The Paradox of Prosperity

Today's version of Faith in Finance Live is prerecorded so our phone lines are not open. Have you ever noticed that certain words just sound so positive and uplifting? A good example is prosperity. Hi, I'm Rob West.

Prosperity sounds good because just about everyone wants to be prosperous or thriving financially, and there's nothing wrong with that to a point. Ron Blue is here to talk about that today. Then we have some great questions lined up for you. But don't call in today because we're prerecorded. This is Faith in Finance Live, biblical wisdom for your financial journey. Well, it's always a special day when financial teacher and author Ron Blue stops by.

He's written several books on biblical finance, including Never Enough, Three Keys to Financial Contentment. Ron, great to have you back. It's always good to be here, Rob.

Looking forward to it. Ron, one of the things you've talked a lot about is what you call the paradox of prosperity, which just seems counterintuitive that prosperity may not always be a good thing, or at least there's more to the story. So explain that for us. Well, the paradox of prosperity is a concept that I've discovered and thought about in my think time, and I've put it in almost every video series that I've done, or any speaking that I've done. And I can share it, and people, when I share it, get it. And they've known it, but they haven't thought about it.

And I use an illustration personally. When Judy and I got married, we lived in a trailer that was 28 feet long, 8 feet wide, and 6 feet tall. And you could do the ironing, and do the dishes, and make the bed all at the same time, because the trailer was so small. And you know, we didn't have to make many choices when we lived in that trailer, because we were happy if we just had enough to eat. But over time, things changed, and we had five children, 13 grandchildren, and now four great-grandchildren. We've moved multiple times around the country. We've lived in multiple homes. And I found that as life went on, we began to have a lot more decisions to make, such as cars and college education, retirement, and all of those things.

Yeah. So the more you have, the more choices you have, and perhaps the less freedom you have in some respect. So what are then the implications of that paradox of prosperity?

Well, the first implication and the really important one to me is that we live in a culture that rewards success, if you will, and honors success and honors celebrity. And it seems like that if you had more, you would be more content. You could have your own jet. You could have more multiple homes.

You could take multiple vacations and so forth. But the reality is that you can lose your peace of heart and mind when you have all of those choices that are confronting you. I'm not saying it's wrong to have more. But I'm saying that more will not necessarily give you peace of heart and mind or contentment. So that's a spiritual perspective. It's not a financial perspective.

Yeah, that's really helpful. I know what we're saying here is that prosperity in and of itself is not necessarily bad. But there are some implications to this. And you've taught, Ron, that we all have to answer two questions. One is who owns it?

And the answer, of course, is that God owns it all. But speaking to that idea of contentment, that second question is, how much is enough? And that's a big part of this, isn't it?

Well, it really is. And, you know, for years, I tended to treat that as a financial number. And you can enough can be expressed as a financial number. But I was reading one time in Hebrews 13.5, and it says, Make sure that your character is free from the love of money, being content with what you have.

For he himself has said, I will never desert you, nor will I ever forsake you. And all of a sudden, I realized that how much is enough is what I have right now. And that's what gives me contentment. If I'm content with what I have right now, more will not give me more contentment. And more is not necessarily the answer to contentment.

The answer to contentment is being satisfied with what God has provided right now. And that's what I already have. Yeah, that's a game changer. It is a game changer. It changes everything about the way I think. Oh, I love it.

So if you're able to find contentment with what you already have, you're far less likely to be taken in by the paradox of prosperity. It's a profound idea. You think about that today. Ron, thanks for stopping by. We appreciate you. Thank you, Rob. Appreciate it very much.

That's Ron Blue, author of Never Enough, Three Keys to Financial Contentment. And before we take our first break, let me also remind you, we're out of the studio today. Our team is not here, so don't call in, but much more to come just around the corner on Faith and Finance Live. Great to have you with us today on Faith and Finance Live. By the way, we're not live today. We're away from the studio, so don't call in.

But we have some great questions that we lined up in advance. By the way, this ministry is entirely listener-supported. That means we rely on your financial gifts and support to do what we do on the air every day. If you consider a gift, we'd certainly be grateful. Just head to our website, faithfi.com. That's faithfi.com, and click the Give button.

Thanks in advance. All right, let's head back to the phones. Let's begin today in Florida.

Hi, Milton. Thank you for calling, sir. Go ahead. Yes, I have a question about buying a house for the first time. The bank was telling me that I had to buy points in order to get my interest rate down, so I would like to know what is the actual situation.

Is it a convenience or is it necessary to buy the points like they were telling me about? Yes. Tell me what your credit score is. Do you know? Well, see, last time I think it was between good and very good.

Okay. And why is it that they're saying you're not going to be able to qualify without buying that rate down for the best rates and terms? Have they said? They say that it was required by the government because of the high interest rates that are right now set up.

The points are required. No, that's not true. So I would not use that lender and move on to someone else. You'd always want to get two to three quotes for the mortgage when you're shopping for one.

If you have a high to a very high credit score, likely that's something over 700. Is this a home you're buying? Are you selling a home and then buying another one, or is this a first-time home purchase?

First-time home purchase. And I'm using a VA loan with no money down. That's part of the question. Okay. Even though the VA will allow you to do that, Milton, that's not my preferred approach. Do you have the ability to save for a down payment and delay this purchase? Yeah, I'm able to put a down payment if I choose to. Okay.

All right. Yeah, I would recommend that you do that. Typically, I like to see 20% going into the home. That way you'd have some equity right at the beginning. And if the housing market were to turn down, and that's possible, I mean, we still have a shortage of homes in this country. So I don't think we're in a bubble by any means. But if we head into a recession, like most economists are still thinking that we will, we could see the housing market dip.

I certainly wouldn't want you to be upside down. It's also going to help just to get that mortgage payment down as you put more in. Now, I don't want you to use up all of your liquid funds. I'd like for you to still have three to six months expenses in savings, and then try to build up to a 20% down payment. And then the idea would be that you would attempt to keep that principal interest taxes and insurance payment, the mortgage payment, no more than 25% of your take home pay. And if you did those things, you got the three to six months expenses, you've got your 20% down, you've got a mortgage payment, no more than 25% of your take home pay, that's going to really set you up nicely to make sure that you've got enough left for everything else.

So you're not just feeling the squeeze of this. But I think the bottom line is I even though the VA allows it, I'd like for you to put some money in, would you be able to do that and still have at least three months worth of expenses in the in the bank? Well, I think I have around over 50k on my savings account. And if I buy a 250,000 dollar house, I guess that's 25,000 dollars in my math is correct. So I guess that's your house with money left. Yeah, that would be a 10% down payment.

I'd love for you to put 20. But that would certainly be better than nothing. And then you'd have about 25,000 left for sure. If you go with a conventional mortgage until you get to 25,000, you're going to have private mortgage insurance, which is just an additional cost that does nothing for you. It's really just to protect the lender. And that could be about 1% of the mortgage value annually. So you know, that's another reason to look at possibly getting up to 20%. But 20% on the $250,000 home would take all of your liquid reserves.

And so obviously, I don't want you to go there. So I think perhaps you need to revisit, you know, this VA loan, there shouldn't be a reason why you're required to buy that interest rate down. So I would get more information on that. I'd at least put 10% down, I'd prefer you wait until you can do 20. But I'd also love for you to have at least three months expenses remaining after the down payment. And that would mean that you have to wait, which is probably not a bad idea either, Milton, because I'd like for you to get a fixed rate mortgage.

And with rates right now, you know, north of six and a half, that's not a very attractive rate, it's going to make the cost of homeownership a lot higher. So what if you were to wait until next year, perhaps interest rates come back down in the second half of next year, you know, we're at least below five, if not in the fours. And it gives you time to continue to save. So you could do that 20% down payment and have some emergency funds remaining. Does that all make sense?

It makes a little thing. What I was wondering is that if I wait that long, I will have to be spending a painful rent. Yeah.

And that's one that is pretty much lost. That that's true. But you've got to kind of keep the you know, the long view in mind, even though that's money that's not being used to build equity, you're also continuing to rent because you have an objective in mind that objective is number one to continue to save. So you can go into this home with a bit bigger down payment, but number two, you'd be looking to get more favorable interest rates, which, you know, you'd certainly could buy it now and then refinance a couple of years down the road, but there's an expense, you know, with that as well, that could run you three 4% of the mortgage value for that refi. So if you know, if you had the money today, I'd say you could go ahead and buy it, and then refinance in a couple of years.

But given that you don't have the ability to do the down payment, I'd like I'd prefer you rent even though you're not building equity, if you have the ability to continue to save, I think that would be a better solution in the long run. Yeah, the downside of not buying now also is that I'm getting some a closing cost paying my employer because of my relocation. If I wait that long, I won't get that. Okay. All right. Well, that's yeah, that's good to know. Well, then perhaps, you know, you consider doing I mean, because that's going to be several thousand dollars that they would be putting into the deal. So I like that. I would at least put 10% down, I'd make sure that that mortgage payment is no more than 25% of your take home pay.

And then I'd probably look to refinance in the next two to three years. Okay. Sounds great. I appreciate it. All right. God bless you, Milton.

All the best to you in this move and with your new home purchase. We appreciate you calling today. Kevin, Max, we're coming your way right after this next break. So if you guys can hold the line, I'll look forward to being with you in just a moment. Quickly an email before the break. This one from an anonymous writer and the writer says, Can you provide me with some suggestions for any compound interest products where I can grow my money?

If you answer on the radio, please use the name anonymous, which I'm happy to do. Any savings account you get is going to be compound interest, just not a whole lot of it. If you don't like risk and need to keep your savings liquid, such as an emergency fund, I'd use an online savings account. Or if you want an institution that shares your values, you could use Christian Community Credit Union at joinchristiancommunity.com. But if you have at least five years, I would say invest in a diversified investment strategy, perhaps in a Roth IRA.

That's where compounding is really going to shine. I hope that's helpful to you. Thanks for writing us. Well, folks, before we head to this break, let me remind you, if you haven't checked out faithfi.com, that's faithfi.com.

I'd love for you to do that. You'll find the best content in biblical finance there for you to grow in your understanding of managing money God's way. You'll find our community and the money management system.

It's all there at faithfi.com. Now, again, a reminder, we're not here today, but more of your questions that we lined up after the break. This is Faith in Finance Live with Rob West. Hey, if you hear a phone number mentioned today, please ignore that number and don't call us, because today's broadcast was previously recorded. But we think the upcoming information will help you and make you a wise steward of what God's given you, so please stay tuned. Let's head right back to the phones. We'll head to George in a moment, but first Missouri. Hi, Kevin. Go right ahead, sir. How you doing? Doing great.

How can I help? Well, I have a question and really not sure exactly which way I want to go. I am retired. I have social security, and I got a military retirement and a state retirement and a VA disability coming in. So I got a decent income coming in, and my wife, she's blind, but not to the point where she could draw social security or anything, and she hasn't worked enough hours. Well, I've got a home we're paying for, and I don't know if I pay the home off first or go to put a nest egg back, because I don't have a nest egg right now. And the thing of it is, I've got life insurance, and if I die before my life insurance runs out, then she's going to do really well. But if my life insurance expires, she'd more or less have to sell the house, because she wouldn't have enough money coming in to pay everything.

So do I put a nest egg back or do I pay the house off? Yes. All right.

It's a great question. The first thing with regard to the income, how much of this income would carry over to her as your spouse in the event of your death? About $1,800, $1,900 a month. Okay. And currently, what are your monthly needs?

Uh, probably $14,000. Okay. But including the house payment? Yes. All right.

House payment's a little over $5,000. Okay. So it sounds like she would have enough then to continue and maintain her lifestyle after your death, even without the life insurance. Is that right?

But no, because she's going to have to pay taxes and the insurances and stuff like that, and that's quite a bit too. Okay. But so the total monthly expenses, including all of that would be about how much?

No, I never did. I never did figure that quite up, you know, because I never escrowed or anything. Okay. All right. Well, I think that's the key is we've got to figure out what are your true monthly expenses all in for the two of you. And then we've got to compare that to your income sources now, which as you said, you know, you've got plenty coming in, and then you've got to look at what will be available for her, you know, that will continue as a spousal benefit beyond your death. And then at some point down the road, are you taking social security at this point? Yes.

Okay. And so she'd get the spousal benefit of your social security when she gets to, you know, the point where she can take that if she wants to take it early, she could take it at 62, or she could wait until full retirement age and get more. But that plus any other retirement income that would also carry over for the rest of her life, we've got to look at what that total number is. And hopefully the life insurance runs out after she would be able to qualify for so for a spousal benefit on social security.

Is that right? Well, yeah, but the issue is she's younger than I am. And we talked social security days where she can't draw up till she's 62. Correct.

And but which is that's going to be she's 21 years younger than I am. Oh, okay. All right. And so she can't draw that social security, you know, just yet.

No, sure. Okay. And she hasn't worked enough hours. Right.

So she would need to claim the spousal benefit. So how many years away is she from 62? Nine, or excuse me, 19. 19 years.

Okay. And how long do you have? How long will that life insurance run? About another year, a little one other year. All right. And what is your age? I'll be 64.

Okay. So one option is you look at a new 10 year term policy and just see what the cost would be on that. That would cover you an additional 10 years.

And during that time, I think the key is for you all to focus on two things. One is you need an emergency fund, I'd love for you to have at least six months expenses in the in reserves. And then second would be trying to pay off that house. Because if you had the ability to cover her for the next 10 years with a new term policy, and then by that time, you know, if the Lord were to call you home first, then the house is paid off, she's got the emergency fund, she's got the income sources coming in that hopefully without the mortgage payment allows her to, you know, continue to maintain your lifestyle or hers. And at that point, you know, she's only 10 years or nine years away from being able to add the social security income on the spousal benefit. Yeah, the bad part is, she can't work because she's almost legally blind. But she is just under that limit. So she can't draw security. Yeah, she can draw on the disability. And nobody will hire with her vision. And she can't drive.

Yes. And so I mean, she could sell the house and downsize if need be. But so should I take the amount that I have left over that we have this extras and split it between principal payment and the other half on emergency fund? Yeah, or just try to build the emergency fund up. Right now just focus on that. And then as soon as you build it up, then put 100% on the house. If you were to do that, have you run an amortization schedule to determine how quickly you could pay it off?

No, I have not. Okay. So I think, you know, that's probably your next step is a couple of things. Number one is get that budget nailed down. So you know exactly what those expenses are.

And then secondly, let's look at how you can trim expenses to free up as much margin as you can. Let's try to, you know, spend whatever months we need to to build up that emergency fund, and then have your mortgage servicer or you can do it online with a free, you know, online calculator, run an amortization schedule based on that additional amount you can add to the principal to see how quickly you'd be able to have that paid off. Also, the earliest a widow or widower can start receiving social security survivors benefits is a 60. And so that would be another option, you know, the glosser to get it a couple of years earlier.

And I think between perhaps this new term policy, accelerating the mortgage payoff, shoring up your emergency fund, and then her being able to take the survivors benefits at 60 would perhaps get her to the place where she's got what she needs to cover her bills. But I think you need to do a little bit more planning and, you know, check all these numbers. That sound good? Yes, sir. All right.

Thank you. Thanks for your call, Kevin. We'll be right back on Faith and Finance. Max, coming your way.

Stay right there. Grateful you've tuned in to Faith and Finance live. I'm Rob West, your host. This is where we recognize that God owns it all.

You're a steward or a manager of God's resources and money is a tool to accomplish God's purposes. Hey, we're away from the studio today, so don't call in. But we lined up some great questions in advance that I know you will enjoy. In fact, let's go ahead and take one of those right now to Georgia. Max, you've been waiting patiently. Go ahead, sir.

How about going there? I'm doing great. Thanks for your call. Great. First time caller here.

Excellent. I'm 71. I'm 71 years old right now. I have an IRA broker's account with about 175 $72,000 in it. I'm trying to avoid minimum distribution.

What's the best way to deal with that? Yeah, so you said your age is what? 71. Okay, so you've got a couple of years. They have been increasing that required minimum distribution age. So for instance, the age was delayed to 73 this year.

If you turn 72 after December 31, 2022, which you would, and then eventually it's going even higher. So you're not going to have to take that as quickly as perhaps you expected to. But when the time comes for you to take that RMD, are you needing any of this money, Max, or are your bills covered? I'm covered. Those are covered right now.

Very good. So one of the great options that you have inside an IRA is something called a qualified charitable distribution. Have you heard of that term?

Yes, I have. Okay, so that would be a great option. When the RMD does start, you can satisfy that RMD each year by making a distribution out of that account direct to a ministry or charity or your church. And you could do that in lieu of money you are going to send out of your checking or savings account, which just means you get to hang on to that money. You send it directly from your IRA. It satisfies your required minimum for the year, but even more than that, it doesn't get added to your adjusted gross income like a distribution normally would from your IRA. So everybody kind of wins in that scenario. So that would be a great option for you to either do additional giving or to replace giving that you were already planning to do out of cash and just do it out of the IRA instead.

Does that make sense? Absolutely. Okay, but the bottom line is if, you know, you're not going to have that RMD until you're 73 because you'll reach 72 following December 31st of last year, so you're now going to be under that higher age. Yes, and how far out can you use the charitable giving? Yeah, well, you can do that up to $100,000 with that RMD so that you can do as much as you want. Are you saying that if you did it now, would it go ahead and satisfy the RMD down the road?

Yes. No, yeah, you'd need to do the distribution in the year of the required minimum. So you can't do it in advance. You could go ahead and do it.

It's just not going to go toward your required minimum when that time comes. It would just be additional giving. But it would be a way, if you wanted to do some giving now, for you to go ahead and do it out of your IRA without adding anything to your taxable income for the year. Sounds good.

Excellent. All right, and you could bless your church or a ministry at the same time. So what you'd want to do is just contact your custodian, whoever you get your statements from, from your IRA. Let them know you want to do a qualified charitable distribution.

You're over age 70 and a half, so you can do that. And then just let the ministry or your church know it's coming. You fill out the paperwork and they'd send the stocks or, you know, whatever it is, and then they'd sell them or take the cash. Use 100% of that.

There's no taxes paid. And, you know, you would be able to do some giving as the Lord leads. So I love that strategy, Max, and I'm glad you raised it today. If we can help you further along the way, don't hesitate to reach out. May the Lord bless you, sir.

To Kentucky. Hi, Mona. Go right ahead. Hi. Thank you so much for taking my call.

I'm very grateful for your show and take away a lot of tips, but I've never heard. I can't listen every day, but I've never heard my situation. And so I have become the guardian of my father who has dementia after my mother passed away six months ago. And I am a fiduciary as well as the personal guardian or guardian of person. And so I just sold my father's house.

I had to sell both cars. And so he has over the FDIC insured amount of money in the bank. Currently, I just sold the house three weeks ago. And the difficulty for me is I am under the need of anything that I open to be a guardianship account.

Right. And so I have an emergency fund of six months and a non brick and mortar bank that was paying a higher interest rate before the brick and mortar banks caught up. And I contacted them just to put the money in a place where I still have access to it because I have to pay for the memory care facility that he's in. And so nonetheless, they don't do a guardianship account. So I'm kind of running into those problems where the current bank where my father was banking, they were able to open a guardian account right away for me after my bank took 35 days of still asking for additional paperwork.

My dad's bank opened it in 20 minutes. So I have this excess money and I am working with a wealth management person from the bank. But my concern is the money remaining in the bank, right? So he has about $150,000 more than what the FDIC would ensure in this bank. And that makes me a little nervous. It is a national bank, but nonetheless, it still makes me nervous. And so I want to try and find options.

He does have a couple, he has four different mutual funds, but I also have had problems with them and getting them to work with me for guardianship. That took months. And I understand they don't want people to steal people's money. I really do get that. They don't know me though, right?

So they don't and they don't know that if I stole, I answer to a higher authority that I don't want to answer to God. So I need to figure out what I'm doing with this money. You know, like they're suggesting an annuity and I'm not very familiar with annuities and I've had other people caution me on annuities and I just don't know what I'm doing, frankly.

Yeah, sure. Well, I think temporarily it's very possible to get more than the FDIC limit of $250,000 in one bank if they have this feature available. Oftentimes they will take in place differing amounts with, you know, banks in their network and they'll manage it all out of one account, but they'll move it around for you so that you're not above the $250,000 limit in any one bank.

They may use the Intrify network or some other cash sweep type account, but basically they place the money within a network of banks so that you have no more than the limit. So that might be something to ask about. You may need to move to another bank to get that done. Obviously it'd be great if you could stay right there, but just see if they can make that feature available to you. If not, you can do that yourself. You just have to open a second account to get the additional coverage because the only other way to do it is to have a different titled account, but this all needs to be titled in the same way. So that's not going to work for you.

That would solve the temporary issue. And then the question longer term is what's the best way for you to handle this money just given your father's needs? What are you looking to do with the money? I mean, are you, does he need to draw an income from it or are you just wanting to protect it? What's really your main goal here?

Well, it's both because between his social security, two pensions and a VA disability, he gets two thirds of what he needs for his memory care. Yeah. Let's do this. I've got to take a quick break. We'll finish up on the other side. If you can hold right there, Mona, we'll be right back on faith and finance. Stay with us. This is our final segment of a faith and finance live program that we previously recorded.

Thanks so much for being with us today, and we hope you'll stick around and enjoy the rest of the program. We've got two Mary's holding one in Tennessee, one in Texas, Mary and Mary, we're coming your way in just a moment. Before the break, we were talking to Mona. Mona has taken guardianship for her father who has dementia and recently sold his house for more than the FDIC insured amount. So we were talking about how she could perhaps ask her bank to not exceed the $250,000 limit by placing it within a network of banks, or she could do that herself. But there's also just this question of what to do with the money to generate the income that he needs. Mona, you were saying about two-thirds of his monthly need for memory care and his expenses comes from guaranteed income sources, but that one-third still needs to come from perhaps other assets. Is that right? That's correct. And so between what we approximate is with the sale of the two cars of the house and all the belongings, that money, just that money is enough to cover his care for the next four or five years. So I need some access to the money, but I also need to protect the money, right? Because if my dad is 84, his grandma lived to be 99 and she had dementia later in life.

So he could very well live another 15 years or not. I don't know. So what do you have from the proceeds of the home and all these other assets? What's the total amount that you have available? It's about $400,000.

All right. And what is the monthly need that he has this one-third that's not already covered? About $2,100.

Okay. Because, you know, typically I'd say let's try to invest that and, you know, we could pull 4% a year. That's $16,000. That's not going to quite get it done, you know, because that's $1,300 a month. But even if you bump that up to, you know, $2,000 a month, $24,000 a year, you know, it's going to start to, you know, eat away at this money, but it should last longer than just a few years. You know, if you have $400,000 and you pull, you know, eight, well, you wouldn't even need 8%, you'd need 6% a year and you get $24,000, that's $2,000 a month. I mean, you know, I would, that's a little more than I would like, but it's not an inordinate amount of money where this is still going to last a good while. So what I'd probably do is set aside, you know, maybe six months expenses in a savings account that's earning, you know, right now four plus percent a year. And then I would take the rest and hire an advisor who could build a portfolio that, you know, has the majority of this in bonds, which will do well as interest rates fall, and then a stock portion that's going to add a little bit of growth over time. And then just set up an automatic transfer to his checking account of whatever you need per month, you know, right out of the account and the advisor would plan on that.

And let's just, you know, see if we can make this money last as long as possible. Am I allowed to do that as a fiduciary guardian, work with an advisor and move with money like that? That I'm unsure of, because I've never been anyone's guardian.

Yeah, I mean, you should. Do you have a power of attorney over the situation? I have the higher status, which is the guardian. So that means I'm acting as my father.

Okay, yeah. So you're able to do what's in his best interest, which in this case, you're just trying to protect and grow his money so you can cover the needs that he has on a monthly basis. So that would be my next step for you is to find that advisor that could help you set up the investment plan and create the passive income stream back for covering his bills, but also have the ability to grow this over time. Do you have an advisor that you would want to work with? Well, I have an advisor myself, but I from listening to your show, I'm going to switch to a Kingdom advisor, but I have not been able to do so because between my mom getting diagnosed with terminal cancer and being the main caregiver of my father and they live 10 hours from me. So I have had a very rough nine months with my mom passing, trying to take guardianship of my father, get him moved and him moved back to Cleveland, Ohio, where we're from. So it's just been very, very, and I'm one person, right? I'm trying to have a career and I'm trying to keep my life together.

I get it. You got a lot on you right now. Well, there's some wonderful CKs there in Ohio, if that's where you'd like the relationship to be, but you can just head to our website, faithfi.com, click find a CKA. That'd be where I would go next, Mona, but you're doing a great job. I know you've got a lot on you. Can I pray for you before we go? Thank you.

That would be nice, Rob. All right. Father, we just lift Mona up to you. Lord, she's got a large responsibility on her. And so we just ask that you'd give her wisdom. You'd give her endurance, Lord, as she is navigating all of these decisions and caring for her dad, which we know just honors you, Lord. We just ask that you'd be near to her. You'd give her an extra portion of strength in the midst of this, and you'd surround her with just godly advisors where needed. And Lord, we just tell you today, we love you and we trust you. And we just ask that you'd watch over her dad in this season of life as well, Lord. And we ask all this in Christ's name.

Amen. Well, Mona, God bless you, and thanks for calling. If we can help further along the way, don't hesitate to reach out. Let's head to Tennessee. Hi, Mary.

Go right ahead. Mary, are you with us? All right, we're going to see if we can get Mary back on the line. We'll head to another Mary in Texas. Mary in Texas, go ahead. Yes, I am retired.

I was widowed and I married a widower, so we have things separate. I'm selling my separate home and was wondering, I want to keep my money fairly liquid because it's possible I would like to buy maybe some vacation property or something, but it's going to be, I'm going to say, approximately $200,000. And I was wondering, is it better to just put that in a bank, maybe in some lettered CDs, or put it with my financial advisor or split it?

What would you recommend? Yeah, Mary, what is the time horizon on this? How quickly do you think you might use this money? I don't know. Okay, could it be in the...

I'm going to say probably the next year. Okay, yeah, so I wouldn't invest it. I wouldn't necessarily put it with your advisor. I think right now there's a great opportunity, even without locking it up in a CD, to get more than 4% in a high-yield savings account. So you could go to bankrate.com and just do a quick search and see which of the online banks that are highly rated have the best high-yield savings accounts right now with FDIC insurance. And with the amount you're talking about with a couple of hundred thousand, you're under that FDIC insurance limit, so you've got the backing of the full faith and credit of the United States government. But being able to earn 4% on this money, if you have $200,000, you could bring in another $8,000 in the next 12 months, and it's completely liquid and safe. And I think with that time horizon, that's the right approach. I mean, you could get another percent or so with a one-year CD, but you also would lose access to it if you decided you wanted to do something a little quicker.

So I think you could go either route, but just given the short time horizon here, I'd probably go with a high-yield savings. Okay, I appreciate that. Thank you so much. All right, Mary, thanks for your call today.

Oh, we appreciate it. Hey, let me mention something to you. You know, so often as we think about our financial lives, we can allow finances and the things that money can buy to become an idol in our lives. A 17th century mathematician and theologian, Blaise Pascal, said this. He said, there's a God-shaped vacuum in the heart of each man which cannot be satisfied by any created thing, but only by God the Creator made known through Jesus Christ. See folks, God made people for relationship with himself, which is why we have that God-shaped hole in our hearts.

Unfortunately, men and women have been choosing other things besides God since the beginning of time. Often the things we try to cram into that God-shaped vacuum are related to money. Everything would be great, we say, if we only had more money or a bigger investment portfolio or a bigger house or a different job or financial security. Now, here's the thing though. The minute you put yourself and your own financial desires in the center of your life, well, you've created an idol there.

And I can do this just as easily as you can. An idol replaces the Lord in your mind and your heart and has no power to satisfy you. Work can become an idol. All kinds of things can become an idol. And so what we need to do is get back to recognizing God is our true treasure and he needs to be at the center of our lives and we can't allow anything to replace him in our hearts.

Let's be on our guard against that because it's so easy to do in our materialistic culture. All right, we've got Mary back with us from Tennessee. We're going to take this as our last call today. And Mary, delighted to have you back.

Go right ahead. How can I help you? Okay, I want to know how I go about doing the transfer on death for my house. I've got everything in my will and I've got everything as beneficiary to my two sons. The only thing we have to go through probate is my house. I'd like to know how to avoid that. Yeah, unfortunately, Mary, you're in Tennessee, correct?

Yes. Tennessee does not allow a transfer on death deed. So unfortunately, that's not going to be an option there. So really, your two options are one, just to handle it through your will, which means it would go through probate, or you'd have to set up a trust, a living trust.

And that could, in fact, allow you to pass the home outside of probate. I'd probably just schedule a meeting with a godly estate planning attorney just to talk about it and find out what the cost would be. If you don't have one, you can head to our website, faithfi.com, and click Find a CKA. And any one of those Certified Kingdom Advisors would be able to give you a referral. Mary, I'm glad we got you back on today, although I wish I had better news for you.

God bless you. Hey, before we wrap up today, let me remind you, you know, financial decision-making can often seem overwhelming, seemingly endless decisions about money. But we can boil it down into something perhaps a bit more simple. All we can do with money is live, give, owe, and grow. There's the money we spend on our lifestyle, the money we owe for debt and taxes, the money we grow for the future, and the money we give to the Lord's work. And all of those are addressed in scripture.

Every one of those have principles that we can pull out of God's word. Our hope and prayers that we can help you do that on this program each day. Faith and Finance Live is a partnership between Moody Radio and FaithFi. Let me say thank you to my team today. Have a great rest of your day, and we'll see you next time on Faith and Finance Live.