What to Do with a Boomerang Kid

A boomerang is supposed to return when it leaves your hand. But a boomerang kid?

Well, that's something else entirely. I am Rob West. Do you have a boomerang kid? That's a term for an adult child that's returned home, like a boomerang, and now lives with you again.

If so, you're not alone. We'll talk about what you can do about it. Then it's on to your calls at 800-525-7000.

That's 800-525-7000. This is Faith and Finance Live, biblical wisdom for your financial decisions. Okay, so I said you're not alone if you have a boomerang kid living in your basement. We know that because the financial group Thrivent actually does an annual Boomerang Kids Survey. The latest one, just conducted in May, found that 41% of parents have an adult child currently living with them. The three most common reasons given for this were increasing rent and home prices, 35%, needing additional financial support after completing high school or college, 20%, and job loss, 13%.

No doubt the disruptions caused by COVID have also contributed to the boomerang kid boom, even though employers were desperate for workers in the later stages of the pandemic and employment remains relatively strong. Now, an adult child living at home in and of itself may not be a big drag on parents' finances if you're only providing what's called three hots and a cot. It's when you start picking up the tab for their smartphone, student loans, and car payments that things can get out of hand in a hurry. Many parents are willing to help their kids even to the point of their own detriment, even when it jeopardizes their retirement. In a brand new Bank Rate Survey, around half of parents said they've sacrificed emergency savings and debt payoff efforts to help their adult children.

43% said they'd tapped into retirement savings to help their kids. This inability to cut the financial umbilical cord can have a detrimental impact on both parents and children. The kids may begin to expect regular financial handouts and become dependent on them.

So what to do about it? Well, first is realizing that you should do something about it. You don't want to have an adult child living at home unless there are mitigating circumstances, such as caring for you if you're disabled. Proverbs 10 4 reads, a slack hand causes poverty, but the hand of the diligent makes rich. As parents, we always want to help our children, but at the same time, we don't want to encourage our children to have a slack hand.

Finding the dividing line between helping and hurting can be difficult, and that often leads to tension when spouses disagree on where one ends and the other begins. But it doesn't have to be a question of throwing your kid out on the street or breaking your budget. You can take on this challenge gradually. First of all, you need to set a non-negotiable requirement. Your boomerang child must have a job and be earning income.

The type of job isn't important. Set a deadline. For example, moving out day is two months from now if you're not yet working.

There aren't plenty of jobs available, so this shouldn't be a problem. Once your boomerang kid is earning money, you can sit down with him or her and set up a budget and a financial plan. First and foremost, then that plan will be saving to get their own place. You need to impress upon the child the need to live below one's means so that you can save.

It's key to all future financial success. You can offer to match your child's savings temporarily to accelerate the process. You want your child to save for an apartment, but also to save for emergencies. Their budget must allow for that once they're on their own.

Otherwise, something will come up like a job loss or a major car repair, and they'll be borrowing from you or moving back in. Of course, all of this is much easier if you are a financial role model. There's no better way to teach your children about wise money management than by showing them how to do it. Proverbs 22 6 tells us, train up a child in the way he should go, and even when he is old, he will not depart from it. It's never too late to start teaching your children financial responsibility. And when you do, your boomerang child can once again leave your hand this time successfully.

I hope that's been an encouragement to you. Hey, before we take our first break, let me remind you about the FaithFi app. It's a great way for you to develop your spending plan. And by the way, it could be a great resource for that boomerang child in your basement.

Perhaps they could use it to set up their own budget, begin to track their spending, get into our digital envelope system, and learn a crucial skill that will pay huge dividends when they're out on their own. You'll find it all on our website at faithfi.com. That's faithfi.com. All right, your calls are next, 800-525-7000.

That's 800-525-7000. I'm Rob West, and this is Faith and Finance Live, biblical wisdom for your financial decisions. Grateful to have you with us today on Faith and Finance Live.

I'm Rob West. All right, it's time to take your calls and questions today on anything financial. We've got lines open today. We'll dedicate the rest of the broadcast to you at 800-525-7000. Again, that's 800-525-7000. You can call right now.

Gabby T. is standing by to take your calls. We'll look forward to getting you on the air quickly. By the way, before we begin today, which will be in Montgomery, Alabama, let me remind you Faith and Finance Live is listener supported, which means we rely on your support to do all of the ministry we do here to equip you as a faithful steward of God's resources. If you'd consider a gift, we'd certainly be grateful here at the middle way through the month of August, mid part of the month. We're slightly behind on our goal for listener donations for the month, and so you can help us make up that ground with a gift of any amount, whether it's $440 or $400, whatever it might be, we'd certainly be grateful. Again, head to faithfi.com. That's faithfi.com, and just click Give, and thanks in advance. All right, we're going to head to the phones.

Dawn is in Alabama. You'll be our first caller. Go right ahead. Hey, Rob, I'm currently retired, and I have three 401ks and various companies I worked with before and one of the three 401k programs is terminating. So I'm forced to move my funds to someplace else. Since I'm not currently working, I'm retired, would I be able to roll that money over into one of my other two 401k programs?

Or do I have to put it like in a IRA? Yeah, that's a good question. Let me just... Yeah, let me clarify one thing though, Dawn. Did you say one of these was your son's retirement account? No, no, no. They're all three of mine. Okay. I thought I heard you say your son.

My apologies. Yeah, typically when you separate from an employer, you're no longer able to roll other 401ks in. Often when you're still employed and you have an active 401k, the plan administrator may allow you to roll other 401ks in, and we will on occasion recommend that just because it keeps things a little simpler to have everything in one place, and then you're not managing multiple accounts with different investment strategies. But given that you're fully retired, you're separated from all three of these companies, really your opportunity is to roll these into one traditional IRA.

That will not be a taxable event. You won't be taking a distribution as long as you do a rollover. So you'll set up that IRA first. You could do that at Fidelity or Schwab, or if you wanted to hire an advisor, I'd do that first, and then they'll tell you where to open the account.

In fact, they'll do it for you. And then you'll just request the rollover paperwork, or you probably do it electronically with each of the three 401k plan administrators, and then that check will be sent directly to the custodian, or it'll be sent electronically through the ACAT system directly to the custodian of that new IRA. All the money will eventually be in one place, and then you can begin investing. Okay. Do you know if they have Fidelity or Schwab, do they have ETF IRAs or IRAs that are ETF based?

Yeah. So once you get it into the IRA, you can invest in anything you want. Now a lot of that has to do with the company you select. You could open an IRA with a bank or you could do it at a discount brokerage like Fidelity or Schwab, or you could go to a Merrill Lynch or Morgan Stanley, and they would all have multiple options. But if you went to, let's say a Fidelity or Schwab, one of the discount brokerages, you could basically select anything you want.

If you wanted more of a robo solution where they automatically use ETFs to build an index, an indexed approach to investing where you're just capturing the broad moves of the stock market with an allocation that's based on your age, you might want to go into the Schwab intelligent portfolios. But if you just want to build it yourself, you know, all of those fund options, whether they're mutual funds that are indexes or exchange traded funds, they'll all be available there on either of those platforms. Okay, so I just have to get the money in there. And then I can invest in whatever I want.

That's exactly right. Yeah, it'll come in in the form of cash. So it'll go into the money market, whichever you select as your sweep account. So I would usually select the government money market, which means it's investing in government bills, bonds and notes. And then that's your default account, that'll start earning interest.

And then as you begin to deploy it in whatever investments you want, individual stocks, ETFs, mutual funds, then you know, that's when it gets invested. Okay. All right. Okay, I appreciate it. You're welcome, Don. Thank you for calling today. We appreciate you being on the program.

Let's see a few lines open 805257,000. But we haven't been to Green Bay in a while. Let's head there to Wisconsin. Hi, Tricia, go ahead.

Hi there. My siblings and I were wondering, we were told that when our mother passes away, she has a home that's in a trust that we will all inherit, that within one year of her passing, we have to sell that home. It's a vacation home. Otherwise, if we don't sell it within that first year of her death, the cost basis will revert back to what her cost basis was versus the day we inherited. Yeah, that would be news to me.

I'm not familiar with that. Essentially, what happens is that that cost basis is reset to the date of death when you inherit it. Now from that point forward, if it continues to increase in value, well, then at that point, you could generate a capital gain. But I'm not aware of any kind of provision where it would revert back after a period of time. I mean, you could connect with an estate attorney just to confirm that. But my understanding has always been that it would essentially step up permanently to the date of death.

That's one of the benefits of a trust is you're receiving it as a beneficiary through an inheritance. And therefore, you enjoy that stepped up cost basis. Okay. All right.

That's what we needed to kind of hear and where to go if we need to then. Thank you. Okay. Very good. Thanks for your call today, Tricia. We appreciate it.

Eight hundred five two five seven thousand is the number to call. Looks like all the lines full. So we'll just continue to make our way through.

Chicago's where we'll go next. Adam, go ahead, sir. Yes. How are you doing, sir? Can you hear me? I sure can. Yes, sir. Okay.

Real quick. My company just started a 401k. The maximum amount of contribution from them is four thousand dollars a year. I'm 68 years old. They just took out the second contribution of 10 percent. My question is.

Oh, I'm sorry. And five percent is the minimum you have to contribute to get to four thousand a year. Should I knock it down from 10 percent to five? And I I put the money in the least amount of volatility because I'm not concerned about making a lot of money with my age. So the question is, should I should I go from 10 percent to five on my part?

Should I pay taxes on it now or later? That's the two questions I have. Yeah, very good. So you're obviously still working in plan two for some time. Well, no.

About another 18 months. Okay. All right.

Yeah. I like you putting it in. I think you can put in as much as you want. I would be more concerned about what are your savings goals and let that drive your contributions. You could put in up to thirty thousand dollars for 2023 and a 401k over the age of 50. What you're talking about is the amount that they'll match. You certainly want to put in enough to get the match.

That's free money. Whether you go beyond that has to do with how much you ultimately want to put away for retirement. So if you're still not there yet and you're working, this is a great time to accelerate the contributions up to 10 percent plus because you're going to get a deduction on that, which is good because you're in a higher bracket since you're still working and then you could pull it out down the road.

So I'd keep it up at 10 percent or more as long as that's in line with your retirement savings goals. Thanks for your call. We'll be right back on Faith and Finance Live. Great to have you with us today on Faith and Finance Live. I'm Rob West. We've got a few lines open.

Eight hundred, five, two, five, seven thousand to Cleveland WCRF. Hey, Linda, thanks for your patience. Go ahead. Well, thanks so much for taking my call.

It's a two part, please, if this is possible. Sure. First thing I want to ask about is that I have a 17 year old granddaughter who's been working and this is her senior year. And we were wondering if it would make sense that she might put her money into a Roth. And then the second question that I have is I'm looking for resource sources to help educate high school girls about money basics so that they would understand compound interest and things necessary to buy a home and terms financial terms that apply to different experiences they're going to have, if you know of such a resource.

Yeah, very good. So let's take the first one. I think, yes, I like a Roth IRA. She's, of course, has to have earned income and she would be able to contribute up to the earned income she has or the limit for the year, which is sixty five hundred dollars for 2023, whichever comes first. Now, what money would she not want to put in a Roth IRA? Well, there really should be money that she wants to invest for the long term to get a jump start on retirement. And if she could put in a couple of thousand this year and do that into her early working years and when she gets married, if she and her husband really stay focused on that and then add a 401k along the way, eventually they're going to have to soon start asking the question, how much is enough? Because they'll be so far ahead in terms of what they'll ultimately have through the power of compounding over 50 years of compounding that they're going to have more than they need, which is a great problem to have because they can really accelerate their giving along the way.

But this would be a great discipline and habit to start. And the Roth IRA is the perfect place to do it because she pays the tax now, which is going to be next to nothing because she's not making a whole lot. And then it grows tax free until retirement for, like I said, maybe 50 years or so.

So that's great. The only key would just be keeping money aside that she needs in the short term for spending money in college or if she needs to buy a car or an apartment. Now, of course, with the Roth IRA, you can always get your original contribution back without any penalties or taxes.

You just can't touch the gains. But I wouldn't go into it with thinking of it as a savings account. I would really put money in that she plans to leave in terms of where to go for a teenager, college student to really help them understand how to handle money. There's a phenomenal program at the it's called Open Hands Finance. And if you go to openhandsfinance.com open hands finance. There's a good friend of ours that has put this together.

We need to have her on the program sometime. It's a small group course, essentially for college students to establish a firm financial foundation based on biblical wisdom. Every week's lesson has a podcast that goes with it. And it's written in a language that, you know, would just be really appropriate for college students. But it's biblical at its core and it's just as really helpful content. So I think that would be a great resource for her. Again, Open Hands Finance.

And I love the Roth IRA. OK, thank you so much. What a blessing. Thank you so much. You're welcome, Linda. Thanks for your call today to, let's see, Cletus in Carpentersville, Illinois.

Go ahead, sir. Hi, Rob. So my father in law just passed away recently and we're in a kind of a unique situation. So his primary means of income was through the sale of illegal substances. And so after he passed, we we found a considerable amount of cash. So we got about eight thousand dollars in cash and then close to another eight thousand in gold bars.

And there's a safe that we haven't gotten into yet. So we're just looking for some biblical wisdom. Should we keep this money? Should we donate it?

Can you can you direct me to some areas of scripture that would maybe give me some wisdom and direction on what to do? Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah. You know, I think this is ultimately a conviction matter. Obviously, this was these are what the Bible would call ill-gotten gains. You can read about that in God's word. And, you know, Bible says that has no lasting value. Clearly, we're to work honestly as unto the Lord by legal means. Work is something that was ordained by the before the fall of man. And so we were created in the image of God, the ultimate creator worker to be creators and workers.

But we're to do that honestly and with integrity and and by way of legal means. Now, obviously he's deceased. And so you are the next steward of these resources. And so I think handling these wisely based on prayer and establishing your own convictions around that, there wouldn't be anything. And I don't think in God's word that I would point to to say you as the next steward with him having now passed away and there not being an issue of you having to, you know, report this or disclose these illegal activities because he's deceased.

I think you're now the steward. So these resources God has placed in your hand and you're to use them for God's glory despite how they were derived. Remember, money is not morally, you know, positive or negative.

It's morally neutral. It's a tool to accomplish God's purposes. And you are now the steward of this tool.

And the question is, how do you want to use it? And I think perhaps given the knowledge of how it was derived, even though we know the Bible is very clear, even the power to create wealth comes from the Lord. So it all belongs to him. This wasn't your father in law's money. This was God's money.

And it happened to make its way into your father in law's hands through illegal means. But it still belongs to the Lord. And now the Lord has entrusted it to you. So my counsel to you would be to say, you all come together and pray and say, Lord, give us a conviction as to how we're going to, how we should use this. And perhaps the very best way to honor him is to take those ill-gotten gains and to use them to spread the gospel and to redeem that money for the sake of the glory and the gospel being proclaimed of Jesus Christ. I love that idea, but I don't think there's a right or wrong answer here.

Again, money is a tool. And I think ultimately you guys need to pray it through and decide how the Lord is leading and whichever way he leads. I would say you follow that leading and do that us unto the Lord, and you'll be glorifying him in the process. That's my best advice for you, Cletus.

We'll ask the Lord to give you some wisdom as you seek him in that. Thanks for your call today. We'll be right back. Delighted to have you with us today on Faith and Finance Live. We've got all the lines full so sit back and enjoy some great questions today as we apply God's wisdom to your financial decisions. Let's head to Colorado. Hey David, thanks for calling, sir.

How can I help? Yeah, thank you. I bought some I bonds a year and a half or so ago. Two of them are beyond a year old.

Another one is about six months. And I see that the interest rate on I bonds looks like it's gone down if I'm looking at it right. And I wondered what your recommendation would be to protect that money a little bit from all the craziness that's going on.

Yeah, very good. You know, I was a fan of I bonds back when they were at 9.6%. I was still a fan of them at 6.8%. But I was telling folks it really should be for that bucket of money that's one to three years in time horizon because, you know, if it's money that's beyond three years, certainly beyond five, you know, we would rather you buy into the stock market despite those attractive returns, we knew it was temporary and money that was less than a year. Well, obviously, that doesn't apply because you've got to leave money in I bonds for at least 12 months.

And if you take it out in less than five years, but beyond one year, you're going to pay a three month penalty. So given that the current composite rates at 4.3%, I really think you can do better elsewhere. So for the money that's been in there for at least a year, I would say go ahead and pull that out. Then again, we need to go through the same process here, David, to determine what is the time horizon on this money and what is its purpose. If it's money that is five years great or greater that you're going to use it certainly 10. Well, then you can start to look at should we take some risk with it and invest it in a properly diversified stock and bond portfolio.

If not, you want to keep it completely safe and guaranteed by the US government. Well, now we're looking at, you know, high yield savings or CDs. Good news there is you can get five and a half percent right now, a point plus better than an I bond in a CD. So you've got options but continuing to buy the I bonds or even holding the I bonds beyond what you have to really doesn't make sense anymore because that rates already down below the CD rates and it's going to come down again when we get the new rate November 1. All right, that's kind of kind of what I was thinking. No, I'll cash in those two that are over a year old and the one that's less than a year so getting over 6%.

So I'll take care of that on it gets a year old. There you go. I think that's a great plan. Hey, thanks for calling today, sir. We appreciate it.

To Indianapolis. Hey, Jeremy, how can I help you? Yeah, thanks for taking my call. I had a question about borrowing from a 401k. I will debt free, we don't have no bills or mortgage or nothing just utilities. We got a good emergency fund, but I monitor my 401k pretty regularly and it's not getting much over a 4% return. And I was wondering, does it make sense to borrow like 50 grand, put it on a CD, get five and a half percent return and then I pay myself back interest. Does that make sense?

No, I don't like that approach. Because here's why, you know, in that 401k, you should have the ability to build a portfolio with a long term perspective that outperforms that, you know, even that five and a half percent on average. I mean, keep in mind the S&P 500 since its founding in the 20s has done greater than 9% a year. So what is your age right now? I'll be 41 in about a couple weeks.

Okay, so let's say you work for the next 25 years. You know, you should be in a portfolio that's targeted, you know, to your retirement date, perhaps even one beyond that. So I guess my question would just be why is it that you're only getting four and a half percent? And is it perhaps just because you've been in largely stock mutual funds inside that 401k that have just not been performing as well, which the market hasn't been doing well. It's done better this year. But even with the broad market indexes showing, you know, decent results, a lot of that has been pretty narrow in terms of the number of stocks affected. It's only broadened in the recent past.

So I'm not surprised that maybe you just haven't done as well. But this is also an unusual time. We're on the heels of a pandemic. We've, you know, we're looking at a possible recession. We've had 11 rate hikes.

I mean, this is one of those tough environments. I would direct you back to the previous 12 years before the pandemic, where we were in a raging bull market. And let's say we were to enter into one of those, you know, next year or the year after, you know, then we have another run. That's what you want to be in those kind of long term upward trends that we have, you know, typically every 10 years. And because you've got time on your side, I'd much rather you keep that money in the 401k with a long term perspective with the right investment mix appropriate to your age and risk tolerance as opposed to, you know, taking a shorter term perspective. And that would be to pull it out on a borrowing basis and drop it in the CD. Does that make sense? Yeah, it does. I guess it sounds like I kind of need to call Vanguard and see if they can maybe realign some other to work and get a better return.

I think that's right. Perhaps connect with one of their advisors there. If there's not one you're happy with, you could connect with a certified kingdom advisor and just say, hey, listen, can I pay you for your time just to analyze my options and help me pick, you know, allocate this among some good mutual funds that are high quality, that have good long term performance that are appropriate for my age and risk tolerance, let them do that one time, and then just let that thing go.

But yeah, I would encourage you as a first step, absolutely to take a look at just reallocating that to some different investments, as opposed to trying to borrow it out. Hey, we appreciate your call today. I hope that helps to Plainfield, Illinois. Hi, Donna. Go ahead. Hi, Rob.

Thanks for taking my call. My husband and I are traveling to Europe in a little bit. And I wondered, where should we exchange our money for euros? Should we do it at airports when we get to Europe? Should we do it here in the States?

I'm just not sure what to do. Yeah, very good. Hey, before we talk about that, tell me where you're going. This sounds like a great trip.

We fly into Budapest, and then we get on a river cruise that we go all the way up to Amsterdam. Oh, that sounds fabulous. Wow. What a great trip. How cool. All right.

Yeah. I would love for you to do it ahead of time. So at a bank or credit union is usually your best option for where you get your money before you go, because it's a familiar option. They tend to offer the best exchange rates. They may charge a conversion fee, but it'll be much less than other options, certainly less than the option that would be presented to you in the airport, either here or there. And it really helps with making a travel budget. Then when you get there, I think the key is to try to use ATM machines.

You know, those will be the best way for you. And some have some banks have in network or affiliate ATMs in other countries. So you want to familiarize yourself with that, because there's even some institutions that reimburse you for ATM fees.

So doing a little homework on that before you go. Also checking on your credit cards. A lot of credit cards will waive international card transaction fees.

So you might want to say, which credit cards do I have? Give them a call and see which one might be most advantageous to use while you're there. And then your bank should be able to buy that currency back from you as well. So I think that's going to be your best option. Do it ahead of time.

Do it at a bank or a credit union. And listen, you guys have a wonderful time. That sounds like a fabulous plan.

You be careful, but enjoy yourselves as you get out there and travel abroad. We appreciate your call today. We're going to take a quick break, folks.

We still got a full lineup of calls. So much more to come on Faith and Finance Live. I'm Rob West and we'll be right back. Stick around. Great to have you with us today on Faith and Finance Live. I'm Rob West. All right, let's head back to the phones here in our final segment to Indianapolis. Hey, Marty, thanks for calling.

How can I help? Thank you. I recently just went through a divorce and I'm living with my living in my aunt uncle's house while I'm helping him remodel it. And I've got a few dollars that I got through my divorce. I was just wondering, how should I save that?

What should I put that in? Eventually, within five years, I'd like to buy me a piece of property. Yeah, yeah. Well, I wouldn't invest that, Marty, just given that you said within five years, which tells me that potentially could be three years.

Is that right? Yeah, I just kind of watching and if something comes along, that's a good deal. I'd like to be able to jump on it.

Okay, yeah. So the last thing you'd want would be to drop a lot of this in stocks and all of a sudden you're ready to make that purchase. You find that property and now you're having to sell them at a loss because we don't know whether the market's going up or down in the next year or two.

We're investing based on long term trends, not near term trends and something less than five years, I would say, is too short of a timeline. So I think the key for you right now is just to kind of reset spiritually, but also financially and really take a look at your spending plan first, because that's really the cornerstone of every financial success from a dollars and cents standpoint. I mean, we've got to really begin with our hearts and just say, do we understand God owns it all and we're stewards and am I free from the grip that money can have over me? And, you know, am I giving, you know, that's going to break the grip of money over my life.

But then, you know, once we have our belief system right, that's going to inform our behaviors. Kind of the cornerstone to any good financial plan is a spending plan that allows you to live within your means. So, you know, putting down what income sources do I have? And especially now while you're, you know, living in your aunt's place, helping them out, maybe your expenses are reduced more than they will be certainly when you buy your own place. And so how do I take full advantage of that? What expenses do you have?

Where can you cut back? And how much margin can you free up every month that you can use to accomplish your goals, which should be aligned with your values and priorities? And if that primary financial goal is socking away money for a home purchase, well, great. Let's open an online savings account, probably at an online bank.

You can check out bankrate.com to find the online bank for you. You're probably going to be earning four and a half percent interest. It's FDIC insured. You link it to your checking account. And every time you get paid, you just automatically transfer whatever you can over to that savings account, which is your down payment fund. And let's try to build that up. But I think the key for you is, you know, let's try to get your spending right so that you've got that margin. You don't have any debt. Is that right, Marty?

That is correct. All right. What about long term investments like retirement savings? Do you are you working right now or are you just working by way of helping? No, I am working full time and I've got about 800,000 in my my retirement and I'm 40 years old. And I've got about 30 30,000 that once we had to sell everything that was that was my part. So I just kind of very said, Okay, I got this little bit of chunky change. I don't want to just go on a spending spree and and wasted away. Good, you know, housing kits are pretty, pretty wild right now.

So they are Yeah, well, that changes things a little bit. I mean, you still need a spending plan, but you're well on your way to having everything you need with an $800,000 401k at age 30 or 40, whichever you said. So I think the key for you right now is yeah, as you're socking away money for that home purchase, just put that in a in a savings account, it'll be safe, it'll be liquid, get it out of your spending account. So you don't as you said, spend it on just extra frivolous stuff. And that way, you'll be well and on your way to making that purchase when the right place comes along. Hey, listen, all the best to you, my friend, I know you're in a challenging season right now. But draw near to the Lord, really invest in a great Bible believing church, spend some time in God's Word.

And, you know, we'll, we'll trust that he gives you a new vision for what he has in this next season. Let's head to shareville, Indiana, Michelle, go ahead. Hello. I am 52 years old. I have never been married. I do not have any children. And I am an only child. My father has passed away. I am currently the caregiver to my mother.

The time has come that I will need to stop working and be a full time caregiver for her. I currently do have a 401k. But since I will be leaving that job, I would like to roll it over.

But I don't know where to roll it over to, since I'll be putting money into it. Wow. Well, Michelle, this really honors the Lord, I believe Bible is clear that we need to take care of our parents and our family. And you're certainly doing that at a time where your mom needs you.

And I'm delighted to hear that. What do you have in that 401k roughly right now? To be honest with you, I don't know.

I'm going to say it's about 80,000. Okay. All right.

Yeah. So you may be slightly under, you know, what it would, a minimum for a, an advisor. A lot of times they'll have a minimum of a hundred, in some cases 200 or 250,000.

But I think you're right. You do want to roll it to an IRA and you can either manage it yourself and pick those investments. Or I would encourage you to hire an advisor to manage it for you. Our friends at soundmindinvesting.org could give you some advice on some good high quality mutual funds to select soundmindinvesting.org or if you wanted to invest yourself and you wanted some faith-based investing options, there's some wonderful mutual funds in the faith-based investing space on our website at faithfind.com. Just click on the show and you'll see funds like Eventide and One Ascent and Guidestone and Praxis and Lightpoint Portfolios.

There's some great options there. So I would say either a do it yourself faith-based approach or a check out soundmindinvesting.org and then you'll open that IRA, probably Fidelity or Schwab. You'll roll it out from the 401k.

That's not a taxable distribution and then you'll just deploy it in those investments at that point. Okay, sounds good. Thank you so much. You're welcome, Michelle. Thanks for calling. We appreciate it. Let's head to Pennsylvania. Hi, Pamela.

Go right ahead. Hi, quick question. My husband and I are retired looking at selling our home next spring and looking to profit about $300,000 to $400,000. We're going to be going overseas for a year. So my question is what to do with that money in the meantime? What do you plan to do with it when you get back? Buy another house? Probably.

Yeah. So I think you just need to keep it safe and try to earn as much as you can on it. I'd probably drop it in a one-year CD. Right now you can get five and a half percent on $400,000. I mean, you would be able to make $22,000 over the next 12 months and take zero risk. FDIC insured. You'd probably want to put it at two different banks or you could have it in different account categories. So you could put $250,000 jointly held and then another $150,000 if you had $400,000 in your name or your husband's name only.

Those are two different account categories, which means you get FDIC insurance up to $250,000 each. But I think beyond that, I love that idea. And that way it's safe. You get a great return on it.

And when you get back, it's ready there with, in my scenario, $22,000 more in interest for you to then redeploy it. Okay. Quick question then. So could I put both of them in my name? And I say that because my husband is beginning stages of Alzheimer's. I see.

Oh, I'm sorry to hear that. You would just need to use two different institutions. So you could have a CD up to $250,000 at one institution and then open a second one with another institution.

Both of those could be in your name only, but you need to use two different institutions to get the $250,000 twice. And so what I do is go to bankrate.com. Click on the button that says certificates of deposit. It will sort by the banks and institutions that have the very best rates.

Pick two that have the highest rates that are highly rated and you'd open two different CDs in your name. Okay. Very good. Thank you. Okay. You're welcome.

To Cleveland, we're going to finish with Rita. Go right ahead. Hi, thank you for taking my call. I went to a preservation dinner and then met with the person that was doing. And now I'm so totally confused with everything because they were saying that the things that I have are have hidden costs that I don't know about. And I've had the same financial planner before that I've had for like 25, 30 years at least. And then they're saying to trade like some of this in for annuities and consolidate it more because I have it in different accounts and then to convert like 30,000 every year to a Roth.

But I don't even understand where that money is going to come from. So I'm like overwhelmed right now. Yeah. Let me ask you this. How was the steak? Was it good?

It was delicious. Okay, good. That's all that matters.

Because I don't think you should do any of that. You know, these financial seminars with free steak dinners are notorious for resulting in a lot of complicated insurance products that make a lot of commissions for a lot of sales people that may not be in your best interest. So do you have a great relationship with your advisor? And how's the money been doing?

I thought it was doing okay. There's just one account that I do have a little bit of an issue with. And then I have two insurance policies that I'm paying them that are going to be totally underfunded from a financial planner that I had years ago that I left because of that very thing.

I didn't get it. But I didn't realize that I'd be paying all these years into this. And now I'm going to probably not even have it when I need it. Well, I would get to a trusted advisor, whether that's your current advisor or another one, not somebody who's buying you a steak to sell you some insurance products. To look at your whole financial picture, those insurance policies, the performance of your investments, develop a comprehensive plan with a very simple and straightforward investment strategy, not something real complicated that's created by an insurance company. And if that's your current advisor, great. If you'd like to interview two or three others to compare, I'd connect with a certified kingdom advisor there in Cleveland on our website, faithfi.com. Just click find a CKA.

But that's really what the direction I would go is an advisor who's a financial planner, not the insurance approach. Thanks for your call, Rita. God bless you. Hey, my team today, Gabby T., Amy, Rios, Dan Anderson and Robert Sugglin. Couldn't do it without them. Faith in Finance Live is a partnership between Moody Radio and FaithFi. See you tomorrow. in