ballot. So that's where they're dealing with the ESG issues and the cultural issues. And those groups are kind of getting hauled before Congress and they're under pressure and they're getting letters from attorneys general for the states and the treasurers. And let me tell you, they're also being shaken awake and being pulled back towards neutrality.

So this happened faster than I expected or hoped. You know, I've been involved with this a few years. We were Christians were basically kind of asleep at the wheel for 30 or 40 years on this.

And we basically have been engaging for the past couple of years. And already the tide has begun to turn. And these companies are realizing that they really made a mistake.

They risked their brand, they risked their reputation. And it was understandable at the time because, you know, what I would talk to these people in the proxy services and the companies and they would say, well, Christians don't boycott. I mean, they talk about it, but they don't. And conservatives don't boycott. But the liberals do. So we're afraid of the liberals. So we're going to try to deal with the problem of making them angry. Well, OK. It's a year later and they understand that folks who are more traditional in their views can also get angry and change their buying patterns and their voting patterns. Yeah. And they could show up to movies that support faith values and we can see a real impact when Christians come together.

And not to Buzz Lightyear. Right. Interesting. We're voting with our with our tickets. So and it's making it's really making a difference. Boy, they really we were so silent. They didn't know we were there. Now they're beginning to figure out not only are we there, but we're far bigger than the groups that they've been kowtowing to.

Interesting, Jerry. All right. Let's talk for a moment just about something that was in the news this week. I'm seeing stories that after months of debate, debate about various currency and commodity baskets that the Russia and China led consortium called BRICS, BRICS has apparently settled on using gold as the basis of a new planned international currency system separate from the dollar and the euro.

Anything to make about that decision? Well, yeah. The trick isn't saying you're on a gold standard. Remember, I remember that Seinfeld episode where you had a you know, he had reserved a car and they said, well, we don't have your car. Well, I have a reservation.

Well, we don't have it. Well, isn't that what a reservation is? Right.

It means you hold the car. So the gold standard is a little bit like that. You know, marriage is a little bit like that. Like you can get married, but you have to be faithful in the marriage. Like you're getting married isn't necessarily the hard part.

Right. Living up to it is the hard part. And the gold standard is a little like a marriage for central banks.

You're making a solid commitment. And so what's interesting is, you know, Russia said, OK, we're in with the gold standard and the Russian ruble fell. So what does that mean? What it means is markets are not convinced that they're actually going to follow the gold standard. You know, the United States was on the gold standard, but then we treated we cheated under FDR. And, you know, every day FDR would decide, well, the value of gold today will be twenty dollars and eighty five cents. My friend Amity Shlaes in her book about this said that, you know, that once he chose a value for the dollar in his his Treasury secretary said, why did you choose that? And he said that FDR said that was my lucky number today.

So he's like, you know, shaking the magic eight ball. We didn't keep the gold standard and it was financially destructive. We were on the gold. We went back on the gold standard later. And then later, Richard Nixon went off the gold standard. So the world likes the gold standard. We do investors like a gold standard. It's good to have a back currency for 300 years. Most of the greatest nations had it.

And we had tremendous human flourishing from that. But the point is not the commitment to the gold standard that you make in a press release. The point is the commitment that you make to the gold standard when your economy is slowing down. And some of your advisors are saying, if we just debase the currency a little bit, it will goose things. Or you're having trouble making your budget work as a as a national government and and your central bank says, you know, if we just print more rubles, we can lend them to you and plug that deficit.

That's when the gold standard really counts. And since they've been talking about Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa. But year to date, all of those currencies are down against the dollar, except except Brazil.

And since this was confirmed basically about two weeks ago, two of those major currencies are down against the dollar. So it is it is a concern to me if they went on a gold standard and they really followed it. It would be damaging to the dollar.

There's no doubt about it. It would probably be thrown us as the reserve currency of the world. And we'd be inflationary for us if we cheat and the rest of the world doesn't.

Then, you know, we'd be in trouble. But it seems reasonably likely that they're going to make a big show about being on the gold standard, but then not stay on the gold standard, which is the way markets have been investing since they had their press releases. They've been saying we just don't trust the Russians when stuff gets tough and the war is slogging in Ukraine and they need to buy more bombs. They'll print the rubles to buy the bombs and forget the gold standard. I mean, after all, if they're willing to break treaties with neighbors, wouldn't they be willing to make the break the financial treaty of a gold standard? Well, and not to mention China and their record with regard to their currency and monetary policy, huh? Yeah, they're supposed to be pegged to the dollar.

They were supposed to have a dollar standard, but they cheated. And I don't think they have the moral base that we do. Our moral base has eroded a lot.

But still, I don't think they have the moral base that we do to keep their commitments. Fascinating. Well, Jerry, we'll continue to talk about this in the days ahead, but always appreciate your insights. I always wish we had more time, too, but thanks for stopping by. We appreciate it. My pleasure.

All right. That's Jerry Boyer, our resident economist. He stops by each Friday with his insightful analysis of the markets and the economy. Karen Marie, I'd love to get you on a future broadcast. I'm so sorry we didn't get to you today.

Faith in Finance Live is a partnership between Moody Radio and Faith Buy. Thank you to Jim, Lynn, Dan, and Amy. Couldn't do it without them. Have a great weekend. We'll see you next week. Bye-bye.