Putting Your Money to Work

Most of us make money by working a job, but there is another way to make money, and that's by putting money itself to work.

Hi, I'm Rob West. Getting your money to earn more money is crucial if you're going to build a nest egg for the future. I'll explain that just ahead, then it's on to your calls on any financial topic. We look forward to hearing from you at 800-525-7000.

Our lines are open, 800-525-7000. This is MoneyWise Live, biblical wisdom for your financial journey. Well, as I'm sure you've heard me say, there are five basic things you can do with money. You can earn it, live on it, give some away, owe it to someone, a business or the government, and lastly, you can grow it for the future. So those five things are earn, live, give, owe, and grow.

That's a simple framework, and it's easy to remember. Well, today I want to focus on the last one, growing your money. You know, the run-up in inflation that we've seen over the past year and a half makes it clear that finding ways to grow your money is essential. If you put money in the bank and earn a one or two percent annual return while inflation is running at seven or eight percent annually, well, you're falling behind, way behind. Inflation means that the money you put in the bank will have significantly less purchasing power when you take it out than when you put it in. That's why it's so important to increase the growth rate of your money to try to keep up with, or in the best possible case, to outpace inflation.

So how can you do that? Well, there are many options, but each calls for investing your money somehow. The safest approach right now would be to invest in government I bonds.

The I stands for inflation. These bonds, guaranteed by the U.S. government, are designed to keep pace with inflation. Unfortunately, I bonds carry restrictions, such as a $10,000 per person limit on how much you can invest each year.

Further, you can't hold I bonds in a retirement account, such as an IRA or a company sponsored 401K plan. So to get your money growing, to match or beat inflation, you have to go beyond super safe I bonds and look to investments that grow with the economy. For most people, investing in the stock market is the easiest way to do this.

I know that seems scary to some people. After all, stocks can go down as well as up, but to get your money to grow requires you to take some risk. The good news is that you can minimize the risk of investing in stocks if you spread your money across many companies and stay invested for a long time. Being broadly invested and staying the course over a long time are two key ways of reducing risk.

The easiest way to broadly invest is to hold mutual funds that contain shares of many companies. Some funds hold the stock of hundreds of companies, and those funds have tended to do quite well over time. Of course, no one knows the future. This year has been a tough one for the market. So far, next year could be terrific or it could be worse.

We just don't know. But history tells that those who invest broadly and steadily over a long time almost always come out ahead. Now let me get back to the idea of putting your money to work for you. As your investments grow over time, the earnings on your investments can purchase more shares. Those new shares will grow and allow you to purchase still more shares. This compounding growth is what helps you keep up with or outpace inflation. The effect of compounding given enough time is remarkable. It can turn relatively modest investments of thousands of dollars a year into millions over a few decades.

That's why compound interest is often called the eighth wonder of the world. Let me give a bit of a warning, however. Investing can foster bad things in your life, such as greed when the investment markets are performing well and fear when they're not. As a Christian investor, you need to be on your guard.

Don't let greed and fear take over. Instead, seek to be a wise and faithful steward who takes a reasonable amount of risk to prepare for future needs. It's possible in investing to take excessive risk, which is why Proverbs 13-11 warns, wealth gained hastily will dwindle, but whoever gathers little by little will increase it.

It's also possible to take too little risk, which likely will result in you not being financially prepared for your later years. As a steward of what belongs to God, it's your role to find the right balance as you seek to put your money to work and make it grow. For helpful guidance in this area of investing, you can go to moneywise.org and search invest. That's moneywise.org. Just search the term invest. All right, your calls and questions on any financial topic are next.

The number 800-525-7000. I'm Rob West and we'll be right back. Great to have you with us today on Money Wise Live.

I'm Rob West. Hey, God owns it all, so let's be good stewards of his resources. Let's talk about that on today's program. How can we manage God's money wisely, hold it loosely and give it generously? Well, together let's explore the Scriptures and apply the biblical principles and themes to what you're dealing with in your financial life today. We've got a few lines open, already some great calls in the queue, but room for you at 800-525-7000. We'll also take at least one of your emails today. We receive from folks regularly emails at questions at moneywise.org.

We try to get as many of them on the air as we can. Also, we'd love to weigh in on the identity theft conversation. Why? Well, it's affecting more and more folks all the time. In fact, the Federal Trade Commission estimates that nine million Americans have their identities stolen every year, including children. So what can you do about it?

Well, you can deter, detect and defend. I'll give you the specifics on that a little later in the broadcast. Also, Bob, don't stop by to weigh in on these volatile markets. So a lot ahead on MoneyWise Live today, beginning with your phone calls.

Let's dive right in Pine Ridge, Florida, WKES. Carol, thank you for calling. Go right ahead. Oh, thank you so much.

I appreciate your show. I have a question about the I bonds. Let's assume that you have a semi-annual disbursement, and let's just assume it's a $10,000 bond. When you set up your account, which account do you use? Would it be like a savings account to send in the bond fee? Or would you use a checking account so that they can send it to your checking account?

Assuming that your checking account wouldn't have what your savings account would have in it. Yeah, when you set up the account at treasurydirect.gov, you will link either a checking or savings account to your I bond account. At that point, you would use whatever account you have linked to be the one that will fund the purchase of the I bonds. And that money will stay there and continue to earn interest for 30 years. Now, if at some point after 12 months you want to begin pulling some of that out, when you do that, you will give up a penalty of the last three months worth of interest anytime you redeem any portion of that less than five years. But in terms of funding it, you'll fund it out of whichever account you link either checking or savings. Oh, so that three months penalty is a one-time thing.

It is, yeah. When you redeem it, as they credit the interest, they will subtract three months worth of that interest as a penalty for redeeming it in less than five years. But if you don't do that, it will just continue to earn interest. And that will happen for 30 years unless you take the money out. Does it compound? It does.

Yes, ma'am. And the beneficiary for that would, I set up the account, but I was confused about the beneficiary. Yeah, when you open the account, you will name the beneficiary when you create the account at treasurydirect.gov. Yeah, that was a little tedious and I wasn't sure, you know, how they didn't word it that way.

So I have to go in and edit it before I send. But basically, the money purchasing the bond needs to come from the account with the money in it, which would, in my case, be a savings account, correct? That's exactly right. So you would link that savings account and then you would be ready to fund the purchase of those electronic bonds.

Great. And when they send it to you, in other words, you're six months a disbursement, they would send it to that account? Well, you would redeem it and then you would determine at that point, yeah, where you want to wire the money out to and you would either wire it out to that account or you would attach a different account and you could wire it there. Okay, I'm just confused, a little confusing as to which account to set up this.

Yeah, I think the primary decision at this point is whichever account you're going to be funding the purchase of the I bonds from that would be the account that you want to link. Okay, so then when if they send me my when they send a six month disbursement, it would go into that account? Yes, unless you changed it and you would have to initiate that six month disbursement. But remember, you've got to wait at least a full year before you take anything out.

They won't let you take it out in less than a year. Correct. Okay, that's no problem. I just wanted to make sure that that three month penalty wasn't every year. No, ma'am.

One time as you redeem the bonds. So hopefully that clears it up for you, Carol. Thanks for calling and listening. God bless you. To Cleveland, Denise, you're next on the program.

Go ahead. Yes, I want to buy my granddaughter car. She's 17. I've been looking around getting estimates, but the insurance is like 150 to $200 a month. She doesn't live with me.

Can you give me some advice? Well, unfortunately, car insurance is expensive. And especially for a young lady who's 17 years old, that's where you're going to spend quite a bit of money. I've got two sons that are just entered to the driving world and it's pretty astronomical what you have to pay for insurance these days. I think I would start with whoever is handling your current property and casualty insurance. If you have car insurance and hopefully homeowners with the same company, bundling is going to often be your best option.

So I would do that. But then you could compare it if you wanted to shop it around with select quote or any number of these online resources that will go out and price hunt for you. Now, keep in mind, price isn't the only factor when it comes to getting insurance. You want to look at just how they're going to handle the claims and how responsive they will be and just the customer service side of things. But at the same time, it's worth considering other options if you're looking to save some money.

Now, the other piece of this is both the school record. If you have a student that is performing well in school, you can get a good student discount. You can also get a safe driving discount if she can take a safe driving course and you'll want to check with your insurance carrier or well, really your agent to find out exactly which courses will provide you the best benefit there. And then avoiding any moving violations as she's a driver will also help over time as well. But I think at the end of the day, it's going to be pricey just because of her age and she's a new driver.

So shopping around and make sure you take advantage of all of these other discounts that you have would be a great option. Does that make sense? Yes. And the policy can go in her name, right?

Well, it would typically be in, no, the parent's name, whoever owns the vehicle, then she would be added as a driver to that policy. That's going to be the least expensive way to do it. Okay. But they said that she had to live with me and she doesn't. So. Okay.

I would call your agent and just find out how they want to handle that. But make sure you take advantage of these other discounts that should be available to her as well. And that'll save you a few dollars. I hope that helps you. Thanks for calling Denise.

A lot more ahead on MoneyWise Live. We do have some phone lines open. We'd love to hear from you today. 800-525-7000 is the number to call. That's 800-525-7000 as we take a look at the financial issues of the day and run that through the lens of scripture and see if we can pull out the themes and help you make decisions with confidence. Also coming up a little later on the broadcast, Bob Doll stops by to weigh in on the markets and the economy.

A lot to talk about there. Stay with us on MoneyWise Live. We'll be right back. Great to have you with us today on MoneyWise Live. I'm Rob West, your host. This is where we apply God's wisdom to your financial decisions and choices. We've got one line open, 800-525-7000.

To Clinton, Iowa. David, you're next on the program, sir. Go ahead. Yes. Are you getting any feedback from me right now? No, sir.

Oh, good. I just want to make sure that, you know, you could, because I'm working on my car. About a year ago, I gave, invested about $20,000 in a corporation, and I told them what I'd like for them to do is be very conservative, but I would, you know, like, just at least like to keep up with inflation. So the last statement I got, I actually have lost more than 10%. And I've got this thinking of wondering, what about, you know, since everything, nothing seems to be doing well today, what about investing in gold?

What would the consequences of, you know, the pros and cons be for investing in gold instead of putting it in some kind of a management program? Sure. The account that you have, and I'll weigh in on the gold question, but the account that you have now that you said you're down 10% on, how long have you been investing with that account? One year. One year. Okay.

Yeah. So the challenge is, you know, it just happened to be a really difficult year. I mean, these last 12 months, the first few months, you got off to a great start, but then since January the 1st, it's been a really challenging market. The other challenge is that you didn't experience the run-up over the last dozen years or so as the, we had a really ranging bull market. And I think the challenge is if we look at it in these short periods of time, it doesn't allow us to make the best decision. We really need to look longer term, which is why we only invest money that has certainly a five year time horizon, 10 years or more is really the best. Because when we look at those longer periods of time and we compare that to the very best performing asset classes, you'll see that a properly diversified stock and bond portfolio will do the best with the lowest amount of risk and volatility and the greatest return over time. But we can't look at it in these slices of time that, especially when we have an unusual situation going on like we do now with 40 year high inflation.

So I think from that standpoint, what I would encourage you to do, David, is stay the course, recognizing it's probably more about a timing issue than anything else. You got in the market right at the tail end of a bull market as we were entering this period of high inflation and the prospect of a recession. And so, you know, where the market is down.

Now, the good news is you're not down as much as the market even over that one year period. What about gold? Well, I mean, I like gold as an alternate asset class, but as one piece of a properly diversified portfolio.

Typically, I would say no more than 5 percent in gold. And the reason is because if you look at gold over a long period of time, it tends to be more volatile and it doesn't have the long term performance that a stock and bond portfolio does. It's more of a hedge against inflation. But I believe what we're experiencing right now is temporary. You know, the other problem is it's not income producing.

There are the storage issues that you have to contend with as well. And if you look at gold from 10 years ago, the price of gold is actually down about $100 from a decade ago, which again, I think just underscores this idea that, you know, over time, it just doesn't perform as well. It does better clearly during periods of uncertainty and unrest.

And we're in of those one of those right now. But again, if this is money that has the proper time horizon, meaning 10 years plus, then I think that's where I would stick with what you've got, especially now, given that if you were to sell these investments or your advisor did on your behalf, you would lock in these unrealized losses and realize them as opposed to giving them the chance to come back. I think in this period of time, it's really an opportunity not only to stay with our long term strategy, but also where appropriate to add to our positions because we're able to essentially buy at a discount.

You're buying, you know, whatever companies you own much cheaper than you were, you know, just a year ago. So I think from all of that perspective, that would be the direction that I would go. But give me your thoughts. Well, yeah, I was also thinking about a problem with gold is, first of all, make sure that you do buy gold.

It's truly as pure as what they say it is. And then if you do want to turn it in, then you've got to buy a find a buyer. Well, right. So you've got the premiums on the buying and the selling if you're going through a dealer, which is what folks would typically do. And then you've got to determine, you know, are you buying the bullion? Are you buying the coins?

You know, so you've got that issue as well. A lot of times what folks will do when they want to take an allocation of gold is just buy one of the gold tracking ETFs. So this is an exchange traded fund that just moves with the price of gold.

And then you bypass completely this idea of the markup on either side and the storage and security issues. You're just essentially benefiting from the rise of the precious metal over time as a part of your portfolio without having to deal with all these other factors of taking physical possession. So I might look at that option as well, David. So I certainly wouldn't be rushing if it were me to sell out of the portfolio I have and move it into gold for the reasons that I mentioned. The end of the day, you're the steward, so you've got to make that call. But I would count the cost before you do it and just look at the long term performance. Don't get caught up in a kind of short term thinking.

Let's keep the broad view when it comes to investing and that is generally going to serve you the best over time. David, we appreciate your call today, sir. Thank you.

Let's see, Jima in California. You go right ahead. Yes, sir. I am retired, semi-retired. I'm a registered nurse and I have a 401k that is very small because I live alone, so I have to pay my house and all that. But besides that, I have credit cards that I would like to pay off because of the high interest.

And I was wondering if it would be wise to borrow like my 401k, like $40,000, if I can borrow about $15,000. I get the interest back to me. Are you still working for the company that you're... Sure. All right, let's do this.

I've got to take a quick break. When we come back, I'll weigh in on your question and we've got a lot more questions lined up. 800-525-7000. This is MoneyWise Live. Stick around.

We'll be right back. Thanks for joining us today on MoneyWise Live. I'm Rob West, your host, taking your calls and questions today on anything financial.

800-525-7000 is the number to call. Back to the phones, Jima is in California. Just before the break, she was sharing with us that she's got some credit card debt, potentially as much as $20,000.

She's wondering if she should borrow from a 401k that's relatively small to pay that off. Jima, I was asking just before the break, are you still with that company? Yes.

You are? Okay, you're still working there. Yes, yes.

Okay, very good. Yeah, once you separate from the company, that's not an option. But did you say this is in fact credit card debt? Is the debt that you're looking to pay off credit card debt?

Yes, yes. I would not borrow from that 401k, Jima, and here's why. Number one is, I'd love for that money to continue to grow for the future. If you pull it out, you're going to have, even if you're over 59 and a half and you won't have a penalty, it's all going to be taxable to you.

That's a pretty big bite coming out. It's no longer then available to continue to grow, so you can tap into it down the road. Thirdly, my experience is that when we do it that way and just wipe it out, we tend not to build the disciplines in that's going to allow us to keep that debt paid off. Now, all of a sudden, we've got that loan against the 401k.

If you separate from the company, it's all taxable. But beyond that, the credit card debt comes back because of lifestyle spending beyond your means. What I would prefer to see you do is to leave that 401k right where it is, especially because it's likely down with the market if it's invested in stocks. Let that account recover.

Don't lock in those losses now. And then secondly, use a credit counseling program to pay off the credit card debt. Essentially, what would happen is they would reach out to each of your creditors, get the interest rates to reduced and through the reduction of those interest rates and one level monthly payment, you can pay off this credit card debt 80% faster. But you'll do it as a part of your monthly spending plan every month as opposed to having to borrow the money from yourself in the 401k or anybody else. I think that's a better long term strategy that will both help you resolve whatever factors got you into the credit card debt in the first place.

But secondly, keep that 401k intact and then let that money grow for the future and not create the potential for that to become a with a distribution if in fact you separate from the company, which it would be at that point. Does all that make sense? Yes, it does. Thank you so very much. Okay. Yeah, the place to go to learn more.

What is it? I'm sorry. Called you.

They view it's called Christian. Christian credit counselors dot o RG is on the web. They also have a toll free number if that would be better for you. Do you use the internet? You know, I'm not very wise on the internet. Okay, that's okay. So let me give you the the toll free phone number so you can learn more directly. Do you have a pen handy? Yes, I'm ready.

Okay. 800-557-1985. That's 800-557-1985. Okay, thank you so much. We appreciate your call today. Thanks very much.

All right to Illinois we go Irma you're next on the program. Go ahead. Yes, thank you for taking my call.

I have a quick question. 64 years old right now. In March, I'm turning 65 I am in I am employed by a company and I'm planning on trying to retire at 70 if I can. But my question is, do I still have to get that part B if I have insurance, full coverage everything with my employer? And if I don't take it do not will I be penalized when I won't take it at a Okay. No ma'am.

So you don't have to sign up for Medicare parts A and B when you turn 65. If you still have coverage with an employee sponsored plan that has more than 20 employees, would that be true of your situation? Yes. Okay. Yeah. Oh, yes.

Okay. So then when your employer health insurance ends, you'll have a special enrollment period at that point to sign up for Medicare parts A and B with no penalty. Okay, and they will give me that because my birthday is at the beginning of the year and the enrollment will be over with. Will there be an option for me to do it at that point or do I have to wait till the next year? Yeah, no, there's a special enrollment period that coincides with the termination of your employee sponsored health insurance plan. So you won't have to wait for the following year, you'll be able to do it right away. Okay, and is there a certain amount of time I need to let them know that I'm retiring and to go through that process so they can send me information or what will I have to do during that?

Yeah, just know that you're going to have a period of time. I can't remember exactly how many months it is that you'll have, but you will have plenty of time to get that enrollment. So what I would do is as you're nearing the end of your employment with your current employer, just go ahead and research the various Medicare options so that you're ready to enroll once that ends. And during that special enrollment period, you'll be able to do that. Actually, my team is telling me you'll have three months on either side of the end date.

So three months before all the way to three months after a six month window where you can enroll in Medicare Parts A and B coinciding with the end of your current employment. Okay? Okay, can I just ask one more question that's kind of separate than what this is? It's about Social Security. Sure, go ahead.

Okay. Of course, I'm going to be continuing to work and I'm not going to accept Social Security until I physically retire. So if I wait to 70, I was told that if you wait till you're 70, you get this extra percentage of money from the government that they put into your Social Security.

That's right. That extra money that they give you, how is that allocated? Would they allocate that at the end when I tell them I'm retiring, put that in and then calculate that into how much I get per month? Well, remember, your Social Security benefits are changing all the time based on your work record and when you choose to elect to receive benefits. So in your case, you get one 12th of 8% credited to that benefit every month beyond your full retirement age. And so that's just kind of being credited in the background. And then once you start benefits, whatever the actual amount is that you're entitled to based on your work record, plus the crediting of that one 12th of 8% every month would be what drives the benefit you receive.

Okay. Because the reason I'm asking, I've been working since I've been 16 years old. So I was just trying to figure out how this benefit would. So they will calculate that within when I tell them I'm retiring and go through that process. It's calculated using something called an average index monthly earnings. So the average summarizes 35 years of index earnings. And then they look at the highest years during that period to apply of your entire work record. And then on top of that, you get a credit of one 12th of 8% for every month you work beyond full retirement age.

So you're going to get every bit you were entitled to at full retirement age based on your work record plus this additional amount for the months and years you wait beyond full retirement age up to age 70 where it caps. Thanks for your call, Irma. We'll be right back on Money Wise Live.

Stay with us. Thanks for joining us today on Money Wise Live. I'm Rob West, your host, taking your calls and questions today. But here in our final segment of the broadcast, a chance to visit with our friend Bob Dole, Chief Investment Officer at Crossmark Global Investments. Bob joins us each week to weigh in on the markets and the economy. Bob, good afternoon, sir. Happy Monday.

And it's a green day on the screen, as you know. We will take it and we build upon last week's strength, which is always a good thing. What do we make of this, Bob, given all of the factors swirling? Why all of the sudden this strength in the market?

Well, a collection of things, Rob. The market got way oversold. Sentiment was much too bearish. Third quarter earnings are coming in less bad than feared. There's talk that the Fed might not raise rates forever.

They may actually stop at some point in time. There are four or five of the six or eight reasons why we've gotten this bounce. This is the fourth noticeable rally since the spare market started. One of these will be the bottom. I'm not sure we're there yet, Rob.

OK, well, that's interesting. What about inflation, Bob? It seems like that's the other than the Fed.

That's what's at the center of our focus. Do you have reason to believe we're starting to see this number turn? Yeah, we actually have witnessed inflation. Most inflation indices are below where they were kind of the middle of the summer. So we started to see a decline.

I think it will become more pronounced over the next couple of months. Commodity prices are down. The economy is slowing. We're seeing some evidence in wages that are not as strong as before.

We're solving some of our supply chain problems. These are the reasons to have some hope that inflation will move to horrendous levels, to still not acceptable levels, Rob, but lower. It's interesting that less bad is what's driving us on the upside. But I guess we'll take what we can get. You mentioned the Fed perhaps backing off the gas pedal. What are you expecting for the next meeting?

But then, more importantly, beyond that? Yeah, so they have two more meetings this year. As you know, November, we expect, as does the consensus, that they will raise rates another 75 basis points.

In December, probably go 50. It'll be data dependent. Then the question is, what happens next? Many of us are starting to think that the Fed will say, OK, we've raised rates a lot. Let's wait and see what kind of impact those rate increases have had on the economy before we go further. The market would like that pause if we can get it.

Yeah, no question about that. Bob, in light of these quickly rising interest rates, that's clearly having an effect on mortgage rates. You were out today talking about the fact that mortgage rates, 30-year rates, are up more than 400 basis points since the 2021 low. What effect is that having on the housing market, and what might we expect for next year?

Big time effect on activity, not so much on prices. Mortgage applications are down more than 50%. Actual home sales, new and existing, are down more than 25%. But home prices are still up. I don't think that will last. I think we'll see some decline, but it just shows how strong that housing market was and how difficult the supply side is.

There are just not enough new homes being built. Yeah, no question about it. All right, on the international front, before we round out the conversation today, Bob, obviously a lot of focus on China with President Xi starting a third term. They're saying he's putting a lot of loyalists to the Communist Party in place. That resulted in at least a tech sell-off today because perhaps that's not good for their economy, and that's on top of the COVID lockdown. So what do you make of all of that? He's really grasping and tightening his power grab, which is a bit concerning. Your hope economy has moved a little more open, rather a little more closed. He's really tightening the reins, and he's got his problems. The debt problem in real estate, the slowing growth from the one birth policy that existed for so long.

China is a force to be reckoned with, and get me wrong, but they also have their internal issues that I think are going to cause that part of the world to struggle. Yeah, no question about it. All right, Bob, last question. You know, in these times of fear and uncertainty, number one, as believers, we know where our trust lies, and we know the end of the story. But number two is we've got to fight against that urge to back off of our giving at a time when we need to be invested where God is at work, right? Absolutely.

God works in bull markets and pair markets, and I think our obligation and our opportunity both are to remain consistent and are supporting good Christian organizations, starting with our churches, that are moving the dial and working where God is working. So my advice is just as you suggest, don't give up. Don't slacken off on giving. It's all His in the first place, so let's return it as appropriate. I love it. Well, let's finish there today, Bob. Always great to have you with us, my friend. Have a great week. All right. Bob Dahl, Chief Investment Officer at Crossmark Global Investments.

You can learn more and sign up for his weekly market commentary at crossmarkglobal.com. All right, back to the phones we go here in our final moments of the broadcast today to Grand Rapids. Penny, thank you for your patience. Go right ahead. Thank you.

Can you hear me okay? Okay. So I have a $100,000 life insurance policy. It has a long-term care rider on that, so in case I became disabled and needed to go into assisted living. I know $100,000 won't go very far with assisted living because I have a stepmother that's in assisted living right now, and I know how costly that is. So that policy only has about a $17,000 cash value.

It has decreased considerably. I'm not sure why. I also have a life insurance policy through my work, so I don't know that I need that. I'm single. I'm 59 and a half today, and I have four adult children. Three of them are working and very successful, married, have no need for financial help from me, and my daughter is at Indiana Wesleyan University. So anyway, my financial person is saying to keep it basically for the long-term care rider.

I don't know that I need it. I have a will. I have a living will.

I have a ladybird deed on my home with my children's name attached to that. The home is almost paid for. I don't know that I need that long-term care or the life insurance. I guess I'd rather take that $17,000 and put it somewhere else to make it work for me, but I don't know that that's good advice. Well, it's a good question, and I like long-term care insurance, and I think it can be very effective when it's combined with a life insurance policy. I'd want to know more about this policy, and perhaps, Penny, the next step is to get a second opinion with somebody who can look over what you have. Without knowing the details on the policy, I'd be hesitant to weigh in. I do have a question as to, one, whether you need life insurance, because it sounds like you don't.

Nobody's really depending upon you, and if the Lord were to call you home, there's nobody that would have a loss of income that's relying on your support or anything like that. But I do have some question about the ability for you to cover a long-term care need if you had it down the road. If something is going to erode your assets in this season of life, it's most likely going to be the need for expensive long-term care, and that's where this type of policy can really come in and help to offset that. Would you be better off taking the cash value and buying a straight long-term care policy?

Well, it depends on your age and your health status. At 59, you should still be able to get a good quality policy. Or is it better for you to hang on to this particular policy? And that's where I'd want to understand what is the investment structure inside of it, and why is it losing value?

Because typically, these do a lot better in the bear markets than they do in the bull, because in the bull market, you're giving up some of the upside, whereas there should be protection on the down market. But then also, you'd be giving up this long-term care component, which again, I think, would be something that it could at least offset this major expense potentially that you have down the road. So what I might suggest is connecting with a Certified Kingdom Advisor there in Grand Rapids, Penny, just to have he or she look over this policy in light of your overall financial situation, your other assets, and what your needs are in the future, as well as the potential for long-term care to evaluate are you best to stay with what you have, to let it go, and because you don't need the life insurance any longer, and then either sell fund long-term care, or just buy a straight long-term care insurance policy. Under age 60, you can still get them, you know, fairly reasonably relatively speaking, and the key is, as long as it fits into your budget, including potential escalations down the road, then it could be a very, you know, helpful, you know, tool to offset that risk at that point in the future. Does all that make sense? Yeah, I did have one other person look at it, and they were a little concerned that it was a universal life policy, and they thought that maybe that was one of the reasons why I was losing value. Would there be any raised eyebrows with the universal life policy? Well, they're, you know, they are pegged to the investments inside of them. So, yeah, I mean, you certainly are going to have volatility there, and I think it really just comes down to that particular policy, and, you know, what is the kind of underlying factors there that are driving it, both in terms of the premium, as well as the death benefit, in this case, the life, the long-term care rider, and the performance of the investments inside it.

So, you know, I think, you know, perhaps it's time to move away from this, but the key is to answer where are you going from here, and that's why I think you need a trusted advisor that you can turn to who can help you answer those questions. You'll find a CKA on our website at MoneyWise.org. Just click Find a CKA. That'll give you all that you need. Thanks for calling, Penny.

MoneyWise Live is a partnership between Moody Radio and MoneyWise Media. Thanks for being along with us today. I hope you have a great afternoon and come back and join us tomorrow. We'll see you then. Bye-bye.