Is Facebook Your Financial Advisor?

Do you have a financial advisor? Or are you taking advice from your favorite social media platform? Hi, I'm Rob West.

Ads on social media like Facebook don't appear at random. Armies of skilled software engineers spend long hours targeting products to your deepest needs, wants, and fears. I'll talk about that today, and then it's on to your calls at 800-525-7000.

That's 800-525-7000. This is MoneyWise Live, biblical wisdom for your financial decisions. So the other day our team came across a post by personal finance blogger Anthony Isola. He was lamenting the state of social media advertising and its ill effect on society.

He'll get no argument here. Not only does this advertising encourage impulse spending, leading to ever more debt, the products it pushes are often at best useless and sometimes actually harmful to your financial health, as the author goes on to claim. Isola makes the case that there is a type of psychological warfare going on in social media, but only one side is aware of it. Social media software engineers are using sophisticated algorithms to collect, analyze, and exploit your buying weaknesses. You can measure their success by the hundreds of billions of dollars in advertising revenue, and the sale of your personal information raked in by the founders of Facebook, Google, TikTok, Instagram, Twitter, and YouTube.

The key to this success is getting you to stare at your computer or smartphone screen as long as possible. The author calls this stealing your attention. Getting you to scroll to, see, and click on an ad results in more dollars for the social media oligarchs. Now, just how are they doing that? Well, ad designers had many choices for how ads could be crafted and targeted at unsuspecting consumers.

These might include faith, love, friendship, and patriotism. But apparently that's not where the real money is, except in what we might call niche markets. The biggest returns, it seems, come from darker emotions. Social media ad designers soon realize that fear and anger pay better. The reason for this is something known as negativity bias. Researchers discovered that, sadly, we're likely to stare longer at something that's destructive or harmful. YouTube videos of cute kittens might cater to a niche crowd, but far more people will camp on a video showing a car crash or a bridge collapsing, and therefore the ads that accompany it.

Here's another example. New York University conducted a study that found tweets containing moral outrage greatly increases retweeting, and Facebook posts containing themes of social unrest double the number of likes and shares. Now, obviously this is disturbing information that we should all be aware of, but what does it have to do with your finances, and particularly your retirement plan? Well, remember that doom and gloom pays. The author noted the frequency of social media ads shouting warnings of economic Armageddon just around the corner. You absolutely must buy this book or that video series to find out how to survive.

The cost of those products isn't the real problem. It's the often bogus financial advice they hand out. This may lead people to cash out their retirement portfolios, buy far too much in gold or other precious metals, or any number of risky investment schemes. The author contends that Facebook has become the financial advisor of far too many people.

Now, how do you avoid that? Well, one of our favorite verses is Proverbs 15-22. It reads, Without counsel, plans fail, but with many advisors they succeed, but it's key to choose the right financial advisor. Kingdom Advisors co-founder Ron Blue says you want someone who's been trained and has committed to be a person of character, someone with a biblical worldview to serve you with financial advice so you can confidently navigate financial decisions as a faithful steward and not react in panic when you see a disturbing ad on Facebook. Having a godly Christian financial advisor, such as those earning the designation Certified Kingdom Advisor, has three blessings. It provides accountability from a third party, it provides security and familiarity for a surviving spouse, and the objectivity of a third party to bring wisdom into troubling situations. As a financial planner, Ron Blue successfully advised clients for decades, but even he has used the services of a financial planner for years.

You can't make a stronger argument than that. So instead of falling victim to some financial scheme on Facebook, go to MoneyWise.org and click Find a CKA and set your fears aside. That's MoneyWise.org, click Find a CKA. Your calls are next, 800-525-7000. Delighted to have you with us today on MoneyWise Live. We're answering your calls and questions today on anything financial. We've got some lines open. Ryan Hansen managing our phone lines today, we'd love to take your call and get you on the air.

800-525-7000, that's 800-525-7000. Also coming up on the broadcast today, we'll tackle a couple of emails that came in to us recently. One on the tithe, that's right, John writes, is the tithe still for today?

Isn't that a part of the Jewish law, which was replaced by the law of Christ? I'll weigh in on that, plus Brandon and Christy wrote, we're struggling to get on the same page financially. It seems like all conversations about money end up in fights. What advice do you have for us? I'll tackle that one as well. If you have a question, you're welcome to send it to us.

Questions at MoneyWise.org, that's questions at MoneyWise.org. Our coaches will always reply with a personal response and many of those questions will get on the air. All right, let's head to the phones. Youngstown, Ohio is where we begin today. Derek, you're our first caller, sir. Go right ahead. Hi, Ron.

I was calling, I didn't expect to talk to you, but I was calling that. Just I had a question on, so my credit card, me and my wife, more me, but out of hand here and it's like up to $15,000. My question is, should I stop investing in our Roth IRAs and if I put that over into Discover, maybe I can have it paid down by March or April 2023.

Yeah, I actually would do that, Derek. You know, if you're not getting a match of any kind, and this is just after-tax contributions you're making to a Roth, you're not going to get on that money, you know, 15, 18, 22% return, whatever is equal to the interest rate on that credit card as a guaranteed rate of return. And that's what you're going to get with every dollar of debt that you paid off. You're guaranteed not to pay that kind of interest. And so it makes sense to suspend those Roth payments and let's look for every available dollar to get that credit card debt paid off down to zero.

I'd also challenge you to do a couple of things in addition to that. One is go back to that spending plan and make sure you're really dialed in, that you have an accurate reflection of what your spending plan is so that you can make really hard decisions about where to cut back. Because the key to getting out of debt is going to be margin, that is living within your means so that you have something left over at the end of the month to pursue your goals that align with your values. And I would say as long as you have at least $1500 in an emergency fund, which is key because when the unexpected comes, that's where you go first to break the cycle of relying on the credit cards. But once you've got that $1500, then I'd put every extra available dollar, including the money you're going to recapture from suspending the Roth contributions toward that debt reduction to get it paid off as quick as you can. And I'd love to see if you can even maybe accelerate that to year end instead of February just by looking for places to cut back. You could also, with this amount of debt, look at a debt management program. Anytime you have more than $4000 in credit card debt, it'll really help you to consider using debt management because these interest rates would be dropped and you would pay through the credit counseling agency to get these credit cards debts paid off, on average, 80% faster.

If you wanted to consider that option instead of going it alone, I'd connect with our friends at christiancreditcounselors.org to at least analyze the debt that you have, have them share with you what the new interest rates would be in debt management, and then you'd pay through them. But regardless, to your initial question, I would suspend those Roth payments for the reasons I mentioned. Does that make sense? Yes, it does. Thank you so much because I really did not. I was in the dark right there and I really shed a light onto my past, so to speak. Good. Well, glad to hear it.

Well, happy to do it. And you stay on the line, Derek. We'll get your information. We'll make sure you get a six-month pro subscription of the MoneyWise app. If you use it, and our team would be happy to help you at no cost to get it set up, you can download all your transactions, you can develop your spending plan using the digital envelope system so you can stop the cycle of overspending because when the digital envelopes are at zero, that category is done for the month.

And that could go a long way in helping you all get on top of your spending so that way, as this debt is coming down and eventually paid off, you can redirect that money not just into additional lifestyle spending, but really into the goals and objectives you have. So stay on the line. We'll have somebody get your information.

We'll reach out to you, get you that six-month pro subscription, and then one of our MoneyWise coaches can help you get that spending plan set up. We appreciate your call today. 800-525-7000. It looks like we have three lines open. Let's head to Chicago. Nick, thanks for calling. Go right ahead.

Hi, Rob. Regarding I bonds, inflation bonds, when purchasing online, can you name a beneficiary on the online order form? Yeah, you can name a beneficiary or a second owner, but not both at the same time. Now, either the second owner or the beneficiary has to be a person, so not a trust or a charity, and then if you'd like to leave the I bonds to multiple people after you die, you just make separate purchases and name a different person for each bond. And if you'd like to name multiple beneficiaries on an existing I bond, you'd have to split it into parts and name a different beneficiary on each part. But the bottom line is, yes, you can absolutely name a beneficiary, and you do that when you set up the account at treasurydirect.gov. I see. And if you had really just like one person in mind, second owner versus beneficiary, what would you opt for?

Yeah, well, if this is really truly money you just want to leave at death as opposed to having a second person named on the account, I would just name them as a beneficiary, and then it'll pass outside of the probate process directly to that individual at death. Oh, great, great, great. Rob, thank you very much.

I appreciate your help. All right, God bless you. We appreciate your call, Nick. One line open, 800-525-7000.

Quickly before the next break, Charlie in Grand Rapids. Go right ahead. I've got a question. I've heard that to give your money a little bit, part of your state before you die to know how they spend it, how do you actually look at that without saying, can I ask my kids to show me your books?

How do you do that? Yeah, just in terms of evaluating their financial readiness and maturity, Charlie? Yeah, you know, if we're getting the money, I'd like them to spend it wisely, but sometimes I do have questions as to how they spend their money, and just a little better insight on that.

Yeah, you know, that's challenging. I mean, obviously, unless they're willing to kind of share the inner workings of their finances, you're really just going to be left with observing kind of how they're going about things, you know, to the extent, you know, you can observe their lifestyle choices, you're observing, you know, their, you know, some of their giving decisions to the extent that's made known, but a lot of it, unfortunately, you don't know, just because, you know, they could be living, you know, you know, in a lifestyle that you deemed to be excessive, and yet they're still living well below their means. And so I think, you know, a lot of it is just having a close relationship with them. So you're hearing the things they're talking about, the things they're thinking about, are they talking about giving, are they talking about their vision for their generosity and the things that they've been able to do, not in a boastful way, but just in a way to celebrate God's activity.

You're observing their lifestyle and the decisions they're making with regard to, you know, everything from cars to homes, not that you're trying to be judgmental, but just to assess their financial readiness. At the end of the day, it's a discernment issue. I think that you've got to make a matter of prayer as you think about is the next steward chosen and prepared. Charlie, hang on the line.

I'm going to send you a book called Splitting Ayres that I think will be a great encouragement to you on this very topic. And we'll be right back on MoneyWise Live. Stay with us. Thrilled to have you along with us today on MoneyWise Live. I'm Rob West. This is where we apply biblical wisdom to your financial decisions and choices. 800-525-7000, two lines open, perhaps for what you've been thinking about in your financial life.

We'd love to hear from you. Before we head back to the phones, the market's green across the board today. We're building on a four-week win streak with the S&P 500 closing higher along with the Dow Jones and the NASDAQ. In our final segment of the broadcast today, Bob Doll stops by, chief investment officer at Crossmark Global Investments, Wall Street veteran and frequent contributor to Fox Business. Bob will be here to share his insights for the week, what he's looking at and thinking about as he analyzes the markets and the economy that's coming up a little later in our broadcast today. All right, back to the phones we go. Cleveland, Ohio. Linda, thank you for calling. Go right ahead. Hi, Rob.

Thanks for taking my call. I'm actually calling on behalf of a friend, so I don't have as much information as I should have, but basically I had lunch with her over the weekend. She injured her leg, I think it was last May, this past May. She works in an industry where she's on her feet all the time. I think she helps serving or catering. She hasn't been able to work, finds out that her leg hasn't been healing as it should and she has to go for additional surgery. When we were talking, her question is, where do I even go?

What do I do? I don't think she's eligible to retire. I would put her in her early 60s, so I don't think she's on Medicare yet. I don't know what kind of programs, and I thought of you guys. I didn't know if there was someone she could talk to, like an advisor or just someone to suggest, hey, this is out there.

You probably don't even know about it. Well, a couple of thoughts. First, I'm so sorry to hear about her difficult spot that she's been in.

I'd offer three suggestions. The first is perhaps just making her local church aware of the situation. They may have a benevolence fund to help members in this very situation.

And so I think this is where the body of Christ, the picture is coming together to help one another, bear one another's burdens, and I think this short season is perhaps why they have their benevolence ministry if they do. So a lot of times we don't think of that or perhaps we don't want to ask for that type of assistance, and yet it's there for that reason if there is such a ministry at your friend's church. I think second, has she looked at the possibly applying for Social Security disability based on her work record?

I don't know that. Okay, so I would have her go to SSA.gov, and if you're not currently receiving benefits on your own Social Security record and you're unable to work because of a situation like she's in, that's what Social Security disability is for. And that could be an opportunity as long as she has the proper number of credits to be able to get that kind of assistance. So SSA.gov, and then I would look to local organizations. My team tells me that they're in Cleveland. There's an aging and disability network called ADA Cleveland.org that you could look at locally.

So I think between Social Security, any local assistance, and her church, those would probably be the first three that I would go to as she explores opportunity for some temporary assistance. Okay? Okay, great. Thank you so much. All right, Linda, thanks for calling.

800-525-7000, we have one line open to Florida. Prem, thank you for calling. Go right ahead. Hi there. You're on MoneyWise Live. Can you hear me? Yes, I can. Okay, great.

If you'll turn your radio down and go right ahead. I'm actually in a very bad spot where I have a big debt because, unfortunately, my wife had filed a divorce since two years, and I used up all my credit cards maxed out. And the bills keep coming every month, and I don't know how I'll be able to pay those, so I'm facing a big challenge. I can't withdraw from this attorney because it's coming to an end, but it'll take three months at least to complete the case, but there will be big bills again.

So right now, I am facing where I'm paying minimum payments to the credit card, but I need to get more money. Yeah, yeah. What is the hearing for, Prem? Is it something you can walk away from, or is it something you need to see through? This is the divorce thing that my wife has filed, unfortunately.

Yeah, so that's a challenge. I mean, obviously, that starts with open communication with the attorney just to make sure the attorney is aware of the situation you're in. You may be looking at a situation where you need to file bankruptcy. Just because you do, if you had to for protection, doesn't mean you need to walk away from the debts. I think you have an obligation to repay.

The Bible is pretty clear on that, but within your ability to do so, and that may take time, and it may not happen in the timeframe that you want. Clearly, it's in your best interest to try to keep these current, perhaps checking with our friends at ChristianCreditCounselors.org to see about a debt management program. If you could get on a level monthly payment that fits into your budget, but with much lower interest rates, that would be helpful because now we'd actually have something going toward principle. But I want you to avoid, at all costs, taking on additional debt just because of the situation you're describing.

So I think it's really a matter of visiting with the attorney, letting them know the situation you're in, seeing if they can work out a payment plan or a pay-over time or something that would allow you to keep all of your debts paid. Obviously, going back to your spending plan and looking for every available opportunity to cut. I mean, this is where I'd put in that May Day budget, Prem, where you're looking at the big four, keeping the utilities paid, keeping the rent or the mortgage paid, keeping gas in the car so you can get to work, and keeping food on the table. And everything else is negotiable because at this point we need to try to cut, cut, cut to free up margin so you can keep the debts current and obviously finish out this divorce proceeding with representation.

So I know it's a tough spot. We're going to ask the Lord to give you some wisdom in this. If you want one of our MoneyWise coaches to walk alongside you, we'd be happy to do that at no cost. Just connect with us at MoneyWise.org. Thanks for your call, sir. We'll be right back on MoneyWise Live. Stay with us. Thanks for tuning in today to MoneyWise Live where we apply God's wisdom to your financial decisions and choices.

All our lines are full, so sit back and enjoy. We have some great questions coming up. Before we head back to the phones, let me just mention in our next segment of the broadcast, Bob Dahl is with us talking about the market and the economy. Are we in a recession?

Well, maybe not. Some new data out indicates we may see upward revisions on Q1 and Q2, and we may actually be positive in the third quarter of this year. Bob will weigh in on that, inflation, oil prices and more. By the way, if you're concerned about these volatile markets that we're in and you'd like to seek a professional investment advisor or financial planner, consider finding a Certified Kingdom Advisor, a CKA in your area. These financial, legal and accounting professionals have completed rigorous high standards related to character and competency, pastor and client references, and they've completed a rigorous training on applying biblical wisdom to professional financial advice. All that goes together to give them the seal of approval for Certified Kingdom Advisor. You can find a local CKA in your city.

Just head to MoneyWise.org and click Find a CKA at the top of the page. All right, back to the phones we go. To Idaho, Jen Lynn, thank you for calling.

Go right ahead. Hi, thank you for taking my call. I have a question about life insurance. My husband just had to retire because he had gotten diagnosed with prostate cancer and had the surgery and he was fine, but he did have to retire early because he couldn't go right back to work. But we had a term life insurance policy through our county where we both worked, and when we went to port that after he retired, it was so expensive per month. It went from $30.50 a month through the county to when we ported it for whole life, it went to $499 a month. And that's before they knew that he had the cancer.

We hadn't gotten to that point because we hadn't talked to them yet. So my question is, I mean that's definitely not something we can afford. Our insurance gentleman that does our cars and everything, they have a life insurance gentleman there who is looking into all the different policies. He's looking into Midland, which he said the issue is the fact that he had cancer. He never had to have chemo or anything, but they have all these questions. So in searching for a whole life policy, a thing that we can afford is globe life insurance reputable to go through.

They don't do the exam or anything for him for a whole life policy. Yeah, I'm not familiar with that company in particular. You could look at their AM best rating, which would be the most reputable rating service as to the strength of that particular company. Obviously, if he's going to need to go with that kind of policy where there's no underwriting, you're going to pay a good bit more. I would continue to look at whether there are other options. There may not be, but obviously different companies look at different medical conditions in a different way, and so you may not be as highly rated with one versus another.

As to how you should seek out the best option for him, there's a couple of options you could choose. One would be kind of an online life insurance search engine. The two that are probably the biggest are SelectQuote and PolicyGenius.

So selectquote.com, policygenius.com. You can put in all the information and it'll go out and quote it with all the big term life insurance companies. In this case, it would probably be better to have an independent agent who's looking at it for you. It sounds like you already have one.

If you'd like another to shop this for you, you could contact a certified kingdom advisor there in Idaho, Jan Linn, and then ask for a referral. They would all have a life insurance agent that they use who would typically be not a captive agent but somebody who's independent who writes on lots of different reputable companies and could help guide based on the medical situation to the one that's the best fit. So I think those would be the best options. At the end of the day, if you have to choose a policy that doesn't require medical underwriting, just know that it is going to be more expensive but it still probably makes sense to pull away from the county provided policy because either A, there may not be enough coverage and the key is to try to get the coverage you need and then B, it does tend to get a lot more expensive when you separate from the company and so that's where having your own policy probably makes a lot of sense. Is that helpful? Yes, so I haven't retired yet myself but I did pull away from that and not put any more money into the term life but he's also looking at a whole life policy for myself also.

Yeah, I'd probably stick with term and just save outside of that and just get a term equal to when you all plan to retire for you when you plan to retire because the idea is if you're saving for retirement outside of an insurance product, you're probably going to do better over time in a tax-deferred environment with investments not linked to an insurance company which tends to be complicated and expensive but when you do that, hopefully you're building up enough assets so that when you retire, the combination of Social Security plus your retirement assets means that you drop your life insurance because at that point, you don't have a spouse depending upon you for your income and vice versa and that need for life insurance goes away at that point which is why buying the pure insurance, the term insurance with the proper amount of coverage for a stated period of time and then saving and investing outside of that is usually the most effective way to go as opposed to an expensive whole life policy which kind of combines the two but the mortality expense, the life insurance component of it as you age is obviously going to get more and more expensive. Okay. That makes sense. Okay.

Okay. Well, I will definitely go through our person and otherwise, I'll maybe go to Pinkerton here in Coeur d'Alene and see what they can offer us. Yeah, and you can check those online quotes as well as select quote or policy genius and Jan Lynn, we appreciate your call today. Larry's in Idaho as well. Larry, how can I assist you?

Yes, thank you for taking my call. I am a school bus driver. I don't make a lot of money but I'm able to, I'm 74, I'm still working. I've got a 401k through my school district that I am additionally putting into and just the last, since April, it has really taken a beating. I've lost like about $800, I mean the percentage has gone way down. So there is in the, it's a total return type fund where they put some money in bonds and stocks and it's been really good but this last three or four months has just gone way down. There is one little part of that fund that I could put it into, I could switch it over to like just a bank account where they only really pay like less than a percent but it's safe.

You're not losing anything. And I wondered, I'm going to work probably another year and continue to contribute. Should I leave it there because I'm buying shares per price?

Yeah. Yeah, let me ask you, when you retire Larry, would you start living on this immediately, pulling an income or would you let it continue to grow? I would let it continue to grow.

Okay. Yeah, I'd probably ride it out just because I mean look at what's happened to the market, you know, the last four weeks we've recovered in many cases depending on the index half of what we lost. We could have another down leg but I think by the time you retire and especially if you're going to keep it invested beyond that and even not pull any withdrawals from it, you've got a long time horizon here so I'd let it recover.

When it does, then that's the time to look at shifting the allocation. We appreciate your call. Hang on the line, we'll talk a bit more off the air and we'll be right back. I'm so thankful you've joined us today for MoneyWise Live where we come together each afternoon to explore the Scriptures, to recognize God owns everything that we have and we just want to be found faithful in that. Well, we do that together here on this program as we meet every day. In this segment of the broadcast, we'll be joined in just a moment by our good friend Bob Dahl. Before we do, let me just encourage you to consider MoneyWise Media in your giving.

That's right. MoneyWise Media is listener supported which means that we bring you this broadcast each day plus our MoneyWise app and our MoneyWise coaches and all of our great content in the app and at MoneyWise.org as a result of your generous support. Would you consider a gift? We'd certainly appreciate it. Whether you become a monthly patron or make a one-time gift, we certainly could benefit from your assistance. You would head to MoneyWise.org, click the donate button. You'll find three ways to give. You can give online securely. You can give over the phone through a toll-free number. One of our team members would be happy to assist you or you can drop a gift in the mail and you'll find our mailing address there.

Again, MoneyWise.org, click the donate button and thanks in advance. All right, Bob Dahl joins us today. Bob is Chief Investment Officer at Crossmark Global Investments at CrossmarkGlobal.com. He's a frequent contributor here in Fox Business.

He's also an industry veteran. Bob, you've seen a lot of markets and it seems like we like to say, well, this time is different. I guess it never really is, huh? You know, as they say, history doesn't repeat itself, but it rhymes. Having said that, Rob, we don't have a playbook for post-pandemic and that's still what we're dealing.

I know COVID seems like a long time ago, but the dislocation in our economy when we turned it off and then we turned it back on and created all those supply line problems, they're still with us, Rob. So it's still an uncharted period. Yeah. Bob, we've been talking about that dreaded R word the last several weeks, maybe months now. There's some new data out that you were talking about in this week's commentary related to not only the third quarter, but perhaps even revisions for Q1 and Q2. Give us an update.

Sure. Q1 and Q2, to remind listeners, was negative GDP. Lots of people think two down quarters makes a recession. There is some evidence that's bubbling up that one or both of those quarters could be revised to an up number. The minus number was pretty small. And then the Atlanta Fed, which does a great job tracking the economy, estimates two and a half percent real GDP for the third quarter. It's still early.

That number will bounce around, but we might not have a recession in 2022. Yeah. Interesting. Bob, we've obviously been talking for a long time just about supply chain problems. And, you know, more recently we heard about potential for food shortages. Can you give us an update just on that whole supply chain conversation? Yeah, still problems.

No question, Rob. And there's no visibility into them ending, but they are slowly getting better or maybe I should say it less bad is among the reasons that inflation is beginning to fall. So that's good news.

Yeah, that's great. Bob, you said perhaps no recession, still jury's out, but perhaps no recession this year. You didn't say no recession, period.

You said this year. And obviously there's better news, I guess we can say, on perhaps a peak in inflation. But if we're stuck at that four or five percent level, it seems like a recession is inevitable. Is that right?

That's probably right. To remind everybody, inflation through June trailing 12 months was 9.1 percent with a good number last week for the month of July. It's now, can I say, only 8.5 percent. So we're going the right direction.

We've got a long way to go. And our fear, Rob, is that by the end of the year, inflation will be running on an annualized basis. It's four to five percent, not two. And two's where we were and two's where the Fed would like to take us to get to two. Let's assume we do get to four to five to get to two.

We'll take a whole lot more work and perhaps force a recession. Yeah. All right. Well, we'll certainly keep an eye on that. Bob, as we think about, in closing here, aligning our values with our investments, it's really a new day with regard to the opportunity to do that. What would you have the average Christian to know who's listening today, who really wants alignment between the capital they're deploying in investments and their values as believers?

First of all, back to what you said before I came on, it is all God's. And so we have to recognize that we have a responsibility and an opportunity to take care of what God's given us, everything, including our money. And relative to five or ten years ago, the number of choices that investors have for mutual funds and ETFs is much larger than it was before. So I encourage listeners to really think about lining up all their lives with their values, including their investments. That's great.

Well, Crossmark Global is where investments and values intersect. And if you'd like to sign up for Bob's Weekly Dolls Deliberations, you can do that at crossmarkglobal.com. Bob, have a great week, my friend. We'll talk to you next Monday. Sounds good.

All right. Let's see, back to the phones we go. We have just a short amount of time. We'll get to as many calls as we can. And we appreciate so many of you being so patient holding on this program today. To Bradenton, Florida, we go. Tanya, thank you for calling. Go right ahead.

Yes, I was calling because I know like people say you should, I mean, your investments say that you should save up like six months expenses. But I was wondering, do you put the whole amount in there or can you take, you know, take your tithe and offer off the top first, then put it in? I see. Yeah, it's a great question, Tanya. And I love where you're going with this question because clearly you want to honor the Lord with your giving. What I would say is as we give proportionately and if we want to apply the principle of the tithe, which is to give off of our increase. So whatever our increase is, whether that's your paycheck or an inheritance or a gift, it's all your increase.

To be able to say, Lord, I want to give systematically a tenth of this back to you because it's all yours and put it into your kingdom, starting with your local church. You would do that before that money is allocated to your emergency fund. So you would do that off the top from your provision, from your increase. And then after you make your tithe and any other giving you want to do and pay your bills and your obligations, hopefully you're living within your means. So you've got a little bit of what I call margin or leftover at the end of the month. And that would be what you would put into your emergency fund until you reach three to six months expenses, whatever you're most comfortable with. At that point, that emergency fund is fully funded.

And so then we'd move on to other goals. Do you want to increase your giving? Are you saving to purchase a car for cash, trying to put a kid through college education? You know, maybe we're saving for a down payment on a house. All of that comes from our margin, which we use toward our goals that align with our values. But we build up that emergency fund after we do our giving, in my view. Does that make sense?

Yes, it does. Thank you so much. All right. I appreciate your call, Tanya. Thanks for checking in with us today. You know, folks, we had a great email that came in over the weekend from John, and he asked this question about the tithe.

I'll quickly mention it before we take our final caller today. He said, Is the tithe still for today? Isn't that part of the Jewish law, which was replaced by the law of Christ? And, you know, those who believe we're still required to tithe will often cite Genesis 14, 20, where Abram gives a tenth of his victory spoils to Malchizedek, who's described as the priest of God Most High. They tend to point to Genesis 28, where Jacob pledges to give back a tenth of all that God would give him.

So those examples occurred, of course, before the Mosaic laws were handed down. But again, the thinking is that tithing then didn't end with the old covenant, and therefore still applies. Perhaps, you know, God left this question open to debate on purpose, so that each of us would have to make our own decision about our tithing and our giving, because that exercise reveals our hearts.

And to be fair, I think both sides of this issue involve folks that recognize that we should support the local church. That's clear, that we need to be giving to support that work. And I would submit that we think about perhaps the tithe as just the beginning point, what Randy Alcorn, the author, calls the training wheels of giving. At the end of the day, though, we know God owns everything, he doesn't need our money, he wants our hearts, and giving is an opportunity to reflect his incredible benefits and all of the things that he's entrusted to us, starting with his son that he gave us, which gives us an abundance even before the first dollar.

So as we think about giving as an act of worship and an act of obedience and demonstrating our trust in him, I would submit you start with the tithe as a beginning point, and then move from there toward sacrificial giving. But John, we appreciate you asking that question today. You can email us a question if you have one at questions at moneywise.org. All right, let's round it out today in Tampa, Florida. Bridget, thank you for calling. Go right ahead.

Hi, thank you for taking the call. So the questions that I've been rattling around in my brain for the last two weeks is that I've got a little bit in savings, and I'm trying to buy a new car, and then I also came into the opportunity to buy a property, which is fairly cheap as well. So I'm just trying to figure out, you know, do I need to put more into one or the other, or do I need to just split it down the middle, or trying to figure out how am I divided up?

Sure. Well, I mean, two different assets entirely, Bridget, that we've got to consider. Number one, you know, if you're getting to a place where you need a car, that's critical, just because that's how you're going to get to work, and that's your means of transportation, as opposed to just an investment. One's a depreciating asset, the other is obviously an asset you'd be looking to buy for appreciation. Furthermore, to complicate things, it's a terrible time to buy a car, just because car prices, both new and used, are through the roof. So I would say if you don't have to buy that car right now, I'd wait.

If you do, then you need it for transportation. And so, you know, the extent to which you can wait and save and buy later, I think makes a lot of sense. If you're in a position to buy that piece of property, that's great, and you could save toward that. I would just make sure that you can go in with at least 50% down and that you're ready to be a landlord and understand all the implications that come with that. This is a tough one.

I'd give it a lot of prayerful consideration, Brenda, but if you want to do both, excuse me, Bridget, if you want to do both, splitting, I think, between the two makes a lot of sense. We appreciate you checking in with us today. MoneyWise Live is a partnership between Moody Radio and MoneyWise Media. I want to say thank you to my team today, Amy Rios, Dan Anderson, Ryan Hansen, Jim Henry. Thanks for being here. Come back and join us tomorrow. I'll see you then. Bye-bye.