Let’s Be Honest

For Christians, honesty isn't just the best policy.

It's the only policy. God's Word commands His people to be honest. I am Rob West. You know, perhaps nowhere else are we more tempted to be dishonest than with money. I'll talk about the case for total financial honesty first today, and then it's on to your calls at 800-525-7000.

Call that number 24-7-800-525-7000. This is Faith and Finance Live, biblical wisdom for your financial journey. Well, the Bible is filled with directions for living the Christian life, but not all of them made it into the Ten Commandments. Exodus 20 verse 16 reads, You shall not give false testimony against your neighbor. That's a very broad commandment. It doesn't apply only to legal proceedings or even finances, for that matter. It means we are never to be dishonest anywhere at any time. The word neighbor here doesn't mean just the people living next door.

It means anyone who isn't you. Now, I know what you're thinking. What about Exodus 1, where the Israelite midwives deceive Pharaoh to protect infants, and Joshua 2, where Rahab lies to save the Israelite spies? Why are those cases seemingly acceptable to God? Well, those were times where two conflicting moral imperatives collided head-on, telling the truth and saving lives. Because we are made in the image of God, saving human life obviously wins out, and that's what the midwives and Rahab did.

But it's very unlikely any of us will ever be in a similar situation, so let's get back to why honesty is so important for the rest of us. And that's simply because it's so fundamentally important to God. He's completely and utterly holy and cannot abide sin of any kind, including dishonesty. God is truth. Jesus says in John 14, 6, I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. Compare that to Satan, whom Jesus describes in John 8 44 as a liar and the father of lies.

The world is watching to see which side we're on. We're image bearers of God, so we must always be scrupulously honest. Now, as we turn to financial honesty specifically, you might wonder why we're not focusing on another commandment, thou shall not steal, which comes right before thou shall not lie.

I don't think that's a coincidence. Those two commandments are linked and expand on each other. It's difficult to do one without doing the other. When it comes to finances, they're two sides of the same coin. How can you steal without first being dishonest? How can you be dishonest with money and not be stealing from someone? Now, one of the things we say a lot on this program is that money in itself isn't important to God.

It's only a tool. And if that's true, you may wonder why not stealing was important enough to make it into the Ten Commandments. Well, God already owns everything. So no, money isn't important to him, but honesty is because he is honest, always truthful, and always keeping his promises. In Luke 16, the parable of the dishonest manager, Jesus says, one who is faithful in a very little is also faithful in much, and one who is dishonest in a very little is also dishonest in much.

You see, Jesus is talking about money there, and more specifically, he's teaching that how we manage it is a measure of our character. We've talked a lot about honesty, but what about dishonesty and the consequences of it? Well, obviously, knowing that we'll have to stand before the judgment seat someday to answer for every lie we tell should be a strong disincentive. But there could be other, more immediate consequences.

We take a risk when we're dishonest with money. We could lose God's blessing in our affairs, and that doesn't have to involve money. Consider Romans 12-2.

Most of us are familiar with the first part of that verse. The whole verse implies that there's a blessing in doing God's will, a key part of which is to be honest in all of our dealings, financial and otherwise. Not a financial blessing necessarily, and often something even better. For example, one blessing you receive by handling money honestly is that you reduce your stress level.

Even if it costs you money, you have peace of mind in knowing that you're pleasing God, the one who gives you everything. So there you have it, the case for biblical honesty at all times in all places, including your finances. All right, we're going to take your calls next at 800-525-7000. Those lines are open 24-7, 800-525-7000. I'm Rob West, and this is Faith and Finance Live, biblical wisdom for your financial journey. Stay tuned. Thanks for joining us today on Faith and Finance Live.

I'm Rob West. We're ready to take your calls and questions today. 800-525-7000 is the number to call. We've got some lines open and we'd love to hear from you.

800-525-7000. Before we dive in, you know, I was thinking just the other day, we live in the most prosperous nation this world has ever seen. I was actually looking at a study that says if you're in the bottom 5% of the American income distribution, the bottom 5%, you are richer than 68% of the world.

Well, if that's true, and it is, and this is, in fact, the most prosperous nation in the history of the world, then why so much discontent? And I believe the key to that is that money can't satisfy. You see, the purpose of money is not to get more of it. The purpose of money is to accomplish a set of goals that should be driven by and informed by our values. And when we look at Hebrews 13-5, it says very clearly, keep your lives free from the love of money.

Be content with what you have, for God has said I will never leave you or forsake you. You see, it's not just that He is the source of our abundance, He is our abundance. And when we understand that perspective, and we see money and place money in its proper role and context, and we then are freed up to handle money in such a way that it's evident that God is our true treasure, He is our source and our abundance before the first dollar, well then it changes everything about how we handle His money. We want to help you approach your money with that mindset, but also help you make the practical decisions and choices that come your way every day. So give us a call today, we'll apply the wisdom and principles from God's Word to the decisions you're making right now as you manage God's money as a steward. 800-525-7000 is the number to call. Alright, let's head to Nashville. Faye, thank you for being our first caller today. Go right ahead.

Yes, I have a question. I'm fixing to turn 68, and I retired two and a half years ago. And my husband had 10,000, no, I think it was 10,000, invested in a credit union, and he's getting 4.25 on that. And he invested four months. Well, he was taking a look at my 401k, and he's thinking about taking a total of 25,000 out, and of course 5,000 will be the 20% penalty for the taxes, and so, and then he's going to invest 20,000 in the credit union for two years at 4.25. Well, the only problem with that I see is that that will only be $1,800 in two years. I call it a loan and paying it back.

And so, in two years, you would have $1,800, and then it's going to take almost six years to pay that 5,000 back. Yeah. Were you actually thinking of taking it, Faye, as a loan against the 401k or a withdrawal, a distribution? Withdrawal.

Withdrawal. Okay. Yeah.

So you actually wouldn't be able to put it back in? Well, I'm just saying, you know, like, it's in there, but if I take the 20% and pay that off, you know, pay that tax, I've got 20,000 to deal with. Yeah, I see. Okay.

Okay. And so then you turn around at 73, it's either going to be 72 or 73, and you're going to have to take 27.4% out and pay taxes on that. And it looks like to me, I may be wrong, but it looks like to me, you have 5,000 in there, and you know that's guaranteed.

It's getting like 33.2%, which is not a lot, but it's not bad. And so, but if you take that 5,000 to pay to get that out of the taxes, and then it's got, you know, every year you're, for me, you've got to break even. And so it's going to take over five years to get that. Yeah.

Yeah. I would agree with you, Faye. Here's the reality. I mean, these rates right now are very attractive because we haven't seen interest rates like this in a long, long time. And so the idea that we can get a guaranteed with FDIC insurance, five, five and a half percent, you know, through a high yield savings or locking it up for 12 or 24 months and getting that out of a CD is very appealing. And for someone who's in your season of life, especially given how long it's been since we've seen interest rates like this, I can appreciate why your husband is saying, well, why would we pass that up? That's just too good. And yet we have to look at the bigger picture because let's say, I mean, you said you all are 68.

Let's say the Lord tarries, you're in good health. We need this money, at least from a planning standpoint, to last another three decades. So what is the best long term strategy for your retirement slash investment assets to be able to last through age 100, if that's what we're going to plan to?

And because we take that perspective, I would agree with you. It's not wise, in my view, to be pulling money out of your retirement plan, paying the tax on it when you have the ability to let that continue to grow in a tax deferred environment until such time as you have to take it out as a required minimum. But that's getting further and further down the road. And you still only have to take a small portion out and you could pull it out as a qualified distribution and replace current cash giving that you were doing as a separate strategy. But this only works as long as you're invested.

I wouldn't want you sitting on the sideline. Now, typically, if somebody called me and said, Rob, I'm 70 years old. I'm trying to preserve what I have, but I wanted to be an income generator. What would be the right mix of stocks and bonds? Well, I would say as long as you've got at least six months, maybe a year in cash, and that's up to you, then I would say the right mix of stocks and bonds at age 70 is 40% in stocks and 60% in bonds. And by the way, bonds are going to do very well as the interest rates start heading down next year. And if they said, that seems a little too aggressive, I'd say, OK, well, then let's go 30% stocks and 70% bonds. But I'd have at least 30% in stocks.

Why? Because that's what's going to give you the growth component to the portfolio so we can overcome inflation because these high interest rates are probably temporary. These rates are going to start heading back down. And now all of a sudden you've got money outside of the retirement plan, which means everything you're investing it in is taxable now as opposed to tax deferred. And you're no longer getting the five and five and a half percent rates because rates have fallen.

And I'd rather that money be in this investment account, invested in an appropriate mix of stocks and bonds that's appropriate for your age and risk tolerance and goals and objectives, but has the ability to grow because we've got that 10, 20, 30 year time horizon on it. Does that make sense? Yeah, it does. But I'm going to tell you this. It's been like, well, anyway, it's fixed.

Three point three two percent. OK. Yeah. And it's fixed. And so, but is that are you all do you have a conviction of staying in the guaranteed portion of that retirement plan? Yes, because we're afraid, you know, something will bottom out and all this stuff and it ain't no great time.

I mean, I worked all my life, but there was a breaking time in there. And so but it is what it is. And but no, that's OK. But see, I guess what I would say is what I would prefer. And you're the steward.

So you and he need to feel absolutely have a peace of mind about this. What I would prefer is you have an adviser that helps you manage this and you get it out of that three point three and you put it in 60 or 70 percent in bonds, which you're paying four percent and they'll grow as the interest rates come down. And then you have a small portion in stocks.

And that gives you a much greater growth potential as well. Let's do this. I've got to take a break, but I want to finish this conversation on the other side. So you stay right there. We'll be right back. Great to have you with us today on Faith and Finance Live.

I'm Rob West. We've got three lines open eight hundred five to five, seven thousand. Before the break, we were talking to Faye in Nashville. She and her husband are in their late 60s.

They're retired. They've got some money in a retirement account and a guaranteed investment at three point three percent. And then Faye's husband has some money that he's placed in a higher yielding banking product that's guaranteed getting five percent plus. And he's wanting to pull a portion of that money out of the 401K to drop it into that five percent plus fixed investment there at the bank. And she and I are saying I'd rather not do that, rather not pay the taxes on it, maybe for slightly different reasons.

But the same big idea. And that is, I think the opportunity you have, Faye, is to keep that money as long as possible in that tax deferred environment and then pick from the investments that you want in there. Now, one option is you could roll that 401K out to an IRA and then you've got complete discretion over it.

It could stay right there in the in the IRA and you could still buy CDs and get, you know, four or five percent with the whole thing and not pay the tax on it. What I'm saying is I'd like for you to consider taking a longer term perspective. Keep in mind in this country, when you reach age 65 as a male, your life expectancy is 82.

As a woman, your life expectancy is 85. Now, none of us know the day or the hour the Lord will call us home. So we don't want to presume upon the future. And yet you still have a long term perspective or you should with this money. And that's why when we when we recognize, OK, even at 70, I need to think in terms of having this money around for decades. That's why I'm saying it makes sense to take at least a portion of it and move it into some fixed income type bonds or even a very small portion and put it into stocks. But I think the big idea, whether you do that or not, is I'd rather see you keep this money.

As long as you've got enough liquid cash for your reserves, keep as much, if not all of it inside that retirement plan. Amen. Amen.

And that's what I was thinking. And I mean, I said I just couldn't. I had to get some advice because I was trying to get somebody to see my way. I don't I don't think that's a good idea. And they turn around at 73.

They have to do it for real. Yes, ma'am. Well, don't tell him I'm picking sides, but hopefully that helps. And if I can assist you all further down the road, give me a call. God bless you, Faye. Thanks for being on the program today. We appreciate it.

To Austin, Texas. Hi, Misty. Go right ahead.

Hey, Mr. West. Thank you. I am 57 years old. I have been investing in my company's 403 B for the last 33 years.

So I have a sizable amount. They just started offering a Roth option. And I am wondering if at this stage I Roth would be beneficial at all.

Yeah. You know, you're not going to get the maximum benefit, which is the tax free growth, which is most effective when you have a long runway and you can let that grow on a compounded basis, you know, for a long time. The benefit, though, of doing that is I kind of like you having two buckets to pull from in retirement. And as long as you have earned income, you could continue to fund this Roth 401K and then eventually you could roll it to a Roth IRA. But the nice thing about that is you don't have to take the money out. So if you didn't need it because you had enough between Social Security and your traditional 401K, when you get to the required minimum distribution age, you wouldn't.

There is none for the Roth. And that way it could continue to grow so that, you know, you could give it away to charity or ministry or leave it as an inheritance. So I kind of like that option. The other benefit is we're paying the taxes now. And you could argue that we're probably in the lowest tax environment we're going to see into the future. I mean, we know the Trump Tax Cuts and Jobs Act is going to expire in 2025 unless somebody renews it. Probably not going down.

If anything, it's going up or staying the same. And so you get the benefit of the Roth of going ahead and paying the taxes now and hopefully lower marginal tax rates. And then it grows tax free and you don't have to pull it out. So even though you're not going to get as much benefit, I kind of like you having these two buckets kind of growing together and then you can decide how to use them down the road. So do you suggest me putting half of what I'm I think that would be fine. Yeah. Or you could switch and just let the current contributions grow in the in the traditional and you just start moving into the Roth from from here on out.

I think you could go either way or split it between the two. OK. All right. That's all right. Thank you. All right. Misty, thanks for your call today. Eight hundred five to five. Seven thousand is a number to call. Let's see.

To Lewiston, Idaho. Victor, go right ahead. Yeah, I was wondering, I got about one hundred and fifty thousand dollars in my 401k and I was wondering about moving it into an IUL. Yeah. And what are you trying to accomplish with that IUL, Victor?

What's appealing to you about that? It just says where I can borrow against the amount that's in there. If I need money for sale and buy a pickup or something, then it doesn't touch the principal.

It stays there. That's one point. Yeah.

Yeah. You certainly can borrow against an index universal life. That is true. I guess the downside that I wouldn't be as excited about is just there's a cap on the returns. So, you know, often these companies, these insurance companies will set what's called a maximum participation rate of less than one hundred percent. So you're not going to get the full upside. There's no guarantees. So they often include maybe a guaranteed interest rate with a whole life policy.

But with an IUL, it's based on the index that's selected. And then they're just there's a lot of fees and other costs, premium expense charges, administrative charges, riders fees, commissions, surrender charges. And you don't any longer have full access to your money if you need it. So I think that that one benefit that you mentioned of being able to borrow on top of, of course, you know, the fact that, you know, you've you've got some other flexibilities, maybe a floor on the downside. I think that's a pretty big trade off for what you're giving up in the way of cost, lack of access to your capital and the limited upside potential. So for that reason, that's not going to be my favorite option. If you like it, I'm not one who says never is there a place for an annuity or an insurance product like this.

I just would rather see you leave that money outside and roll it to an IRA, have full use of it when you need it, invest it exactly the way you want to and not have some of the complexities and costs that come with an insurance product. That's just me. But hopefully that gives you some food for thought. Thanks for calling today. We'll be right back on faith and finance live. Stay with us. I'm so thankful you joined us today for faith and finance live. I'm Rob West, your host, and we're excited to take more of your phone calls today at 800-525-7000.

Also, Bob Dahl will be stopping by in our next segment. Market's been under some pressure lately. Yesterday, very strong to the upside. The week prior, we sold off and we've been to the downside so far today. Market closed down at least the Dow about a half a percent.

Same on the S&P, a little more than that, about 110 points or 0.8% on the NASDAQ. We'll get Bob's take on all of it. The markets, the economy, the economic data we got last week. That's coming up with Bob Dahl, chief investment officer at Crossmark Global Investments. All right, back to the phones.

We go to Chicago. Anthony, you're next on the program, sir. Go ahead. Good afternoon, Rob. I'm having a little trouble hearing you, Anthony, so maybe just move one direction or the other.

Let's see if we can get a better signal and then I'll get you just to start the question over. Well, just my mother passed from that facility, I'm a cancer a couple of years ago. Her lawyers send us money from past employers that expose her to asbestos. And we've each got, each sibling has got about $30,000 so far to keep on sending checks. I just want to know what's the best way to invest that money since she gave you all the price and of course donate some, but what to do with that money?

Yeah, yeah. Well, you know, as I had said earlier in a different context, you know, the purpose of money is to accomplish a set of goals informed by our values. So I think we have to start there with our values. What's most important to us? What is God doing in our life?

What is it we're trying to accomplish? There's only four things you can do with money. The money you live on, the money you give, the money you owe, and the money you grow. And if we look at kind of the priority use of that, you know, we would certainly, you know, want to give first.

The Bible is very clear to the first day of the week, give freely and cheerfully, proportionately. Then we would want to look at opportunities to grow the money, which is what you're talking about investing in, but that starts with an emergency fund. So we want to make sure you've got some good reserves, a cushion.

We usually say three to six months expenses. And then beyond that, we'd want to look at owing. How can we reduce our debt levels? Do you have any high interest credit card debt? Well, that would be a no brainer.

If not, is there a higher interest consumer debt? And if not, then, you know, the last thing we would do is look to increase our lifestyle. And there's nothing wrong with that. I mean, you may decide, hey, I want to take a trip and I'm going to take a portion of this money and just enjoy it.

I think that's very biblical as well. But as you just kind of take a step back and think about those opportunities to give and to save, starting with emergencies, and then if you've got that for longer term, which is where we would look at investing or paying down debt or increasing lifestyle or just enjoying portion of it, where do you feel like this money you would want to go with it? Well, I have emergency money. I mean, I have debt at least. So just, like I said, once I donate my type and we keep on getting checks, so where to go with some kind of investment. Yeah, great. So the great part about that is you can do what's called dollar cost averaging.

We talk a lot about that. And that's just a fancy way of saying when you make a systematic investment, think of what people typically do in their 401K. But in this case, you'd just be taking those checks, that stream of income. And every time you receive one, you drop it into another investment. You're buying when the market's high. You're buying when the market's low.

You're buying at all points in the market. And that ability to dollar cost average in is a very effective way to invest over the long haul. In terms of where to put that, as long as the time horizon is a minimum of 10 years, I would say you really have a great opportunity just to invest in any way you want. With that amount of money, you don't want to probably buy individual stocks. You'd want to buy through mutual funds or exchange traded funds. So you have a basket of investments that gives you good diversification. So where might I go with that?

Well, I'll give you three options. One is, if you had a conviction to only invest in companies that were aligned with your values and avoiding companies who aren't, I would look at some of the faith-based investing fund families on our website at faithfi.com. Just click on the show, like Eventide, like Praxis, like Crossmark, like Guidestone, some wonderful fund families that are faith-aligned but will seek to grow the money. And you could just make an automatic systematic investment.

Maybe you'd open an account at Fidelity or Schwab and then just every time you get a check, you'd reinvest it. If you wanted what's called an indexed approach, which is just where you're buying the broad market indexes, I mentioned the Dow Jones and the S&P 500 and the NASDAQ. Well, the Dow Jones is the 30 largest companies. The S&P 500 is the 500 largest U.S. large cap companies.

And the NASDAQ is heavily concentrated in the tech sector. If you just wanted to kind of capture the broad moves of the market, then I'd recommend probably the Schwab Intelligent Portfolios. It's basically just a very low cost but automated way of buying these broad market indexes. And after you answer a series of questions, it would determine, based on your age and risk tolerance, which indexes to use, how much in stocks versus bonds. And then every time you invest or put a deposit in, it would just automatically rebalance it. And then the third option is if you wanted something a little more hands-on, our friends at soundmindinvesting.org could help you with some mutual fund suggestions.

That's what they do and they work all the way down at the level of those who are just beginning. Does one of those sound like it might be more of what you're looking for than another? Yes, the Schwab Intelligent Portfolios. Yeah, so you could just type that into your search engine, Schwab Intelligent Portfolios. You'd open an account, you could do either a retirement account if you want, like a Roth, or you could do just a traditional brokerage account. You'd answer a series of questions, you'd probably end up paying about a quarter of 1% a year.

But the nice thing is every time you make a deposit, whether it's 10 or 20 or 30,000 on the front end, and then let's say you're adding 100 or 200 a month to it every time you get a check, there's no transaction address, it automatically reinvests it, and you would just kind of capture the broad moves of the market over time. I think that'll give you a great option, Anthony, that you'll be really pleased with. Hey, thanks for your call today. Quickly to Broward County, Florida, where I was born and raised. Kevin, go right ahead, sir.

Hey, Rob. I'm 24 years old. I've been married just two years now and we are out of debt thanks to your program. We have no debt whatsoever. We have $25,000 in a high yield savings. We have another $7,000 in an emergency fund. And I guess our only financial obstacle really is we've been renting for two years, but the landlord finally wants to sell the unit to us.

So I think it's an opportunity to take, but I'd rather hear from you. Yeah. How much are you going to be able to put down? My realtor said maybe three to five percent.

Why only three to five percent? Just because that's all you have to put down? Not really. I could put down more, but I guess to keep the numbers. Yeah.

So a couple of thoughts first. I mean, first of all, congratulations, Kevin. I mean, I love what I'm hearing. You're 24. You're newly married.

I mean, you guys are just starting out in such a great place. You have no debt. You've got savings. You've got an emergency fund. You're doing it right.

And that's just incredible. I would love for you, especially in light of where these interest rates are, and if you have the money, I wouldn't touch your emergency fund, but I'd try to get up as close to 20 percent down as you can. Even if the bank's going to lend you 97 or 95 percent of the purchase price, I wouldn't do it. I'd try to get up to 20, get rid of the PMI. If you can't get to 20, that's fine, but get as close to it as you can. And the goal will be to keep that principal interest taxes insurance payment at 25 percent.

For you guys, because you have no debt and because you're in South Florida, maybe you need to go to 30, but I would try to keep it 30 percent or lower. I've got to take a break, Kevin. So you and I'll talk a bit more off the air, and we'll be right back on Faith and Finance Live.

Great to have you with us today on Faith and Finance Live. You know, Bob Doll's normally with us on Mondays, and yesterday was Monday and the market was green and we didn't have you on. And now all of a sudden we have you on, Bob, and everything's red. I don't know what's going on here. I think you need to call me on the green days, not the red days.

I think that's probably a good plan. So why is it red? And we have been cooling off a little bit from this red hot market this year, which nobody could believe, but we've been taking a little bit of a breather the last week or two, huh? Yeah, the NASDAQ down four out of the last five days yesterday, the exception. Market's just a little tired, and I guess the fundamental reasons for that are earnings are still coming through, but they're a little more mixed. I cite Apple's number. It was a fine number, but expectations were kind of through the roof. We have that. We have signs that wage growth is not slowing like people had hoped, and that at the end of the day could be the bugaboo for the Fed.

Year-over-year wage gains are still 4.4%. That's a far cry from two, Rob. So I think there are some of the issues that's causing the market to say, and valuation, I should have put that right up front. I mean, I look at my screen and I see the PE is over 20 times. That's expensive. It sure is. Yeah, no doubt about it. So a lot of, obviously, cross-currents, we've been talking about that all year long, which I think just given what stocks have done and how they're priced today, PE ratios, means probably the next six to 12 months continues to be choppy, I guess?

Is that what you're thinking? Choppy would be good news in my view. I fear we're going to have more of a setback along the way. I mean, look, let's face it, we talk every week. You know, we've been invested in reasonably constructive, but we should have been pounding the table because the S&P 500 year-to-date is up 17%.

That's like two good years back-to-back and we got it in seven months. So yeah, we think that a lot of good news is priced in and the news from here may be more neutral. Yeah. Bob, what about the housing market? You know, so many people were just talking to a caller a moment ago who's wondering, is this the time to buy?

I was talking to Dale Vermillion earlier today. He said consensus from Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac's economist is that maybe we finish the year next year, 24, maybe in the low fives on interest rates. You know, that combined with the fact the housing market has slowed its growth, but it certainly in most parts of the country is not dipping. What would you say to the person who's kind of sitting on the sideline wondering what to do in the housing market?

You know, if you have patience and flexibility, I would continue to be a bit patient. You know our view, Rob, that we're going to have a mild recession in that environment. I would expect real estate prices to come down some. They have held in far better than almost everybody thought, especially with, as you point out, the rise in interest rates and therefore mortgages.

Yeah, yeah, very good. And then what about oil? Obviously, oil has been up in recent days, which has been good for the energy stocks.

But where do you think all that's headed? You know, oil was up again today, buck the trend of most of the red ink. Oil is up in the last two, three months, about 20 percent. Of course, it fell earlier in the year. And our guess is the path of least resistance for oil prices is likely to continue to be higher.

Remember, it's difficult to get a permit to drill in most places in the U.S. these days, at least new places. And so supply has been curtailed and that's pushing prices up. Okay. Well, Bob, we always appreciate you updating us. I know week to week it's more of the same.

And yet there's always some new wrinkles that give us an indication of where this is all headed. We appreciate you stopping by, my friend. Don't forget to buy low and sell high, my friend.

I will do that. It makes me remember back in the days when I was in the business, you know, my dad, I would manage the clients. My dad managed the money and he would walk through the hall saying, buy low, sell high, buy low, sell high.

I would just laugh as I pass him. All right. See you next week, Bob. Have a great week. That's Bob Dahl, chief investment officer at Crossmark Global Investments, where investments and values intersect. You can sign up for his dolls deliberations, his weekly investment commentary. I read it every week. You should too.

You can do that at Crossmark Global dot com. All right. Let's head back to the phones as we round out the program today to Tampa. Philip, you've been very patient.

Go right ahead. Yeah. My wife and I, we both 72 on Social Security and we have a term life that has matured and they want us to keep it.

But at the same time, the price is up about 800 percent. Yeah. We want to know if we should go to a whole life or look for a new term life or what do you suggest?

Yeah. Well, the idea with term life is you definitely don't want to keep it past the term. That doesn't doesn't make sense. As you're pointing out from a cost standpoint, the question is whether you all still need life insurance at all.

It's 72 years old. You know, typically I like that you had term because you bought the pure insurance so you didn't mix it with a savings vehicle. You just paid for the true mortality costs of offsetting that risk that you or your wife or both of you as wage earners, if something were to happen to you, the other would have a hardship during your working years. But if you're now retired, you've got Social Security, you've got your retirement assets. If the Lord were to take one of you home, it doesn't create a hardship for the other. So is there really a need for this life insurance? I would say for most people, the answer is no.

But give me your thoughts on that. Well, we got about 35,000 in savings and we still pay in a mortgage. Okay, well, 800 a month, so we didn't want to put another 500 stress on our, you know, finances.

Okay, $40 a month to $261. Oh, yeah, no, no, you definitely don't want to do that. What I'm saying is, do you need that life insurance? I mean, do you and meaning do we replace it? You would you would never want to keep the existing term policy 800% higher.

That's going away. The question is, do you replace it with a new term policy, which is going to be expensive or a new whole life which is going to be expensive? I'm saying you don't need life insurance at all, unless I'm missing something. But what do you think? Would you be okay not having any life insurance? Well, I want to agree with you, but I don't know if my wife is going to agree with me. That's what a problem. What's the purpose of it?

What would be the purpose of it? Well, you know, I had prostate cancer a couple of years ago, and she said, I need some security. But that phase is over, and I'm doing fine now. So well, but if the Lord take you home, what's going to change in her financial life? Is there income that would go away if you died? I don't think so. So then she's not in any worse shape financially.

She's in exactly the same shape today. So it's just doesn't make sense for most folks to add what would be a major expense to their finances in this season of life. Because insuring your life, especially with your health history and your age, it's going to be very expensive.

And there's just not a need for it. It's like saying, Well, we're going to keep the car insurance, but we sold the car. Well, why do we have the car insurance if we don't have in this case, your you have inch life insurance to cover the loss of an income? Well, your income sources are already locked in there, your assets and your social security, you're not working. So there's nothing that goes away at your death or her death that would create a hardship for the other person. And for that reason, there's not a need for the insurance.

So you get to drop that expense, which just means you have more every month that she can stick in a savings account. And 10 years from now, if the Lord is still has more for you to do, you guys will have built up quite an estate by putting those what would be those expensive insurance premiums in a savings account. Great.

We didn't look at it from that perspective. But thank you very much. That's so great. All right, Philip, God bless you, my friend. Thanks for calling today. Let's finish in Franklin, Tennessee. Hi, Sarah, go ahead.

Hi. So I have a I have debt 15,000 in debt. And I'm proud to say I've had my car for 240,000 miles on it. Well, it's come to it comes with a crossroad where I need a lot of work on my car, about $2,500 worth. And I really want to keep it, you know, and everyone's saying, No, don't do it, get rid of it.

And yeah, amazing. Well, usually, here's the rule of thumb. And I love driving cars as long as you have we turned in our last minivan with 250,000 miles. But generally, the rule of thumb is if the repairs are more than 50% of the value of the car, or more than one year's worth of payments, it probably doesn't make sense. Now, that's just a rule of thumb. That doesn't mean that applies in every case.

But if you were to use that rule of thumb, how would that relate here? What is this worth? And is it are these repairs going to push 50% plus of the value? Oh, my car is probably not worth $1,500. That's not good.

No, really nothing. But yeah, so in that case, what you would do is you would say, you know, it just doesn't make sense to put that kind of money, which is significant into this car. And therefore, it's as much as hard as it is, it's time to part with it. And we buy a good quality older used car as well. But something that you're not going to keep pouring money into that just doesn't make sense. I see because there's no value in the car if I put 20. But what if I put 2500 into and I got another year out of it?

Yeah, yeah. But that's, I mean, that's a lot of money for 12 months. So yeah, 2500 over 12 months, you're spending, you know, $208 a month, I mean, you know, and then what do you have in a year, you're kind of right back in the same spot. So I think you're kind of getting to the end of the useful life of this car.

And the question is just, what's the right timing to say, Okay, I'm going to start over and as much as I don't want to, you know, I'm going to buy my next car and I'm going to drive that one to 250 or 300,000 miles. Oh, thanks for clarifying. I guess I keep my van and use it as a tiny house. Maybe there you go. I like it. Hey, God bless you, Sarah. Thanks for calling today.

We appreciate it very much. Donna in Austin, I wish I could take your question. Unfortunately, I would just be able to give you about 30 seconds and that's not going to cut it. So let's do this. I'm going to ask Amy to see if she can get your phone number and we can get you on maybe first tomorrow.

I'd love to chat with you there in beautiful Austin, Texas. So you hang on the line, Donna. We appreciate you being on today. Folks, that's going to do it for us today. I hope today has been an encouragement to you.

I hope you learned something. Let me say thanks to my team today. I couldn't do this without them. Robert Sutherland providing research today. Dan Anderson, engineering Amy Rios producing and answering our phone calls today.

The amazing Gabby T. Faith and Finance Live is a partnership between Moody Radio and Faithfi. May the Lord bless you and come back and join us tomorrow. We'll see you then. Bye-bye.