Small Business by the Book

If you're a Christian who owns or manages a small business, even if you're just making a few extra bucks on the side, this is for you. Call us at 800-525-7000.

That's 800-525-7000. This is Faith and Finance Live, biblical wisdom for your financial journey. While the past few years haven't been easy for small businesses in the U.S., the COVID-19 pandemic threw the supply chain, the workforce, and the economy into chaos, forcing many small companies to close their doors and sending workers home by the millions.

But small business owners are nothing if not resourceful, and many of you have pivoted into new realities with determination and creativity. Of course, as Christians in business, we are called to a higher standard. Colossians 3 23 and 24 says, As Jesus told his disciples in John 15 8, So let's take a few moments here to outline a few of the basic biblical principles that should guide your professional actions and attitudes in the managing of a small business.

The first principle is fundamental, and once you get this one, the rest makes much more sense. I'm talking about stewardship. In a nutshell, stewardship is what happens when you understand that the earth is the Lord's and everything in it, as it says in Psalm 24. So as business owners and managers, we submit our work, our resources, and our profits to the Lord, because He is really the boss. We can have a kingdom perspective on everything from hiring to inventory to profits and losses. As managers, we turn to Christ seeking first His kingdom and His righteousness, trusting that He will provide what we need to take care of all of the business details.

That includes taking care of our families. Ultimately, success or failure in the business becomes God's problem, while we do our best letting Him take care of the rest. In the post-pandemic business environment, workplace norms have really shifted.

Many workers who left the office to work at home have stayed there. Lots of small businesses are dealing with hybrid workforces that have different sets of expectations. This is where eternal biblical principles can keep you moving in the right direction. Because once you have God's authority over your business figured out, you can focus on the horizontal relationships, how you interact with your employees, customers, suppliers, contractors, and even your competitors. Most importantly, treat everyone with integrity.

Deuteronomy 16 19 says, What does that look like in a business context? Well, pay fair wages, show your concern for employees' well-being, and treat your customers, contractors, and yes, your competitors fairly. According to SmallBizTrends.com, workplace expectations have changed in recent years, especially along generational lines.

In general, millennials want positive workplace culture and flexible schedules, and Gen Z workers value fun even more than money. Maintaining biblical values in your company can help meet the felt needs of every employee. One way to maintain a healthy company culture is to set an example. As a business owner who belongs to Christ, you have an opportunity to demonstrate godly character to those around you. You can do that by pursuing righteous business practices.

Here's how. Be honest, communicate clearly, keep your promises, and pursue excellence. As the late Larry Burkett once said, there's nothing more honoring to God than quality service or a quality product from a professing Christian. Proverbs 22 29 confirms this. It reads, Do you see a man skilled in his work?

He will stand before kings. You see, as the business owner or manager, you're in a unique position to have an impact on your community through your generosity and compassion. And I pray that you use your professional resources and influence to further Christ's kingdom right where you live and work.

I hope that's an encouragement. All right, your calls are next. 800-525-7000.

Stick around. I'm thankful to have you with us today on Faith and Finance Live. I'm Rob Last year host here on a Friday. We'd love to take your calls and questions on whatever you're thinking about financially. We've got lines open for you and Josie standing by to receive your call today at 800-525-7000. That's 800-525-7000. You can call right now. A bit of disturbing news in the financial world today based on a survey that CNBC conducted recently.

Listen to this. Four out of 10 workers are not contributing anything to their 401k or employee sponsored plan. By the way, this was a survey of about 2,700 workers. They found only one in four said they're contributing to their 401k or employee sponsored plan. By the way, this was a survey of about 2,700 workers. They found only one in four said they're contributing enough to max out their employer's matching contribution. Well, that's massive because that's free money. You know, if you have a company that will match, let's say 100% up to the first 3% of your contributions, well, that's 100% return on your money.

You're not going to get anywhere else. But three out of four aren't taking advantage of it. Furthermore, one out of 10 said they're putting in the maximum employee contribution each year. Three out of four said they're feeling financially stressed right now, largely due to inflation, rising interest rates and not having enough in savings. And that, of course, has led to what we're seeing in the consumer debt space, namely credit card debt now over $1 trillion here in the United States, all of that a result of folks living right up to the edge paycheck to paycheck, not having any cushion. But the squeeze comes through high inflation, which we had this last year, this year, even though it's down, remember, inflation is cumulative. So we're still building with this year's inflation on the 40-year high inflation of last year, which is why when you go to the grocery store, your eyes bug out when you look at the bill just because everything's so much more expensive now. Well, that's putting the stress on families, which is ultimately leading to having to cut back in lots of key areas.

And one of those certainly is money going into a company sponsored retirement plan. Here's the key folks. And you know, you know this, it's easier said than done. But it all starts with living within your means. You know, we've got to dial back spending, we've got to have a plan, we've got to have cushion or margin because that's ultimately what we use to fund our goals, which should be driven by our values. You know, what's most important to us as Christ followers?

How much is enough in terms of saving for the future? What do we want to be able to do beyond our systematic proportionate giving to our local church? What do we want to do to be able to bless those on our path? What about enjoying what God has entrusted to us and building memories with our family?

What about providing for their needs? I mean, all of that is done through a well thought out spending plan, but also having enough margin so that we can fund those longer term objectives and goals, whether that's fully funding an emergency fund or socking something away for the long term. So really key that we go back to that spending plan. And by the way, the tried and true envelope system has been used for decades. Larry Burkett, I believe, is one of the first to introduce the idea. And at that time, he was largely recommending we use physical envelopes. A lot of folks still do that today and find it very effective where they take their discretionary spending categories at a minimum and actually fund those every month by dividing up the paycheck with real cash, and then they carry them around. And once the money's gone, it's gone.

But it does put a curb on your spending, especially in those budget buster categories. Well, we took that and fashioned it into a beautiful, simple interface that's right there on your smartphone app. It's called the FaithFi app, and it's built on the tried and true envelope system.

But with all the modern conveniences like connecting securely to your bank and being able to download transactions automatically, you and your spouse being able to access the same account and see in real time exactly what the balances are in each of those categories for your budget. So it's all there. It's in your app store. Just search for FaithFi, Faith and Finance, or you can head to our website, faithfi.com.

That's faithfi.com, and then just click app and you can read all about it. All right, let's head to the phones today. We've got some lines open. We'd love to hear from you today at 800-525-7000.

We're going to begin in Indianapolis. Hi, Deb. Go ahead.

Hi, thanks for taking my call. I have a question. We've just met with the financial advisor, and the recommendation was made to move some money from an IRA to a fixed index annuity, and I just kind of wanted to get your opinion on that.

It looked, I mean, it looked good on paper because it doesn't, you don't ever take a loss. You only, and you take a gain whenever the market goes up, you get a similar percentage of a gain. And so I was just wondering what your thoughts were. Yeah. Yeah, you know, they're not my favorite or first tool that I would look to for building wealth, but they are a tool and they are the right fit for some people.

I think the key is, you know, what you're trying to accomplish. So you said this is coming from a traditional IRA. Was that originally in a 401k and you rolled it out to the IRA? Yes. Okay. And are you all in retirement now? Basically, my husband's been retired for quite some time, and I'm kind of semi-retired doing some part time things, but no longer working full time.

Yeah. And how much do you have, if you don't mind me asking, in that traditional IRA? In that one, $250,000, and we would still have about $200,000 that would not be rolled into that.

Very good. And then once you stop working, what will your income sources be at that point? We have pensions of about $2,000 a month, and my husband's Social Security is about $2,200, and I haven't started taking my Social Security. I'm trying to wait until I'm 70.

Great. Yeah, and so if you were able to do that, would the pensions plus the two Social Security benefit checks be enough to cover your income needs? It would be at the point I started drawing Social Security, yes. Yeah, okay. And are you planning to work until age 70, or would you hope to stop before then?

I'm hoping to work at least part time until age 70. Yeah, very good. All right. So, you know, I think in terms of the annuity, I mean, you're right. I mean, the benefit is you have this guaranteed return. You're giving up something in order to get that.

So what are you giving up? Well, you're giving up access to your money, meaning if you needed to get to a big chunk of it, at least in the early part of that annuity contract, you would have some pretty hefty surrender charges. You're also giving up upside potential in exchange for the downside protection. So what happens is you either go with a guaranteed, like fixed annuity, where you get a fixed, a guaranteed rate of interest on your contribution, or you go with a variable annuity, which pays according to the performance of an investment that you choose, but you don't get 100% of the upside. And in exchange for that, they protect you on the downside.

There's a floor underneath it. But there are a lot of high commissions and fees built into it, and they're illiquid, as I mentioned. And so I think the question is, you know, does that peace of mind in transferring that risk to an insurance company, is that desirable to you enough so that you'd give up the access and the potential for a little better rate of return?

You may decide that it is. My preference would be you'd take that $450,000, turn that over to an advisor, like a certified kingdom advisor. He or she would deploy an investment strategy that makes sense at age 70, where you'd have 30 to 40% in stocks, maybe 60 to 70% in fixed income, maybe some precious metals. Yes, there's some downside risk, but you could have full access to your money and generate a reasonable rate of return while focusing on preserving the capital that you have. That would be my better option in my mind, just because there's less complexity, you don't lose access to the money, and it's just not as expensive.

There's not a lot of embedded fees. But I want to get your thoughts on all that. So if you can hold the line, and we'll talk to you on the other side of this break. We'll be right back. I'm grateful to have you with us today on faith and finance live here on Moody radio. We're taking your calls and questions. We've got a few lines open, perhaps one just for you.

800-525-7000. Before the break, we were talking to Deb in Indianapolis. Her advisor is recommending of a roughly 450,000 they have in retirement assets, taking about 250,000 of that and putting it into a fixed annuity. And she's just wondering about the wisdom of that. And Deb, I was saying, yes, you get that downside protection with the guaranteed return. But you are giving up a few things, namely liquidity, but also the potential for an even greater return. Give me your thoughts on that and just kind of how that fits into what you and your husband are looking for at this point.

Well, I think that the liquidity, the advisor told us that we could take out up to 7% a year without any penalty. And those first few years and then after that, we could take whatever we would need. Some of the thoughts was that my husband is 70 and I'm 65.

And his help is not very good. So it was just kind of trying to protect what we have, knowing that there could be expenses down the road or that I might be alone, depending on how God decides to take us and trying to prepare for that. And so that was kind of where we were, why we were even talking with the advisor. And so kind of some worrisome about the market right now, just because we know that it's been on a high for a lot of years now, it's starting to see that volatility and just kind of worried about losing what we've got. So that was kind of where we were from coming from.

Yeah, yeah, very good. Yeah, so I mean, that certainly could solve for that need, you know, where you have this annuity contract that's growing at a guaranteed rate of return, if at some point you could convert that to an income stream, where it pays out based on your life or yours and your husband. So you could have both of you included in that process. And then the terms of the annuity contract will spell out what happens at the death of the annuity owner. And so you could understand that and use that as a part of your estate planning.

I think, you know, the alternative, again, is to have an advisor who would essentially manage this for you, manage the risk, you know, select an investment strategy that fits with your goals and objectives, but really gives you complete access to the money. Inside that retirement plan, it would continue to grow tax deferred, and then you'd pay tax on it when it comes out. There's also some other benefits to having it in the IRA. For instance, you could do your charitable giving out of that and not recognize it as income.

So it went in pre-tax. It can actually come out without ever paying any tax on it if you give it direct to a ministry or charity through a qualified charitable distribution, which is another tool that you have at your disposal. But I think, you know, at the end of the day, you know, annuities are a tool that have a place. And, you know, if really what you're looking for is peace of mind, just guaranteeing, you know, this portion of your retirement assets, knowing that there's no risk of loss there and, you know, being able to convert that to an income stream at some point, then this could be the option for you. I would probably just explore other options as well, just to make sure, you know, that you've looked at all of these before you make the final decision.

That's always good advice. I was told that we could make the qualified charitable contributions out of the annuity as well. Is that true? So this would be a pre-tax annuity, right? Because it's coming from an IRA. Yeah, so what would happen is you can establish a charitable gift annuity. And that, you know, based on the new rules, you can establish what's called a legacy IRA. But you would not, unless I'm missing something and our team can look into this, I don't think you would be able to go direct from a guaranteed fixed annuity to a ministry or charity. But we could certainly look into that and just double check that.

I think you would need to leave it in the IRA to do that. But you listen on, and Deb, I'll clarify that before the end of the broadcast. That's a great question. We appreciate your call today. Wish you and your husband the best as you enter this next season of life. Thanks for being on the program today.

To Illinois. Hi, Gary. Thanks for your call.

How can we help? Hi, Rob. I'm 72. My wife's 69. I retired in May this year. And we're kind of behind with things in our finances in the sense that we bought a house later in life. And so we still owe $75,000 on our mortgage, which will be at the current rate, a 15-year mortgage, and it will expire in eight years from now. So given that I'm retired, I'm just wondering about the wisdom, because I've heard you talk about it's not a good idea when you're at this stage in life that you don't need insurance, and I get that. But since we've still got a $75,000 mortgage to pay off, if I died, you know, six months from now, my wife would still have, you know, 72 or $73,000 to owe or to pay on the mortgage. So I'd like to minimize that risk, so I'm wondering about the wisdom of still carrying insurance for the next ten years.

Yeah. Do you have a term policy currently, or is it a whole life policy? No, it expires in November, so my options are to convert that to universal life or get another ten-year term policy, which the term policies are going to be a little bit less expensive than converting the current term to a universal life. Yeah, and when you pass away, if she still has the mortgage, what changes would take place in her income? Well, she's pretty close to where, she's about a year away from retirement, and in fact, next year, after she turns 70, she's going to reduce her hours.

So she probably, you know, at that point, like two or three years from now, she probably will not be working. Right. But I guess the question is, does anything change at your passing such that if she still had a mortgage, she would have a loss of income that would make it more difficult for her to pay the mortgage? Yes. Okay.

Yeah. Well, the most cost-effective way to take care of that would in fact be through just a straight-term policy, not mortgage protection insurance where it drops over time, because that tends to be more expensive, but just a straight-term policy for ten years just to get you through the payoff of the mortgage. Maybe you split the difference instead of paying off the whole thing.

Maybe you take care of half of it, something like that. Thanks for your call, Gary. We'll be right back. Great to have you with us today on Faith & Finance Live on Moody Radio.

I'm Rob West. We're taking your calls and questions today. 800-525-7000.

That's 800-525-7000. Before the break, we were talking to a previous caller, Deb, about a fixed annuity. They've got 450,000 in an IRA and they're thinking about a fixed annuity.

And what we were talking about there is just what you give up with an annuity is flexibility and liquidity, but also the upside potential. Now, Deb's advisor was saying that she could then do a qualified charitable distribution out of that annuity, and I believe that's incorrect just based on the way we were talking about it. What the SECURE Act 2.0 put in place, which is what Biden recently signed into law, is that you can do from an IRA, you can do a qualified charitable distribution into a charitable gift annuity, which is a special type of annuity that allows you to donate a sum of money, in this case up to 50,000 coming out of the IRA through the qualified charitable distribution. It is then converted to an income stream to you until death, and then at death, whatever is remaining is then given to the charity. But that's different than what you can do with a straight IRA going directly to the ministry as a gift through the qualified charitable distribution. You can give them however much you want, up to $100,000, and they receive that money. It's not added to your taxable income coming out of the IRA, which it normally would be. That is not available from an annuity directly to a charity. So that is one consideration and one benefit, frankly, of having that IRA is the ability to do that giving through that really powerful tool called a qualified charitable distribution.

So Deb, I would just circle back with your advisor on that and just get that clarified as you and your husband are making that decision. All right, we've got two lines open today. We're going to move quickly. Also, Jerry Boyer coming up in our next segment. Always look forward to hearing from Jerry. To St. Charles.

Hi, Roberta, go ahead. Yes, I was wondering if it's possible to protect any inheritance you want to give your children from the nursing home? Yeah, so the only way to preserve, you're talking about your home in particular? Yeah, so the only way to do that would be to give it to your children and then not go into a nursing home for at least five years, which is the Medicaid look-back period. They won't take your house while you're still alive, but in most cases they will come after your assets once you pass away.

Now, there is a downside to that, and that is if you make this outright gift of your property to your kids now and you were to get past that five years, but then ultimately they sell it, then they have your basis for capital gains purposes, which means they could pay a lot more in taxes than if they inherited the property through your will or a trust or a transfer on death deed, because at that point they'd get the stepped-up basis to the current market value as of the date of death, as opposed to inheriting your cost basis, which is what determines capital gains. So you just have to consider all of that. And then also at the end of the day, I think you just have to establish your own conviction around this, just in terms of whether or not that's appropriate for you to gift this to them, even though you're not intending for them to use it, only to be able to preserve that inheritance.

I'm not weighing in one way or the other on that. I think you just need to think and pray through that, whether that's what you want to do. But that would be the primary strategy you would need to look at. At the end of the day, though, I would probably get some legal counsel on this, whether it's an elder care attorney or an estate planning attorney, can help you look at your whole estate, Roberta, just to make sure you're well planned and that you're preparing for that season of life where folks can need that type of assistance. I would also recommend if you're between ages 55 and 65 that you consider long term care insurance, which can be another way to offset that risk that you might have during this season. Does that all make sense?

Yeah. But what if your spouse goes in the nursing home first? Like, can they still go after your house? Well, again, while you all are living, they can't come after your house.

It would be at death with your estate that they could come after and try to be repaid for the expenses that they had to cover because the assets weren't there. So this really is an issue to look at beyond the life of you and your spouse. And I think the considerations are, do we feel good about doing this? Number one.

And then secondly, you know, what are the tax implications for them to receive this as a gift now versus inheriting it? I hope that helps you. We appreciate your call today. Thanks for being on the program. Let's go to Akron, Ohio. Kelsey, you're next on the program. Go ahead.

Hi, thanks for taking my call. I am getting married in December and my wedding is being paid for by my parents and my fiance owns a house. So with my current savings, I have over $100,000 just in savings because I was planning on eventually getting a house, but I've been very blessed with getting a house and also getting my wedding paid for. I do contribute to retirement.

I have a traditional IRA and a Roth and I'm tithing and I'm just not sure where to go next with this money that I've been blessed with. Yeah. Well, that's a great problem to have. Well, first of all, congratulations on your upcoming wedding. And I'm delighted to hear that mom and dad say, listen, we've got this covered and your future husband has a home. Does he have a mortgage on that house? Yes, he does.

Yeah. You know, so, I mean, a couple of things here as you're preparing for marriage, I mean, you all need to do a lot of talking and, you know, hopefully you're doing some premarital counseling, but as a part of that, or in addition to that, I would say, let's spend some time talking about money and, you know, how money was handled growing up for the two of you. And was there an abundance or a surplus of money? Was money tight? You know, and did, you know, mom and dad struggle to make ends meet? And how has that shaped how you handle money and view money? Also, how has God wired each of you? Part of that has to do with your upbringing.

Part of it is just God's, you know, handiwork in creating you and your personality and your temperaments. And I think, as you all talk about things like, what lifestyle are we going to live? How much is enough, both for accumulation and how much we spend on a monthly basis?

How much do we want to give? And how does that fit into our overall plan? I mean, really, these are values, questions and conversations that are informed ultimately by your faith and position in Christ and recognizing that God is our true abundance, not the things of this world.

And then, you know, where path does God have you on? And as you all bring your finances together, because two become one in marriage, including this area of finance. How do you all want to handle the money that God has entrusted to you as a married couple, one flesh?

And what are those priorities and goals driven by your values? And I think that will allow you to begin to craft some, you know, things that you're looking to do, including, you know, do we want to ultimately be debt free and pay off this mortgage? How much is enough to be saving for the future? I mean, you know, are you putting enough away for the long term for retirement? And if not, maybe you need to, you know, add a little bit more to that.

Are there any other savings goals that you have? Do you want to do some more giving right now, even beyond the tithe? Is God leading you all together, you know, once you're married to do some significant giving?

And maybe there's some projects or issues that are passions that you want to be able to support. So I think those are the kinds of questions you need to be asking. And that starts now before you all get married, as you think and pray through all this.

So hopefully that gives you some things to think about. Kelsey, stay on the line. I want to send you a copy of Howard Dayton's Money and Marriage God's Way for you all to read. We'll be right back. Thanks for joining us on Faith and Finance Live. I'm Rob West. We're taking your calls and questions today, but it's Friday.

And here in our final segment, we're always joined by Jerry Boyer, our good friend and resident economist. Jerry, a couple of things on the docket today. I know the Apple shareholder meeting is coming up and you're working on a resolution or two for that. But first, just economically speaking, one thing that you and I talked about recently is just what is going on in China, in particular in the real estate sector. Tell us what's going on there and how that might affect us.

Well, not much good is going on there. So, I mean, their largest real estate developer Evergrande defaulted on its loans. Evergrande is a little bit riskier than the market in general. So, you know, it's a problem, but it's also a little bit more expected. It's a little bit like in the United States when there was a lot of default in the subprime sector and people said, well, you know, it's subprime, right?

Not that Evergrande was subprime, but it was sort of lower quality, but Country Garden is sort of the more stable one and they were late with the payment but didn't technically default. So, there are signs of real estate problems, which is a big problem in China because China actually has a larger home ownership rate than the United States. You know, we tend to be 60, 70%.

They tend to be more like 90%. So, their economy is more dependent on real estate. A lot of their economic growth, a lot of those 8% GDP numbers were, you know, building giant cities that no one lives in. By the way, that's one of the problems with GDP. If you build something, but nobody uses it, it's still GDP. So, an empty city is positive GDP.

So, I mean, that's kind of like, you know, a way to keep the number. Oh, we need to have big, you know, more GDP growth because it looks good to the world. Okay, build another empty city. But eventually, you know, someone has to live in those cities. But the problem is that they don't have enough people for their cities and we know the reason is because there were decades of one child policy where there were mandatory abortions for anyone who had more than one child.

Now, they're trying to reverse that, but number one, you don't reverse that quickly. A child now doesn't buy an apartment now. You know, they might buy an apartment in 20 years. The other thing is that they've gotten so used to one child, they change the culture.

The law changed the culture and now they think of two children as weird. So, they're really in a demographic decline. So, they don't have anyone to fill up those empty cities and so those are bankruptcies and those are bad for the economy. So, China is in serious trouble. They've had about six or seven months of negative manufacturing growth. Copper has been dropping in price. That's usually a sign of a global economic problem and China, I think, particularly is a driver of copper prices. So, there's a reasonable possibility that China is already in a recession. What does that have to do with us? Well, whether we like it or not, our economies are extremely intertwined.

I think most Americans don't like that. I think that business has been a little bit, let me see, incautious when it comes to getting intertwined with the Chinese economy. I do not believe that we can just immediately decouple from the Chinese economy without collapsing both economies entirely.

I don't think that's realistic. So, we're kind of stuck in that situation, which means we are dependent on them and they are dependent on us, even if we don't want to be. So, when China's economy slows down, that affects us. Also, this week, we're seeing markets selling off and what we're seeing is the stock market selling off more than the bond market.

So, that's usually kind of a growth problem. So, every week, the market is trying to decide is the Fed going to tighten so much to cause a recession or not. This week was more like, yeah, the Fed's going to tighten and they'll probably cause a recession.

Some weeks, they don't think it will. So, this week is a down week because markets think the Fed is going to tighten and the markets are registering it's more likely they're going to have a recession. Part of that is our Fed and part of that is our relationship with China with whom we're intertwined.

Yes. Well, really helpful, Jerry, and I think serves as an important backdrop as we see all of this continue to play out. All right, let's pivot to corporate engagement. Next Tuesday, Apple will hold an event. They will tell us why that perfectly good iPhone in your hand is now obsolete because they'll introduce a new one. But there's another side to Apple and that is the corporate initiatives that they have going on and those get addressed at shareholder meetings.

So, what are you working on to that end? Well, you know, basically about half a year before they have their annual meetings, they have a period of time when you can put proposals forward. So, a lot of people understand initiative and referendum.

You know, if you live in a state, certain states, you know, people can get enough signatures together and they can put an initiative on the ballot in the state and everyone's voting maybe to limit property taxes. Well, shareholders have that same right. Apple is a company that has treated, I would say, Christians in a pretty bad way and I think treated conservatives pretty badly. There is Apple Pay has delisted, you know, people basically saying we're not going to process your payments.

We don't like your views. Apple has, you know, when Roe versus Wade was reversed, Apple came out against that, declared abortion to be a right, reproductive health care and abortion to be a right and offered to pay its employees to compensate them to basically create an abortion benefit for abortion related travel. That is not their business. That's not the business they should be in. They should be in the business of, you know, selling those iPhones and Macintoshes and all the rest of it and apps. So, you know, we're working on proposals that would be voted on at the annual meeting.

There's a couple of things we're looking at. One of them is this de-banking thing. Look, if Apple Pay is a payment service, it ought to process everyone's legitimate payment. No, it shouldn't be processing criminal charges, but it's not a crime to be, say, opposed to gay marriage. It's not a crime to be skeptical about transitional surgery. It's not a crime to be a conservative.

It's not a crime to believe in the Second Amendment. And therefore, payment services should not be making those political decisions, and they have been making those political decisions. It's not their fundamental function, and it's also not what they should be doing for shareholders. You shouldn't refuse to do business with somebody who is a profitable customer just because you don't agree with their politics. Now, if Apple were a private company, if Tim Cook wanted to take it private in its own, make it a family business, hey, do whatever you want.

But it's not. It's owned by shareholders, and therefore it has a fiduciary responsibility to act in the best interest of shareholders, which would include not taking sides politically. Yeah, very good. Well, Jerry, I appreciate the work that you do to this end, and I think this is a place that we have abdicated our voice and responsibility in voting with our interest and reflecting the values of people that are Christ followers with these companies as they make these decisions that are so far afield from their core business that it's just mind-boggling how they even go down these roads sometimes.

And yet we've got to call them back to account, and that's exactly what you're doing. So grateful for your work, Jerry. And I for yours. Alright. Jerry, have a great weekend. We'll talk to you next week. Same to you.

Take care. Alright, that's Jerry Boyer, our resident economist. He joins us each Friday with his market commentary and analysis.

We always look forward to it. Alright, let's round out the program today with your phone calls to Plantation. Hi, Renee, go ahead. Hi, Rob.

Thank you so much for taking my calls, and thank you for everything you do. I have a two-part question. My first one is I have three properties. I live in one, and two are rental properties. What I've been doing is paying extra towards the principal on the two rentals.

It's only about $200 a month. I'm 62 years old. I plan on retiring maybe 65, 67.

I don't know. I'll see how I feel at 65. Sure.

I do have an emergency fund for about eight months or so, maxed out my health savings account, 401K. So my question is, do I continue to pay towards the principal, this extra $200 that I'm giving, paying towards the principal, or should I put that towards the house that I live in? Yeah. Because I don't plan on moving from that, and I don't know how long I'm going to keep the rental.

Yeah, very good. What are the balances of the mortgages, starting with your residence and then the two rentals? Okay, I just bought my place.

It's about two years old. The balance is about $320,000. The value is about $500,000. The other, the rentals, I have one balance is $236,000, left a value of $600,000, and the other rental is $45,000 is the balance, and its value is about, I don't know, maybe almost $300,000.

Okay, very good. And are you going to be relying on this rental income to cover your bills? Let's say you did retire in three years, or is that covered through other sources?

I think the rental properties pretty much pay for themselves, so I kind of rely on them to pay for that. Will I be able to make it? Yeah, I'll be tight.

Okay. Well, you know, I think what I would probably do is if you have extra, and it sounds like you've covered all your bases with maxing out the HSA and the retirement accounts, you know, as long as you're doing the giving you want to be doing, and you already got eight months' worth of reserves, the only other thing you may want to look at is just, do you have enough in the way of reserves for the rental properties to maintain them? Do you need to replace an air conditioner coming up, or is one of them going to need a new roof? If so, you may want to start socking that money away in a replacement fund so you've got, you know, what you need beyond your eight months emergency fund for a maintenance fund. If you didn't have that fully funded for things you know are coming up or just general maintenance, then I'd probably redirect the $200 a month there. Apart from that, I'd probably put it toward your primary residence. I know you're a long way off from paying that off, but I like the idea of you continuing to build equity a little quicker. And if you decided to sell, you know, those properties or one of them, you certainly could pay off your primary residence and cut your expenses way down.

Even if you kept one and sold one, you could do that at any point down the road, but I think my priority would be replacement and maintenance fund first for the rental properties and then your primary residence second, because we want you to own that just as soon as you can. Thanks for your call, Renee. Matt, we'll try to get you on first on Monday if that works for you, sir. Thanks for your call.

Faith and Finance Live is a partnership between Moody Radio and Faith Fi. Thank you to Tahira, Dan, Jim, and Josie. Thank you for being here as well. Have a great weekend. We'll see you Monday. Bye-bye.