Big Money Wasters

Today's version of MoneyWise Live is prerecorded so our phone lines are not open. Everyone wastes a little money here and there. It's pretty hard not to. The trick is to not waste a lot of money. Hi, I'm Rob West. Forget to cancel a subscription or fail to get gas where it's cheaper and you're out a few bucks. But don't pay attention to some big money wasters and your finances can really take a hit.

I'll talk about them today and we have some great calls lined up, but we won't be taking your live calls today because we're prerecorded. This is MoneyWise Live, biblical wisdom for your financial journey. Okay, today I'm going to tell you some ways you can waste a lot of money.

Of course, the idea is that if you know about them, you won't do them. The Wall Street Journal did a survey of several personal finance experts, authors and even a Nobel Prize winning economist to find out what they considered big money wasters. The first one they named is something they called compensatory purchases. That's a fancy name for keeping up with the Joneses and it's anything you spend money on to make other people think you're successful.

But in reality, you're doing it because you don't feel successful. Compensatory purchases would include luxury goods and high-end clothing with visible logos to indicate you have money and status. But the experts pointed out that these can include small ticket items purchased over and over like designer coffee. Another big ticket money waster, perhaps the biggest is buying too much house. One of the experts explained that people's thinking about big houses hasn't caught up with technology that enables us to live comfortably with less space. Take large elaborate kitchens for example.

Readily available prepared foods have made them obsolete. But what the experts didn't say is that prepackaged food items can also be a money waster. Another example of buying too much house is having a rarely used room, an extra bedroom that sits empty most of the time or the workshop in the basement gathering dust or space for bookshelves when we have e-books that take up no space at all, although maybe it's not as much fun to curl up with a Kindle. For one expert, a big money waster was buying a new car, at least for many people and especially if you're just trying to impress someone.

You'll have to work two to three months just to make the payments and insurance. A better option for many people is a dependable late model vehicle with low mileage. If you simply must have that new car smell, you can buy it in a can and make any car smell brand new for around 10 bucks. But we always point out that buying a new car is fine if you can afford it and plan to keep it for many years.

It's especially fine if you buy it with cash. And as we like to say, if no one bought new cars, we soon wouldn't have any cars at all. Of course, with today's high interest rates and sky-high car prices, it's more important than ever to buy a car for practical reasons like affordable, dependable transportation. Okay, the next money waster is a touchy one for many parents. It's spending money on adult children for things they should be paying for, like keeping them on your car insurance or cell phone plan.

If you no longer need a family plan and an individual one is cheaper, well, you're just wasting money. The experts also mentioned over scheduling younger children with too many expensive activities. Better to have the kids focus on one or maybe two things they really enjoy because the cost of extra curricular activities and transportation to them continues to rise.

Some of you may be old enough to remember playing sandlot baseball or football with the neighborhood kids when you were young. And while that sort of thing still happens, for the most part, we live in an age of organized sporting activities, a lot of them, so choose carefully. And speaking of physical stuff, you want to avoid getting a gym membership unless you're absolutely sure you'll use it. Otherwise, it's just another money waster. Having an unused gym membership has been described as the failure to recognize future laziness. Another money waster, unplanned trips to the grocery store. That's when you go in thinking you just need to grab one item and you end up spending $100, which these days fits in two or three bags. Also mentioned were prepackaged sugary snacks that could easily be replaced with something less expensive like an apple, better for your wallet and your waistline will thank you.

So there you have them, ways the experts say you can waste a lot of money if you're not careful but we know you will be. Folks, as we think about our role as stewards or managers of God's resources, we want to be wise in how we handle God's money, living within God's provision, holding it loosely, giving generously and I would say living simply. And when we do that, I believe we can experience God's best in this area of finance.

Hey, this is a reminder that we're not live today, but we do have lots of great information coming up in the rest of the program, so please stick around. We're so thankful you've chosen to join us today on MoneyWise Live, biblical wisdom for your financial decisions. This is the program where we recognize that our financial journey is in many ways tied to our spiritual journey. Often money and the things that money can buy as a competitor to lordship. So we want to hold what we have loosely, recognizing God's authority and ownership.

Our role as steward to be found faithful, applying his principles that we find in his word to the decisions and choices we make every day. Let's do that together. By the way, we're away from the studio today, so don't call in, but we've got some great questions that we lined up in advance. We'll also tackle the subject of envy today.

We probably won't settle it. It's not going anywhere, but I'll at least speak to the financial implications of 1 Corinthians 13, because it warns us about envy, and this can be really destructive. It's a common human emotion, but it's one we've got to get a handle on, and it certainly has financial implications.

There's actually an antidote for envy that I'll talk about today, a little later in the broadcast. So a lot to come today. We're just getting ready and rolling up our sleeves. So let's go to the phones. Oklahoma, Sean, thank you for calling. Go right ahead.

Rob, I've got a question. I have been out of a job since July of 18. I have a little side hustle going on with my woodworking and stuff, but I've been applying for, I've applied for about 40 positions with one of the Native American tribes here in Oklahoma. I have yet to hear anything back. I've had two interviews that went fabulous. I have a recruiter, when I call her, it's, well, you know, you're doing the right thing, just keep doing what you're doing. But it's getting, you know, from one to ten on the frustration level, I'm at 50.

Yeah, I certainly understand that. I have a bachelor's in psychology. You know, I'm just, I'm really, really frustrated, and I don't want to apply somewhere else and settle for something that's out of my field. And, you know, what, am I doing the right thing?

I even, the guy that I interviewed with, I even sent him an email, and just kind of go, hey, I know you're busy, would you, you know, and I have yet to hear anything back. Yeah. And how long has this been going on, Sean? Oh, goodness.

Probably four months now. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, I can understand your frustration. Unfortunately, it seems like you may want to broaden your search a bit. You know, I think your area of operation may be too small.

And so obviously, you're dependent upon one prospective employer. And depending upon their immediate need right now, the urgency they have to fill that position that may not match with your readiness for a job as much as that might be the area that you're targeting. And so I think it might be time to broaden your search. Now, just because you broaden your search, although I don't know specifically what your skill set is, and what you're looking to do, doesn't mean you have to settle. I think perhaps there's something else in a different context or locale that could still tap right into your skill set and passion. The other thing I might offer, Sean, and we'd be happy to provide this if you'd take advantage of it at no cost, just as our gift to you. There's a career assessment called Career Direct, that not only matches up your skills and passions, but also how God has wired you. It really brings in that aspect to it as well.

It normally, there's a cost for it, of course, but we'd be happy to provide this at no cost along with one of the career direct coaches who can help you analyze the results over the telephone. And you know, maybe Sean, there is something else that's kind of below the surface that this might uncover that you hadn't considered that would allow you to tap into a few other options. But I think regardless of whether you do the career assessment to look for other options, I think, you know, broadening your search may make some sense and who knows, this job may come through.

I just, you know, putting all your eggs in one basket when it's completely out of your control and you need to find work, that's the thing that's disconcerting to me. Okay. That sounds awesome.

Would you want to take advantage of the career assessment? Absolutely. Awesome. We'd be delighted to provide it. You just stay on the line, Sean. We'll get your information.

We'll have a career counselor get in touch with you, give you the link to go through the assessment online and then get that consultation scheduled. Again, no cost, just our way of saying we're glad you're a part of the MoneyWise family and happy to serve you. Let us know how it turns out so we can celebrate with you as God provides. Take care, Sean. To Texas, Donna, thank you for calling.

Go right ahead. Well, I may be somewhat similar to the gentleman who was speaking. My daughter has graduated from the community college, has a degree in equine science and is employed in the equine industry but isn't really certain that's her long-term goal.

Yeah. And she's not certain what her long-term goal is. So there is an organization we have heard of, it's not the one you just mentioned, but they basically do like a day-long interview and questioning and testing to determine what your gifting and palancing is, not interest because they say your interest will change. So where are you gifted?

Where might you succeed? And my question is that particular group charges about $1,000. And do you feel that that's a worthwhile investment to determine a career path?

Yeah. Well, I think investing in this type of more thorough analysis to make sure you're lining up your passions and your skills but also God's design, His fingerprint on you is absolutely worthwhile. I think, obviously, I don't know this particular organization. That's not an entry point that a lot of people would be comfortable with, but I'm not saying there's not great value there. Perhaps we can do the same thing we did with Sean, with your daughter, Donna, and I'd be delighted although I can't do this for everyone. Career Direct has been great to us and we have a great relationship and I'd be happy to extend the same thing to you, which is maybe you start with the Career Direct assessment that we would provide just complimentary as our gift to you. She could go through that and it's about an hour and a half consultation after that. So it's not certainly a day long, but it really is pretty intensive and in-depth to explore really the results of that and help give her a pathway forward and it wouldn't cost you anything. So you can at least start there.

If it uncovers everything you need, which just based on my experience with Career Direct, it probably will, then you're done. At that point though, if you wanted to go further, you could decide to take this day long option. How does that sound? That sounds wonderful.

Awesome. Well, we'd be happy to do it. And again, if you just stay on the line, we'll grab your information, we'll get the same thing out to you. And my only request to you, Donna, is that you just get back to us and let us know how it turned out. But we're thrilled to be able to do this for you. God bless you. May in Arkansas, you're next on the program.

Go ahead. I'm 75 years old and I'm hoping to retire next year. And of course, I'll be getting my Social Security check. But then on the side, I have an IRA with $65,000 in that. But it's broken up into almost all the categories of industrials, utilities, energy, health care. So I'm wondering, do I need to combine all those into just a couple of the sectors? Yeah, I think the bigger question, May, is really not as much about the sectors as it is the allocation of the investments among, you know, stocks to bonds first.

What does that break down? Is it an entirely stock portfolio? Yeah, it is. Okay. And are you comfortable with that?

I mean, especially given it sounds like you're going to be drawing an income from the IRA to supplement Social Security. Is that right? Yeah. Okay. So typically, we would, you know, when you get to 75, I mean, if we use a typical rule of thumb, and that's just a starting point, we would have maybe around 35% stocks, 65% bonds. So you're certainly much more concentrated toward the stock side, if not exclusively, which is just going to add to the volatility.

And when we're in a capital distribution phase where you're converting it to income, we want it to be a little more stable than that. So let's do this. I've got to take a quick break.

If you don't mind, you hold the line. And we'll talk about where you go from here just around the corner. This is MoneyWise. We'll be right back.

This is MoneyWise Live with Rob West. Hey, if you hear a phone number mentioned today, please ignore that number and don't call us because today's broadcast is a reprise edition. But we think the upcoming information will help you and make you a wise steward of what God's given you.

So please stay tuned. May is calling today. Just before the break, she told us she's hoping to retire next year, has about 65,000 in an IRA. She mentioned the investment categories that she's invested in, the sectors. But she indicated that she understands the entire portfolios in a stock portfolio.

Just wondering how to navigate that as she plans, as she's living off of retirement and drawing an income from this IRA. And May, what I was saying was, you know, typically at age 75, as you begin to start to draw an income from this, as you move into full time retirement, you know, we would typically think about having probably a 60, 40 or 70, 30 portfolio with the larger percentage toward more fixed income, stable type investments, just to smooth out the volatility with a goal of perhaps, you know, earning about 4% a year, which on 65,000, you know, would be twenty six hundred dollars a year or, you know, two hundred and fifteen dollars a month or so. Does that match what your need is or do you need to withdraw more than that?

No, that sounds great. OK. And so I think the key is, if you're in entirely stocks, you would need to be willing to kind of whether I would I usually say thirty five to forty percent downside, because if we get into a real recession and we saw this kind of play out earlier this year, although we have recovered a bit, there certainly could be more of a down leg here. But, you know, if you hit a recession, you know, you need to be able to weather that kind of downside and shifting more toward fixed income with this portfolio is going to really lessen that volatility, hopefully smooth it out a bit. And the idea would be that you could preserve the principal balance at sixty five thousand and be able to take that four percent a year. So typically with that, if you went with, let's say, you know, the 40 percent allocation to stocks, you might have a 20 percent large cap, maybe 10 percent small cap, 10 percent international, something like that. And then, you know, half of it in bonds and the rest in cash type investments. You know, that would be what that would typically look like.

And you can either do that yourself using indexes, you know, high quality index ETFs or mutual funds, or you could use one of the robo advisors like the Schwab intelligent portfolios or better meant that for maybe 20 basis points, one fifth of one percent, it would automatically create this portfolio and rebalance it, you know, regularly without any transactions cost. So it's still fairly reasonable. And you're essentially just capturing the broad moves of the market. But as I said, moving more toward a largely fixed income strategy versus a stock strategy. But give me your thoughts on that. No, that sounds great. So can you recommend a fixed income?

Yeah. So, you know, what I would probably do is either connect with our friends at soundmindinvesting.org and they could help you with the actual ETFs or mutual funds you'd want to pick or use one of the robo solutions. I like either Schwab intelligent portfolios. You would basically open the IRA there, you'd transfer it over, you'd fill out, you know, kind of your age, risk tolerance, goals and objectives. And it would automatically create using these low cost exchange traded funds, this, you know, mix between stock indexes and bond indexes.

And it'd probably be around one fifth of one percent a year. Okay. Yeah, no, that sounds perfect. That's what I'm looking for. Good. Okay.

Check out the Schwab intelligent portfolios or better meant or if you want a more hands on approach, just reach out to our friends at soundmindinvesting.org. And May, if you can, if you have other questions along the way, don't hesitate to reach out. We appreciate your call today. Let's head. Well, we'll stay in Arkansas. John, you go right ahead, sir. Hi. Yeah, my question is regarding refinancing our homes, pay off some debt.

I was just curious if you think that's a good idea right now. Tell me about the mortgage that you have now, John. What do you owe on it? What's the interest rate and what's the term remaining?

Okay. It's a we actually we've we refinance last year. It's a twenty three year term.

I think the loan amount is about one hundred and five thousand. And let's see. And what was the other question? Oh, what's the interest rate? Three point two five is what it is.

Three point two five. Yes. Okay.

Yeah. And tell me about the debt you're trying to pay off. Well, you know, the guy we talked to yesterday, he's wanting to roll the credit card debt, which is about five thousand. We've got a couple of loans that are about five thousand in total. And then we've got a car that we're paying on.

It's about eighty five hundred. But he's wanting to roll that all into a the rate the new loan. I think he wants to finance it for 20 years. Right now, our mortgage includes property taxes in. In home insurance, but he's which it will in this new one, but I think it's going to bump it up to about a little over a thousand a month. Yeah.

With your current mortgage payment, John, which includes principal interest taxes and insurance and keeping all of the minimums paid on the loans you just described, the car, the credit cards and the other loan, are you able to cover everything? And do you perhaps have even a little bit left over at the end of the month? Yeah. I mean, we're doing pretty good. We don't have as much as we'd like, you know, left over. But yeah, we're able to meet our needs. Yeah. So given that, John, I don't like this plan.

You know, this just doesn't make sense in any scenario. And here's why. Number one, you're going to see a pretty significant increase in that interest rate. That three and a quarter rate is a great rate. Number two, you just spent thousands of dollars to get into this mortgage.

You're going to do that again. Typically, it'd be minimum to two percent. So a couple of grand, usually three or four percent. So probably three or four thousand dollars in cost just to refinance it. And you're going to roll this unsecured debt and secure it to your house.

And it doesn't typically solve the problem that got you there in the first place when we do this. And so nine times out of 10, the person will call me back six months later and say, guess what? I've got that new mortgage. Spent four grand to get it. And now the credit card debt's back.

So I'd rather you put the credit cards into a debt management program with Christian Credit Counselors dot org. Don't touch that mortgage. There's just no reason to hold on the line. We'll talk a little bit more off the air and we're going to pause for a brief break. We'll be back with much more. Stay with us. You're listening to MoneyWise Live, and you can find us online at MoneyWiseLive.org. However, today we're not live. So if you hear that phone number, please don't call.

But do stay with us. There's lots of great information ahead. I had a chance to talk to John off the air a bit during that break. And John's going to sit tight with that mortgage, not going to touch that great three and a quarter percent interest rate, even though it sounded good to maybe perhaps save a little bit on a monthly basis, taking that unsecured debt, securing it to the house, stringing it out over the next 20 years, paying for the cost of the refi, having a mortgage that's now a couple of points probably higher on the interest rate just doesn't make sense. So John's going to think about a credit counseling program for that $5,000 to get that paid off.

And then once it's gone, focus on really fully funding that emergency fund and saving for the next car purchase. And he and his wife will be well on their way toward the goals that they have. But grateful for John's call today. Kim in Tennessee, you're next on the program. I understand you want to respond to Sean's previous question about job hunting.

Yes. Thank you for taking my call. About five years ago, I unexpectedly lost my job. I got fired.

Never thought I'd get fired in a million years. But at any rate, I was unemployed for eight months. And the I had to the way unemployment works, or at that time, you had to apply for at least three jobs a week every week to receive your unemployment. So I did that I was unemployed for about eight months. The last the very last week that I was going to get an unemployment check, I had heard nothing from anyone from, like I said, I had gone on about three interviews.

The very last week, I was so stressed out, I didn't know what I was going to do. And I got a call from one of the employers that I interviewed with, and they said, even though you interview for this job, we think you would be great for this other job that I had no idea. And I said, Okay, great. I didn't know what the job was or anything.

I was just like, you know, great. But the point that I'm trying to make is, after I got the job, and I love the job, I regret it so much that I did not trust God, and his purpose and his plan for me. Because once I thought about it, if I had not spent all that time being worried about when, where, how I was going to get another job, how soon, you know, I could have used that time to perhaps start my own business, which I'm interested in. I'm a seamstress. And I could have built an alterations business, a successful one, within that eight months time. And I know that Sean said he does woodworking as a side hustle. Maybe that if that's something he really enjoys, maybe that's something that God has given him time to turn into, you know, a full, what do you call it, like an individual, a self-proprietorship.

That's right. Yeah, well, I'll tell you, Kim, what an encouragement you are. And I know that Sean is, I'm sure he's listening and encouraged by, and I know many others are as well, two big takeaways. One is, we need to trust God's plan.

You know, we're there at the parade on the curb seeing what's right in front of us. God has the blimp view, right? He sees the beginning, middle, and the end, and we need to trust his plan. As the late Larry Burkett used to say, God is never late, but seldom early. And so usually he's working on our hearts in the meantime. And I think you also pointed out, perhaps anytime we have a season of a pause where we're waiting on God, maybe we need to look at other alternatives. And that includes looking at inside toward how God has wired us and gifted us.

And I think that's where these career assessments can be very, very valuable. But we appreciate you weighing in today on the program and being an encouragement to Sean. God bless you, Kim.

To Arkansas we go. Richard, thanks for calling. You're next on the program. Good morning.

Thank you for taking my call, sir. I have a question about Social Security. I am a full-time employee, 64 years old. I started, I think, drawing around 62 and they said I couldn't make over 1500. So at the time I was making around 16, but now I'm up to around about 18 and I'm paying back in to Social Security instead of them paying me, I'm paying them back. So I was just wondering, is there any way I could maybe take some of my check and put somewhere else?

And they would at the same time send me my check. Hmm. Yeah, that's interesting. I'm not sure I totally understand.

I mean, here's the way this works, Richard. So if you take benefits before your full retirement age, the Social Security earnings limit is $1630 a month or $19,560 per year in 2022. If you earn over that, the Social Security will just hold back $1 of your benefit for every $2 you earn above that amount. Now, if that wasn't happening for some reason, and now the agency wants you to repay the amount you were over overpaid, that could be what's going on. Does that sound right? Yes, sir.

That's exactly what's going on. But I thought maybe if I could put some money somewhere else, you know what I'm saying? When my check come out instead of it, instead of it being a 18 a month, maybe I could show 15. But I don't know if I'd be able to do that. No, you can't.

I mean, you're gonna have to report whatever it is. The good news is that, you know, down the road, once you reach full retirement age, you'll actually be reimbursed for the money you had to pay back now. Because that reduction that they hold back the dollar for every $2 that you're kind of replenishing here for working and earning beyond the limit is only temporary. It will be made up to you in a higher check from full retirement age forward until it's fully restored down the road. So you'll actually get that back.

So I think from that standpoint, even though that sounds silly, that's how the system works. And you know, I would, you know, just stay on with your current plan. And, and, you know, get that paid back and know that that will eventually be coming back to you. So we appreciate you checking in with us today. Richard, God bless you, my friend. To Oregon, Lynn, thank you for calling. Go right ahead. Good morning.

Thanks for taking my call. I am retired. I am soon to be 68 years old. I have a question about my 403 B. If I and so I'm on a pension right now is all if I need some money to bridge between now and age 70 when I plan to take my Social Security so it'll be at a higher rate. Would you advise pulling it out of the 403 B so that the interest or the taxes would be a little lower at this point? Yeah, I like that plan a lot.

If you don't mind, turn your radio down just a little bit. But yeah, that can make a lot of sense, Lynn, just because, you know, when you delay those Social Security payments, as you know, that's going to increase by 8% a year. And this is a common strategy to really take advantage of that benefit by starting to pull from the 401k as soon as possible without triggering penalties, and only potentially, you know, draw just as only what you need and let that Social Security check continue to grow and then you enjoy that higher payout for the rest of your life. So I like that plan a lot. And I think that makes some sense. Obviously, the more you can limit that the better because then that's more that's growing for the future.

But if you need to kind of as you said, bridge some income needs between now and age 70, pulling from that 403 B, I think makes a lot of sense, especially given where taxes are right now. Lynn, thanks for your call. We'll be right back. This is our final segment of a broadcast we previously recorded.

Thanks so much for being with us today and we hope you'll stick around and enjoy the rest of today's program. You know, as you're considering how to give to ministries that support your values and equip God's people to serve his kingdom, there are a variety of unique ways that you can give to MoneyWise. By the way, we are completely listener supported as a not for profit ministry, and we only do what we do as a result of listener support. Well, you can donate actually stock, real estate, life insurance, or even include MoneyWise in your estate plan to help us expand the message of God's financial wisdom. And if this is something you'd like to discuss, you're a part of the MoneyWise family, you count on this broadcast and you'd like to help others learn God's wisdom in addressing their finances, well, we'd love to hear from you. So as a next step, we would just encourage you to click the Contact Us button at MoneyWise.org and someone from our team will get right back to you. Again, MoneyWise.org, just click Contact Us if you'd like to know how to donate appreciated assets or have MoneyWise included in your estate plan. And thanks in advance for your interest. This came into us through the MoneyWise community. Let me tackle this question today.

It was a good one. Jane says I have a 24 year old grandson who needs help. His spending is out of control. His parents are not like this and have tried to help. He does okay when he's with them and they keep track of his spending, but he moved out and is making a lot of unwise decisions. He's now in debt to the tune of about $5,000. He has no job.

He doesn't have a clue what he would like to do. And this is heartbreaking, of course. What advice do you have for me?

Thank you for your ministry. And Jane, I know this has to be heartbreaking to watch your grandchild go through this. Obviously, he needs to make his sole priority getting a job so that he can then begin to develop a spending plan and keep his expenses paid, get out of this cycle of debt. The challenge is if he's been getting a lot of help along the way, and that is kind of what he's accustomed to. Perhaps he hasn't really learned the value of hard work and unfortunately, and this is going to be challenging, some tough love may be in order here so he can understand and really appreciate before he's got a family and these problems get even bigger, he can appreciate the consequences of his action.

And so I think you may need to look at exercising some tough love there. Second, I would encourage you to suggest that he get a career assessment, perhaps the one we've mentioned a couple of times already today, careerdirect.org. It could be a great resource, Jane, because not only does it look at his skills and his interests and his aptitude, but it also looks at his values, kind of how God has wired him and his giftings by God's design. And so that could be perhaps a gift you give him, which is one of these career assessments and some counseling along with it. And then lastly, I would say, as you're encouraging him, if you want to be of help financially, just make sure you do it in a way that you encourage the right behaviors. Because so often, you know, we can give money in a way that just really doesn't reinforce the good behaviors.

In fact, it can continue negative behaviors if we're not careful. And so for instance, you know, maybe, you know, once he gets that job and he's on a budget, you say, listen, every, you know, payment you make to your debt, I'll match it. If you send something over and above the minimum payment, you know, things like that, that I think really could encourage him to make the right choices. But we'll ask the Lord to give you some wisdom, Jane, as you navigate this. I know it certainly can be challenging. All right, back to the phones.

We go to Texas. Maria, thank you for calling. I understand you have a Social Security question. I'm 66 years old. And I was 66 in March. I'm considering to retire. But I heard that no matter how much longer I work, the amount of money Social Security will pay me will not increase. Whatever the amount is, it's set. So if I work to 70, it doesn't mean like, for example, I won't get it. Instead of getting 1200 a month, I'll get 1500 a month. Does that make sense? I hear what you're saying.

Yeah, it's just it's not good information that you've received. The way Social Security works is, if you delay benefits beyond full retirement age, whatever you would have received based on your high 35, your highest 35 years of earnings, whatever you would have received at full retirement age, and that's available to you to get directly from Social Security Administration, that amount, if you delay it, will increase by 8% a year, it actually increases by one 12th of 8% every month until age 70. So if you delay fully, you could have a check, you know, perhaps 24 to 32% higher than you would have if you claimed at 66 or 67.

And so, you know, that is absolutely the way it works. The other piece of it, which applies whether you delay it or not is the other way to increase your benefit check is if you continue to work, and in any year you work, you replace one of your previous 35 high earning years with a higher year, if any of those 35 are lower than what you continue to work and earn, then you can replace one of those and that will also increase your benefit check. But that's going to happen whether you delay Social Security or not.

But if you delay only up until age 70, it caps there, you will get an increase in 8% a year. Okay, thank you. Great. Okay. Absolutely. Maria, we appreciate your call today. Let's head to, well, we'll stay in Texas.

Sandy, go ahead. You're next on the program. Yeah, somewhere along the line, I got some bad counsel about fear of the market to take my money out. So I've been, I've been out, you know, my retirement account, I've been out for quite a few years. I am invested in money market, but I'm not, I'm not making any money. So I still think that I probably have this fear of, you know, obviously the unknown. I'm trying to figure out, okay, so how do I get back in?

How do I get help with investing? And I don't, I don't think I'm going to do it on my own, even though I thought I would. Yes, ma'am. Well, I would, I would concur with that. You know, I think it can be very emotional and emotions. You know, typically, when it comes to investing causes to make the wrong decisions, we tend to, you know, operate of a fear mentality. And we, you know, with the time where we should be thinking about adding to our investments, or at least at the very least, staying the course, we do the opposite. And we, you know, pull back because we see the account dropping, even though it's unrealized. We lock it in and go to cash, which it sounds like is what you did here. And, you know, I'm not, it's not something you should feel bad about.

It's just a natural human emotion. But that's where having some wise counsel, with some expert advice and management can really be helpful. Sandy, what do you have in the IRA right now? Well, it's down to probably about $430,000.

Yeah, okay. Yeah, I mean, so obviously, you've spent a lifetime amassing a significant amount of money, we want to manage it wisely. I mean, typically, as you enter retirement, you'd probably want to have minimum of 30% in stocks, you could be as high as 40, if you wanted to at, you know, at 65, when you're retiring, and probably the balance in a fixed income portfolio. But where it's really managed, and I think having somebody who understands your goals and objectives is not, you know, doing something they want to do, but really, taking what they understand about who you are, what your income needs are, how much risk tolerance, you know, you have, they'll build and manage a portfolio that I think will give you some peace of mind over time.

And by moving toward a lower percentage of stocks, that's going to kind of smooth out the volatility as well. So what I would recommend that you do is head to our website, MoneyWise.org and click the button that says find a CKA. So we trust here at MoneyWise, the Certified Kingdom Advisor designation, this is the gold standard designation and financial services for men and women who've met high standards in competency and character, pastor references, client references, statement of faith, but also they've been trained to apply biblical wisdom to their advice and counsel, and therefore they've earned the Certified Kingdom Advisor designation. I'd interview two or three CKAs in your area, try to find the one that's the best fit. And that would be the direction that I would go.

And then you'd have somebody who's a trusted advisor that you can meet with regularly, communicate with often, but they would take responsibility with your goals in mind of, you know, deploying these assets. And they're probably going to stage it into the market, probably not all in one day, but over a period of time to get you back in, but with an allocation that makes sense based on what you're trying to accomplish. Does that make sense to you?

It does. So what's going on with the market? Is it a good time to get in now? I mean, I know things have been down. Sure. Yeah. I mean, I think it certainly is.

And here's why. You know, nobody knows what the next six months or a year will hold. Could we, you know, go down another 20 percent from here? Sure. Could we be positive by the end of the year?

Absolutely. We just don't know. Nobody does in the short term.

If they tell you they do, they're misleading you. Market's off 400 today. It could be up a thousand tomorrow. But what we do know is that you're going to be buying in lower than where the market was beginning of the year, although, you know, maybe you missed a little bit of the recovery we've seen, although I think that's probably temporary. And the idea of systematically deploying this in over, let's say, you know, a six month period or a four month period is going to allow you to kind of smooth out that reentry.

So you're not just doing it all on a single day. The reality is we're going to trust the long term trends here and not the near term, because we just don't know about the near term. But as long as we're looking out 10 years and if you're in good health and the Lord tarries, you need this money to last decades.

So we don't really care what happens over the next year or two. We're looking long term. And I think from that standpoint, we can trust that. Yeah, let's start moving back into the market with a well thought out strategy.

And that's going to serve you well over time. Sandy, we appreciate your call today. All the best to you as you think about this next season of life and folks, that's going to do it for us today. So thankful that you stopped by as we together in community try to find God's heart for managing his money. Well, our team is essential to what we do here every day. So let me give them some thanks. Want to say thank you to Amy and to Courtney and to Melody and to Jim, the team serving us today, doing an amazing job, pushing buttons, serving you as you call in and doing all the things that makes this show possible.

Money Wise Live is a partnership between Moody Radio and Money Wise Media. That's going to do it for us, but I hope you'll come back and join us next time. We'll do it all over again. In the meantime, may God bless you. Bye bye.