God Empowers You to Overcome Worry

With the economy as it is these days, and the effect it may have on your finances, it's easy to fall into the trap of worrying.

Hi, I'm Rob West. We should be concerned about high inflation, rising interest rates, and the Wall Street roller coaster, but when concern turns to worry, that's a problem. I'll talk about how to overcome it today with Jim Neuheiser, 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 journey. Well, we're excited to welcome our guest, Jim Neuheiser, today.

He's a former financial consultant and a gifted author on biblical finance. Jim, delighted to have you with us. Thank you so much. Jim, we're taking a peek inside your latest book.

I love it. It's a 31-day devotional titled Money, Seeking God's Wisdom, and our topic today is on worry. Now, I should mention first that all through November and December, we're offering this devotional for a gift of any amount at MoneyWise.org.

Just click the donate button at the top of the page. Now, Jim, on day nine of your devotional, you hit on a subject that many listeners may be experiencing these days, and that's, of course, worry, especially worry as it relates to money. So what would you share with them? Well, I so much appreciate that Jesus addresses very directly our worry when he says in Matthew 625, Do not be worried about your life as what you will eat or what you will drink, nor your body as what you will put on. And he goes on to describe how as God clothes the fields, he cares for the birds, that our faith can be small. We don't trust our Father to care for us. And when I look at this passage, I'm particularly amazed because they're worried about food and clothing and just necessities.

We're usually worried about our investments and our pensions and things like that. Yeah, that's exactly right. So what is he really saying to his disciples and to us as well in this passage as you read it? Well, when you get down to the famous verse 33, he's saying, Seek first God's kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you. And our calling in this life is to serve the Lord. And that can be through our vocation.

Not everybody's a missionary or in ministry, but to fulfill the calling God has given us and then to trust that he will meet our needs. Yeah, that's exactly right. And there's something fascinating about money, isn't there, Jim, in the sense that, you know, Larry Burkett used to say the way we handle money is the clearest indicator into what's going on in our lives spiritually. It's a tangible demonstration of where we've placed our trust. And perhaps when we worry, it's a sign that we're looking in the wrong place for security and even peace, right?

Absolutely. When Jesus even chides his disciples, he says, Oh, you have little faith. And I think we all struggle with really being able to trust God, especially when circumstances are difficult.

And you've seen your retirement fund lose a lot of its value and stock market and inflation. And there may be responsible things we should do about that. Jesus also says in verse 34, every day is enough trouble of its own. But ultimately, we have to put our hope in God and not in our investments.

Yeah. So what does it look like to keep maybe just one foot in this world but focus on what is to come, the eternal perspective? How do we do that, Jim? Paul said that whether alive or dead, my aim is to be pleasing to him. And I think just to focus upon loving God with all of our heart, mind, soul and strength, and that our mission in this life is to fulfill the course he's given us to run.

Part of that is to provide and to be financially responsible, but not to make this life everything. In the preceding context, Jesus warns against storing treasure up on Earth. Instead, we should be most concerned about treasures in heaven.

I love that. That's the treasure principle. Let's talk about that just for a moment here in our final seconds together. I think there's something about holding what we have loosely and giving generously that breaks the grip of money and really affects perhaps this worry that we have. Is that your experience?

Absolutely. There's such joy in being able to support the Lord's work, the church, missions, and that's an act of faith. We're expressing the faith Jesus says we lack when we say, I really trust God will provide for me even though I don't have this. And I trust my life will be better maybe with a lifestyle reduction and his work being done.

Well, and that no doubt will take your mind off the worry and put it where it should be on trusting the Lord for everything he has provided. Jim, grateful to have a few moments with you today. Thanks for stopping by. It was my pleasure. We'll be right back with your calls and questions.

Stick around. Great to have you with us today on MoneyWise Live. I'm Rob West, your host. We're taking your calls and questions today on anything financial. 800-525-7000 is the number to call. We've got lines open.

We'd love to hear from you. Again, 800-525-7000. Let's begin today with a caller named Sherry who called in and asked that we weigh in on her condo sale. In fact, it's a condo sale for her son. It's been on the market for three weeks and he's needing to move because of a job change. Well, she's concerned because it's been on the market three weeks wanting to know what she can do about it. And Sherry, I'll tell you, first of all, this market is changing with regard to the housing market.

There's no question about it. You are seeing a softening in the housing market where we've moved from a raging seller's market to more of a buyer's market. It was that you'd put a property for sale and within 24 hours, we'd get multiple offers.

Well, we're not seeing that. It's largely driven by the credible rise in the mortgage rates over 400 basis points higher in a very short period of time. That's reduced home affordability. You've also got the prospect of a looming recession and that could mean falling home prices. All of that really considerably driving demand down in the near term.

As a result of that, what do we do? Well, we just go back to our tried and true selling strategies for selling a home. It starts with making sure it's priced right and realistic. Having the help of a real estate professional to make that decision based on a comparative market analysis is really critical. So that would be number one.

Number two, and this sounds trivial but it's important, make sure you stage the property. That is, not having it cluttered. Maybe take a piece of furniture out, not having too many pictures of the family. Maybe go from 14 to 4. And then thirdly, making sure that you don't have any loud walls.

Maybe you need to paint something a more neutral color. Just looking at it from a buyer's perspective will really help. Again, this is where a real estate professional can be of great assistance.

So we want to set the right price. We want to stage the property and then we need a marketing strategy. Again, that's where a real estate professional could be of great help. It's not just about the MLS but we also need to make sure that we have a plan to get it sold beyond that.

And all of that points to having the right professional. Perhaps somebody who is specializing in your particular area of town or in this case your condo association. I hope that helps you but again, this housing market is changing. Not something to be scared of but just to recognize that perhaps the things that we stopped doing in the red hot market will have to return to as we think about being a little more patient than perhaps being a little more intentional to get a property sold. I hope that helps you, Sherry.

800-525-7000 is the number to call. We've got some lines open today and we'd love to hear from you with whatever is on your mind, whether that's thinking through your spending plan in light of these inflationary times. Maybe it's your savings, short term or long term and how to think about that. Perhaps it's dumping debt or your giving plan. Whatever it might be, we'd love to tackle your questions today.

Again, our team is here and we've got lines open. Today, also coming up with a broadcast, I'll tackle one of the Bible's most misquoted verses that actually has to do with money and it comes from 1 Timothy. I'll weigh in on that topic as well as we unpack scripture today and apply it to your life and your financial situation specifically.

Again, the number to call is 800-525-7000. You know, as we think about the things that we can do with money, we really can take these seemingly unlimited options that we have with money management and we can reduce them down to some simple categories that I think will help us think about managing God's money effectively. There's the money we live on and God's word speaks to that. We need to live within our means with contentment inside God's provision. There's the money we give and clearly we're to be generous givers with God's resources. It's a privilege we have and we model his generosity when we do that. It's also a way for us to participate in his activity. We then owe and we want to continue to dump debt over time. Borrowing is not a sin but it can rob God of an opportunity to work and it can put us in a situation where we get overextended so we need to be very careful with regard to our debt levels. And then finally, there's the money that we're growing, that which we're saving for either the short term or the long term and we want to put that under God's authority as well, establish financial finish lines for all of our savings buckets as we do that moving forward. And I think as we begin to understand the heart of God in the Council of Scripture, it allows us to make decisions with confidence that's aligned with our values and our priorities as believers.

And that's the ultimate objective as we live as a faithful steward. All right, let's head to the phones today. We're going to begin in Ohio. Lori, how can we help you today? Yes, good afternoon. I had a question about the I bonds. I missed the deadline to get in on the 9% rate and I was wondering, is it still a good idea to go ahead and invest in I bonds now even at this 6% rate? Thank you. Yeah, so the new rate is out today.

It's a great question, Lori. The new composite rate for the I bonds from November this month through next April is going to be 6.89%, slightly higher than we expected. It's still a great rate, not as attractive as the 9.62%. And I think, Lori, to your question, this is still a great opportunity as an investment. But let me help you think about what type of money you'd want to put into it. First of all, you can't put retirement money into I bonds.

You're not able to buy the electronic bonds with retirement assets like an IRA. So this would be for cash. This is not money that I would recommend you pull out of the market, certainly not money you would take a distribution from a retirement account. I think you need to think in terms of time horizon. So this is really money that you would earmark that you need to use within one to five years.

Why not beyond five years? Well, if you have a longer than five-year time horizon, even as attractive as the I bond rate is at 6.89% for the next six months, you're still, in my opinion, going to do better with a properly diversified long-term portfolio in stocks and bonds. You have the benefit of the compounding over time. Remember, these attractive rates on the I bonds are temporary.

They will revert back to the mean closer to where they historically have been below 2% in a matter of time as we get inflation under control. So I think with long-term money, five years plus, you're better off investing in the stock market and when possible in a tax-deferred retirement account. But if you've got money that is between one and five years and you would normally be in a cash or cash-equivalent type investment, that's where the I bonds can really shine because in these inflationary times, we are seeing these very attractive rates. And if it's going to be sitting in a savings account or some other type of investment like a CD, I'd much rather you get for $10,000 up to that amount per person per year, I'd much rather you get the I bonds. So if that fits what you have and the reason I say it's got to be longer than one year is that's the requirement.

You absolutely can't touch it for a year. If that's the case, though, Lori, I think this is a great option. Does all that make sense, though? Yeah, it absolutely does. That's very helpful to know not beyond five years. I wasn't aware of that, so that's perfect. Thank you. Okay, very good.

And that's not a hard and fast rule. Remember, these are 30-year bonds, so you certainly can keep them much longer than five years. I'm just saying if you have money that has a time horizon more than five years, my preference is that we invest that in stocks, especially right now where we can dollar-cost average into the market at pretty attractive levels in terms of we've seen a great sell-off, we've seen much better price-to-earnings ratios across the broad markets, and for that standpoint, I think there's a much better long-term potential in stocks and bonds than in the I bonds for sure. Thanks for your call, Lori. We've got some lines open, 800-525-7000. We'll take a quick break, but back with much more on MoneyWise Live.

Stay with us. Thanks for joining us today on MoneyWise Live. I'm Rob West, your host. We've got some lines open today for your calls and questions on anything financial, 800-525-7000. Let's head back to the phones to Michigan we go. Hey, Gail, thanks for calling. Go right ahead.

Hi there. Thank you so much for taking my call. I'm calling today about an inquiry if you could give me any guidance on purchasing long-term care insurance. I'm a single female, and I am almost 50, very close. I'm kind of in that stage of life where I have 401K and I have some, that all is working for me, but I'm kind of approaching this question about whether or not that might be something that would be beneficial for me to look into. Yeah, I like long-term care insurance a lot, Gail, so long as you could fit it into your budget. Typically, we look at this for folks, and this would be the majority of folks who have assets between $250,000 and $2 million. You would be prime in that range to need long-term care insurance. Beyond $2 million, you would self-insure below $250,000 in assets.

You would rely on government assistance. But in that range, this is, during that season of life, the thing that is going to erode your assets most significantly, or at least it has the potential to do so. 70% of Americans 65 and older will need long-term care, so I think it's definitely worth looking at. Typically, the time you want to do it is between 55 and 65. If you purchase too early, you'll be paying premiums for a long time, even though you can get more cost-effective policies in terms of the premium.

So I think sometime between now and 55 would probably be the time to begin looking at it. I would also get a long-term care insurance agent who really understands the space, looks at your health, and can help to quote you among the leading carriers, but with the company that's going to be the best fit for you to give you the highest daily benefit with an inflation rider. That'll be key, but also something that fits into your budget, because keep in mind, these premiums can increase not on individual policies, but in the aggregate, and they have and will continue to do so as we encounter the rising cost of health care. But having something to offset that expense in this season of life, I think, is really important. So I'm a fan of it as long as you can stick with it and you can afford it, just because it's offsetting what is probably the major risk that you face at this point. Does all that make sense, though?

Yeah, it definitely does. I'm kind of trying to figure out those things for end of, you know, farther on down the road where I may not have any particular family members who could provide any help with caregiving and that type of situation. So that prompts me to look into whether something like that would be beneficial, and I'm in that range that you say for assets potentially to be within.

Yeah, very good. And I think to your point, you want to make sure you can get the care you need, whether that's assisted living or in-home care or even full nursing care at that point where you're not able to perform what they call these activities of daily living, which triggers the policy. There are certain factors you need to consider, not only the daily benefit, and that's how they typically establish the value of these policies, but also the waiting period.

So that is the period how many days need to elapse before your payments would kick in. And then there's an inflation rider, and there's some other things you need to look at as you're considering the policy. But the key is, I think, to have something that's going to help you offset this cost that could be significant to get the care you need in the way you want it, but also that fits into your budget so you don't find yourself having to drop the policy because you can't afford it down the road, and then kind of all of that is lost at that point. So that's why I think it's important to do your homework, get a qualified agent who really understands this space and can help you navigate kind of the inner workings of these various policies before you make a decision. Sure. Would you have anybody to recommend?

Is there, like, on the website, someone that might be interested in that realm? Okay, great. All right. Thanks for your call, Gail. We appreciate you listening and calling today.

God bless you. 800-525-7000 is the number to call. Let's head to Chicago. Hey, Kimberly, thanks for calling. Go right ahead. Hi.

Thank you so much for taking my call. I am wondering about a situation that might be unique. I've got a mother-in-law that lives with us, and she is in hospice, and we're wondering if we should move the proportion of her funds to fixed annuities, if that makes sense right now.

Hmm. Yeah, I mean, you certainly could. I think the downside is you're locking up the money, and it sounds like, you know, if she's in hospice, you know, the Lord certainly could heal her.

He could take her home. But it sounds like, you know, the timeframe on that, you know, may be somewhat compressed, and with the annuity product, you know, there's a lot of fees and commissions up front, and we're going to lock up the money temporarily, whereas you may need to be able to or may need to get access to it. So I think from that standpoint, you've just got to decide, you know, what is available, how does it need to be used, and in what timeframe, and then allow the investment strategy, you know, to come out of that so that you have access to the funds when you need them.

You have the safety you're looking for, but also the ability to grow it because you're losing purchasing power with any of these assets in light of inflation. So given that, what are your thoughts? I just think the short-term risk is going to return a short-term benefit in this case because we are looking at someone who's in hospice, and I think, as you know, in order to, you can't keep growing the funds.

They have to be canceled and reopened by those that are inheriting them. That's right. Yeah, exactly right. You know, so that would be something to look into. All annuities aren't created equal, so I would make sure you get a competent professional to help you navigate what you'd be looking at. But that's certainly a way to offset the risk, make sure you have a guaranteed return, you know, for the period of time we're talking about, but you just want to make sure that the cost to go into it justifies the return you're going to get based on what you're expecting, you know, given her health situation right now.

If you need an advisor, you can find a CKA on our website, but I think you're on the right track here, Kimberly. We'll be right back on MoneyWise Live. Stay with us. Great to have you with us today on MoneyWise Live. Hey, we've got some lines open today.

We'd love to hear from you. The number to call is 800-525-7000. That's 800-525-7000 with whatever is on your mind today, financially speaking. We'd love to tackle it with you.

To Hoffman Estates, Illinois. Hey, Kurt, thanks for calling. Go right ahead, sir.

Thank you so much. Thanks for taking my call. Sure. I just have a question in regards to, in my portfolio, I have a stock mix of, I guess, AT&T and WBD, Warner Brothers Discovery, and some other short- and long-term market mix. But the one that I withdrew out some funds to invest in was the I-Bond to try to catch this inflation rate because my mix kind of lost me over 20% over the last year or so, you know, through my IRA. Yeah.

I mean, if you would have called me ahead of doing that, I would have discouraged you from doing that. And the reason is that, you know, the only way to recover those losses is to stay invested, and the market will recover ahead of the economy. Remember, the market looks out six months or more, and as the market begins to see us dealing with inflation, it sees the Fed beginning to take the foot off the gas pedal, and we've seen a little bit of this over the last four weeks with the incredible strength in the market. We will see a recovery and move to higher ground, and the only way for you to get that recovery is to stay invested and not lock in those losses. The other thing is the I-Bond really is something that's good only for short-term money. I'm saying, you know, a time horizon of one to five years because longer than that, you're not going to do as well in the I-Bonds. Even though it's a 30-year bond, they're going to revert back to where they historically have been, which is, you know, probably 2% or lower, whereas the longer-term growth prospects of a properly diversified stock and bond portfolio, even with these downward bear market periods, which we do have generally every decade or so, you're still going to do far better with a properly diversified stock and bond portfolio.

So long-term money, especially inside a retirement account, should stay invested, I think, in the market as opposed to trying to lock in losses, pull it out, especially if you're creating a taxable event, and then taking advantage of an attractive rate, but one that's very temporary and not going to last. Does that make sense, though, Kurt? Yeah, I understand that.

It makes a lot of sense. And actually, I just used some funds for my savings and just invested in just, you know, a minimum amount of like $1,000. You know, I didn't really take it out of my 401K. I just used my, you know, just regular monetary funds for that. Okay, good. Yeah, so I think as long as you have a time horizon of at least a year, you don't need the money for a year, but you don't plan to have it invested for more than five years, I think that's a perfect use of that money because it's 6.89% for the next six months, and the rate that will follow that, you know, starting next May, you know, will still be fairly attractive, I think, given that there's essentially no risk, and it's a relatively short-term investment one year plus.

Now, if you pull it out in less than five years, you're going to give up a penalty of just three months' worth of interest, but that's minimal. So I think for that type of money, I think this is a great option for you, Kurt, so I like that a lot. Oh, okay. Well, thank you so much. I'll just ride out the storm, and hopefully I'll be able to recover some of that 20% that I lost over the last year or so. Yeah, I'm confident you will.

Just be a little patient. You'll see that recover in no time, and I suspect, you know, a couple of years down the road, you'll be looking at higher balances than perhaps you've ever had before. So, Kurt, thanks for checking in with us today. We appreciate it. 800-525-7000 is the number to call. We've got some lines open today.

What's on your mind financially speaking? Give us a call. We'll tackle it together. Again, 800-525-7000. Let's head to Indiana. Cheryl, you're next on the program. Go ahead. Okay.

Thank you for taking my call. I have a question about HSAs. I just started a position at an insurance company about two months ago, and I enrolled in insurance, and they offered a high-deductible plan with an HSA, so I enrolled in that. And my husband, who's been with his employer for a while, he has his own insurance.

I'm not on his plan. He's not on mine, but he has a flexible spending account. So we had a webinar today about the HSA, and they made a comment that I could not be in the HSA and my husband have a flexible spending account.

I'm just trying to find a little bit more about that. Is that correct, that you can't have both of those even though we're not on each other's insurance? That is correct.

Yeah. If it's a general-purpose healthcare FSA, then you cannot have also an HSA with it. It would have to be what's called a limited-purpose FSA, which is only for specific purposes outside of what would typically be covered through the HSA. And so if you do, you're probably going to want to check with a CPA just to see what you need to do about that, have that individual look at the type of FSA you have and see if it's compatible with the HSA. The reason that's done is they don't want you to double-dip, essentially, on these two accounts if they have similar purposes. Now, there are real differences between the two, and I like the HSA better because it's not a use it or lose it. The unused contributions can be rolled into the next year. They're available for self-employed individuals. You can take withdrawals with a 10% penalty, and you, of course, got to have the high-deductible health plan with it. Whereas with the FSA, you've got to use the contributions by the end of the year, and you have to declare how much you want your employer to deduct. But they are not compatible in terms of even as husband and wife if it's a general-purpose healthcare FSA.

So I would check with your—you could talk to your HR department, but you could also check with a CPA, Cheryl, just to look at the two accounts and figure out whether they are compatible to have simultaneously. And if not, what you need to do to kind of unwind that and make sure you don't have any penalties down the road. Right. That's what I was concerned about.

I didn't want to be audited and have to pay taxes and penalties. Yeah. Yeah. Very good. All right.

Thank you for your help. You are welcome. Thanks for your call today. We appreciate it.

Back to Chicago. Susan, you're next on the program. How can I help you? Hi. How are you today? Very good. Thanks.

I have a question. A few years ago, I took out a home equity loan, and I have a balance of $32,000. Unfortunately, it's a variable rate. And now that the interest rates are higher, what used to be an $89 monthly payment is now $200. And that's interest only. I'm not paying off any principal. And I'm wondering, am I smart for my wife to take out money from my IRA to pay down the home equity loan to at least make it more of a reasonable monthly payment again? Right now, I have $700,000 in my IRA, and I'm 62 years old.

Okay. Yeah, you certainly could. I mean, obviously, the interest rate is pretty high. And given that you're not going to pay a penalty on it, it would just be added to your taxable income. I could see you doing that. I think one thing to consider, Susan, would be spreading it out over two tax years. So maybe you take half of the $32,000 this year. You could take the other half in January.

And then that would spread out the tax head over two tax years. But given the high rate and the amount that you're spending to service that debt with considerable assets in that IRA and a high interest rate now that's moving higher, I like the idea of you getting that paid off. We appreciate you checking with us. We're going to take a quick break. Much more to come on MoneyWise Live. Stay with us.

Great to have you with us today on MoneyWise Live, biblical wisdom for your financial decisions. I'm Rob West, taking your calls and questions here in our final segment today. Let's head back to the phones. Tampa, Florida, WKES. Hey, Charise, how can I help you?

Hi. Thank you so much for taking my call. So I am interested in purchasing a home. I have gone through the prequalification process. The home is about $364,000. I'm only planning to put down five grand, which is what they require, and then accelerate the payments. They're telling me my monthly payments would be approximately $1,800 to $1,900 a month.

I'm hoping to lock in an interest, well, initially lock in an interest rate at about $525,000 and then refinance later on when the interest rates hopefully go down. Yeah. Okay. Very good. Yeah.

You know, I mean, generally speaking, Charise, I like the idea of putting more down. Is this a VA loan? Is that what I'm seeing in my notes? Yes, sir.

Yeah. So obviously with the VA, you don't have a down payment required and you don't have the private mortgage insurance, so that is one benefit. And then there's lower closing costs and you should be able to get a competitive rate and certainly what you're describing is. The downside is, especially in a market like this with housing prices dipping, and I think we'll see more next year, especially if we get into a full blown recession, which if the Fed continues on this current track, I think is almost unavoidable. We could easily see housing prices take a dip. We could see 10 percent. We could see a bit more.

So you could find yourself in a position where you're upside down. And I think, you know, other than you needing a place to live and you perhaps finding the home you want, which is a good reason to go ahead with it. Generally speaking, I would say, given that you don't have the down payment, I would like which I'd like for you to have 20 percent. And given that the trajectory right now on home prices is down, I'd rather you hold off, continue to save and then buy perhaps a year or two down the road when housing prices are probably a bit lower and hopefully you can get closer to that 20 percent down. But if you're saying, listen, you know, rent prices are high, too, and I get that they're they're certainly elevated right now, even though they they're cooling as well. And I found the home and, you know, I can afford it. It fits into my budget. You certainly can do that.

It's just not the ideal. And you have to recognize that going into this, you know, you could find yourself in a position where you are upside down. And even though the closing costs are limited with the VA loan, they're they're still real.

And so there's a cost to you refinancing, depending on how quickly you're looking to do that. Does all that make sense? Yes, sir, it really does. I really appreciate that. Thank you. All right.

Yeah. God bless you, Teresa. I know this isn't an easy decision, so I'm not saying it's you know, it's simple one way or the other. But just want to make sure you're considering the full picture before you make that decision. God bless you.

Let's stay in Florida. Barbara, you're next on the program. How can I help you? Yes. Good afternoon.

I just wanted to ask a real quick question. My daughter is a 45 and she doesn't have a 401K or a pension. So I wanted to know, would it be I wanted to help her?

Would it be wise for me to open an annuity so that when she gets to retirement age, it'll grow until then and she'll have a steady income coming in? Is she self-employed, Barbara? No, not not anymore. She used to be. Yeah. OK, so she just doesn't have access to a retirement plan at work?

No. OK, so is there any retirement options at all at her place of employment? Actually, she just started a new job there. There may be, you know, just backtrack on that. They may be, but she doesn't have anything much. OK, that's starting out.

Yeah. Well, I like, you know, her opening a retirement plan at work much better than an annuity. She's young. She's got time on her side. I mean, you know, she's 20 years plus away from retirement, probably. I'm not a big fan of annuities where you're kind of combining insurance with the savings vehicle.

They're complicated and, you know, they tend to be somewhat expensive. And and for that reason, I'd rather her be in a 401K at work where she's trying to get 10 to 15 percent, especially if she's trying to catch up for lost time, maybe 15 percent if she can limit her lifestyle into a 401K. That's going to be compounding, especially with where the stock market is right now. If she were to systematically be investing every month in high quality investments that are appropriate for her age and risk tolerance, I think she's going to do much better over the next 20 years in that type of environment versus an insurance product. You know, there is a place for an annuity, especially when you've maxed out all other options in retirement plans. Then it's a way to keep money growing for you on a tax deferred basis.

Or if somebody just doesn't want to take any risk and wants to transfer that to the insurance company. But apart from that, I think she's going to do better, you know, in a retirement plan. Now, obviously, she'd have to limit her lifestyle in a way that allows her to make that salary deferral, which is going to lower her paycheck if you wanted to be of assistance in helping her do that. You could cover some of her expenses that allows her to reduce her overall expenses so that she could then do the salary deferral into the 401K and get by on that lower check because, you know, you're providing some assistance if you were going to do the same thing through the annuity.

I just think the 401K would be a better long term investment option for her. Okay, thank you so much. Okay, Barbara, thanks for calling. We appreciate you listening.

To Tennessee we go, Hey, Jessica, how can I help you? Hi, thanks for taking my call. I was just wondering, I'm planning to retire early. I'm only 52. I'm going to retire early in January. And I have about 96,000 in my 401K for where I work now.

I've lost about 23% like everybody else. And my question is, do I leave that money where it is so that I can recover because I found out that I can just leave it there even when I leave the company? Or should I move it to another account of some type for retirement? I don't know if that would be like a Roth IRA or something so that it's not with the company more.

I don't know which way the best way is to go. Yeah, the key here, Jessica, is not which account type it's in, it's that it's invested. So you could certainly leave it there and let it recover and just continue to ride out the same investments that you have right now.

The other option is to go ahead and roll it out to an IRA and perhaps have somebody invest it for you, but immediately turn around and get it invested. Because what we want to do is we want to make sure that we're not trying to pick the bottom or the top and try to time when to get in or out of the market. We just want to stay invested so those losses you've experienced can recover.

Now, if that happens by you liquidating your portfolio inside the 401K, transferring it to an IRA, and then immediately redeploying it in a new investment strategy, you might have that week or so window or two where it's out of the market and there's a chance the market could recover during that period of time, probably not likely. But I think you could go with that option if you had somebody that could take over that management for you. But apart from that, I think just leaving it right where it is makes a lot of sense too because then you're sticking with the same investments and those will recover. Does all that make sense?

It does, yeah. It's just I don't know which way to go. But if leaving it there would be a good idea, then I think I'll just do that until it recovers and then I can figure I'll have more time to figure out what to do. Yeah, I mean I think obviously I don't know what investments you're in inside your 401K, so I wouldn't be able to comment on the merits of those investments. But it sounds like you're down about as much as the market, which means you'll probably recover with the broad market. If you began interviewing advisors and found one that was just a great fit for you, that you really thought had a good rapport with, a good track record, and you felt like you had a trusted person that was going to take over management of this, I actually like that a little better because there's unlimited investment options in the IRA versus this limited investment universe in the 401K. But that would be the next step is to find that advisor who's going to take over management for you. And if you did, then I'd be okay with you going ahead and transferring it over as long as he or she was going to redeploy it in that new investment strategy right away.

But apart from that, you certainly could just stay with the investments you have and ride this out and then be ready to make that change perhaps once it's recovered. Okay. Well, thank you very much. That helped. All right, Jessica, thank you for your call. We appreciate it. To our final caller of the day, Sleepy Hollow, Illinois.

Enrique, how can I help you? Yes, thanks for taking my call. So I got a unique situation. We currently live in this home here in Sleepy Hollow that I have a line of credit on. And so I'm using part of the line of credit, about 25K, to purchase a new home that my wife really likes a lot and I do too in the family.

So fortunately, I was able to rent a house that we currently live in in three days. And so I'll be profiting about $500 every month. And then so the $500, I plan to then pay down the line of credit. I used about $22,000.

That's going to be the total on the new purchase. And I've been around the block as a landlord for many, many years. So I know all the ins and outs and all the stories and stuff that tenants bring up. Let me ask you, Enrique, when you bought that new place, I know you put the $22,000 down from the line of credit. Where did the other money come from, a mortgage or did you have cash? OK, so I'm getting a loan on the new home.

So the new home is... So you're essentially 100 percent, you're doing 100 percent financing between the line of credit and the new mortgage? Yes. So on the new mortgage, I am putting 5 percent down, which comes out to about $22,000 or so. But that came from the line of credit.

Yes. So I'm not a big fan of this approach just because I think you're kind of stretched a little thin here. I would have rather you sell this property. I mean, I realize you have experience as a landlord and you've got good money that's going to be able to pay this down in a short period of time. So all that makes sense. But at the end of the day, you are 100 percent financing this new home in a period where housing prices are headed down.

So I would just be careful and know that if you lose that tenant, you could put yourself in a really tight spot. Unfortunately, I'm out of time. We appreciate your call today, Enrique.

MoneyWise Live is a partnership between Moody Radio and MoneyWise Media. Thank you to Dan, Gabby, Amy and Robert. We'll see you tomorrow. Bye bye.