Is Your Bank Unbiblical?, Part 2

It's 2023. Do you know what your bank is doing these days?

A lot of people don't. Hi, I'm Rob West. Many of the nation's big banks are supporting abortion and other ungodly practices, and many Christians are saying they've had enough. Today, part two of our discussion with Aaron Cade about a very revealing survey on the topic, that 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. Well, we're pleased to have Aaron Cade back with us.

He's the Chief Marketing Officer at Christian Community Credit Union, an underwriter of this program. And Aaron, we're always delighted when you visit. Thank you, Rob.

It's great to be with you and your listeners. Now, as I said, this is part two of our discussion. But I think perhaps you should give us a brief recap of what your survey revealed and how folks feel about banks that don't share their values. Yeah, sure.

I'll do that, Rob. We recently surveyed over 1300 Christians across the country. And what we learned was illuminating. But it, in fact, supports what we've been hearing anecdotally for more than a year from new members. And that is Christians are just fed up with their secular banks and how they use their money. Over 30% have considered switching banks in the last 12 months.

And among the top three reasons was misalignment with their Christian values. 60% said that they care deeply about managing their finances biblically. And over 50% said it's more important now, more than ever, that their bank aligns with and supports their Christian values.

Yeah, that's really good. So what would you encourage Christians, Aaron, to consider when they're thinking about where they bank? I think you can ask yourself, how does my bank use the money I put on deposit with them? Is it used to maximize profits for shareholders or to help build churches? Does my bank help advance the gospel or try to silence it? What does my bank do with the profits? Do they give to immoral causes or to ministries that help spread the gospel, combat human trafficking and protect vulnerable children? If you find that the answers to any of those questions to be in conflict with your faith, there is a Christian alternative. And that's Christian Community Credit Union.

Yeah, that's really exciting. All right. Now, I know a lot of folks are saying, but really, Aaron switch banks. It just feels like so much effort. So what would you tell that person? I would say it just comes down to this. It's a small time investment. Think of switching, like adopting a new spiritual practice. Just as you might spend time journaling after your daily devotional or spend time establishing a new spiritual habit, take a few minutes to align your finances with your faith and make the switch to Christian Community Credit Union. Yeah.

And the great thing is that you actually have that option today, whereas maybe you'd never considered this in the past. So let's do some compare and contrast here. Will you just break down the primary difference between Christian Community Credit Union and the big banks? Sure. At Christian Community Credit Union, you get the quality financial products you expect, and the robust digital tools you need to manage them anywhere you are across the country.

At CCCU, you'll get great rates and low fees, sure. But you also get the satisfaction knowing that your money is put to work expanding God's kingdom. It's helping build new churches. It's helping ministries expand and grow. And it's also supporting Christian charities that are the hands and feet of Jesus across the globe.

Wow. At CCCU, we view financial management through the lens of Scripture. We seek to honor God with every transaction. Scripture is our primary authority. And that's something the big secular banks just can't say.

That's great. You know, there's more competition than ever, especially in light of these higher interest rates. So what are some of the compelling offerings you all have at CCCU today? Well, we recently launched the Harvest High Yield Checking Account. And it pays 4% APY on the first $5,000 in deposits. So you can really make your money go a lot further, putting it with Christian Community Credit Union. We also have a welcome CD that pays 5% APY. And you can invest up to $250,000 in that. And it's fully insured, $250,000 per account.

So for example, if you were a ministry with a million dollars in savings that you wanted to hold on to for a rainy day, you could break that up into four accounts, and all $1 million would be fully insured. And then we also have a cash rewards card, which lets you earn 1.5% cash back and also gives to Christian charities with every swipe. I love it.

Well, folks, there's an option out there if you want to align your values with your banking partner. Aaron, always great to have you stop by, my friend. Thank you, Rob.

It was great to be with you. If you want to get more information, head to joinchristiancommunity.com. That's joinchristiancommunity.com. All right, your calls are next. The number to call is 800-525-7000.

Those lines are open 24-7, 800-525-7000. I'm Rob West, and this is Faith and Finance Live. We'll be right back. Well, I'm grateful to have you with us today on Faith and Finance Live.

I'm Rob West. We're taking your calls and questions today, 800-525-7000. We've got some lines open right now. So if you've got a question, now is a great time to get right through. Again, 800-525-7000. Let's dive in.

We'll begin in Chicago, Illinois. Hi, Sharon. Go right ahead.

Yes, hi. My name is Sharon, and I was calling next year, Lord's will, in July of 2024, I will be finished paying on my home mortgage. So I just wanted to know, like, what are some of the things that I should be expecting or have to do at the end of my payments? Well, you need to start now planning for the party that you're going to throw when you make that last payment, Sharon.

That's really exciting. Congratulations on being that close to having that mortgage paid off. You know, there really isn't much that you need to do with regard to your mortgage. You know, once it's done, you'll want to, you know, they'll send you a satisfied, satisfied lien indicating that that mortgage has been paid in full, and you'll want to hang on to that documentation showing that that balance is now zero. And then at that point, I think the key is because you're now going to have this, you know, extra mortgage payment that you were sending to the mortgage that now you don't have to just start thinking about kind of how you want to use that money.

What's the priority? You'd want to try to avoid automatically increasing your lifestyle and see if there's another goal that you have. I mean, clearly one of your goals was to be completely debt-free, and now that you're accomplishing that, what's next? I mean, do you need to, do you want to increase your giving?

Maybe the Lord is prompting you toward a giving opportunity. Maybe you have a car that's going to need to be replaced, and you'd love to do it with cash, so we need to sock that money away for that. If you have kids, you're thinking about college, or your emergency fund is not fully funded. I mean, I think those are the kinds of things I'd be praying about, thinking about, but in terms of, you know, anything else you need to do, there really isn't a whole lot other than you'll now be sending the payments directly to your property, for your property taxes to the county and your homeowner's insurance, because you'll no longer be escrowing. And so those bills will come directly to you, and you'll pay them, whereas you probably were paying them through your mortgage company's escrow account previously. So not a whole lot to think about there, that Sharon.

Do you have any other questions though? Oh no, that's good. I just wanted to know, because I know I have to pay for my own property taxes and homeowners insurance, but I just didn't know why I look forward to after the end of the mortgage. Yeah, there really isn't anything else other than you're now responsible for those directly, and so just make sure you're setting that money aside on a monthly basis, so that you've got it in savings when the bill comes, and it doesn't catch you by surprise.

But really the only other thing is just make sure you get that satisfaction of lien, and make sure you're really thoughtful about how to redirect that money moving forward. Thanks for being on the program today. We appreciate it. God bless you. 800-525-7000 is the number to call.

Let's head to New Jersey. Hi Marie, go ahead. Hi, thank you for taking my call. My question is, or my predicament is, and I've been praying about it, is that I have a pension that I received. I left my job, and it actually was something that I didn't even really realize that I had.

The Lord provided this for me. It was really unknown to me until five years ago that I had this, but anyway, I received the money. I paid the federal taxes on it, and I received the lump sum because over the past few months prior to my retirement, I noticed that we were losing money in our retirement fund. I decided to take the lump sum, and pay the taxes, and I did my tithe, and now I have money that I didn't pay state taxes because I wasn't sure how much I had to pay, and couldn't figure it out online. I just wanted to know if I should buy silver, buy some silver, or buy some gold.

I investigated it. I was told that silver was more valuable than gold because they would be using it later on, maybe down the road. They would need the silver, or if I should do the five, or if I should do the CDs, like the six months. Right now, they're offering like five percent, and I just don't know. I don't want, this is God's money, and I know that, and I just don't want to, you know, be like the person that buried the money, buried the talents.

Do you know what I mean? And I just want to be obedient to God, but I haven't, you know, really gotten direction from the Lord yet, and I've had this money since February of this year. What I'm using it for right now is I'm just paying my mortgage. I don't own that, owe that much on my home, and we're almost debt-free. Our automobiles will be paid off next year, and I am 68. My husband is 72.

Okay, yeah, very good. So what are your income sources now in retirement? We have Social Security. We're still working. I'm a nurse. Okay, you are still working. Okay, great. Yeah, so you've got, you are taking Social Security currently, or no?

Yes, I am. Okay, and so how long do you all plan to continue to work? Hopefully, Lord willing, I'll be able to work at least three more years, maybe four, and my husband probably maybe two more years. Okay, and what, other than Social Security, once you all are redirected away from paid work to whatever God has for you next, what income sources will you have apart from perhaps this pension money? If we were to start pulling money from that, what else do you have? Nothing, but right now my home is worth a lot more than I owe, and, you know, I'm not.

I'm just wondering how you're going to cover your bills in retirement, or will Social Security be enough? Yes. Okay, all right.

At least for 15 years, I think. Okay, what do you mean by that? I'm maximum, I'm maxed out unless food, unless our food bill runs to $2,500 a month, you know what I mean? So let me just make sure I'm clear here. So you are not retired, you're perhaps three years away, you're currently taking Social Security, and when your income stops from paid work, both you and your husband, when you're fully retired, based on your bills today, you would be able to cover your monthly expenses from Social Security alone, correct? Correct. All right, all right. And the other assets that you'll have in retirement is only this pension money?

Your husband doesn't have a retirement plan, there's nothing else? No, unfortunately no. Okay, all right. That's okay, yeah, no problem. I just want to make sure I'm clear. And the pension money, just to make sure I'm clear here, you already paid the taxes on it, it's not, you didn't roll it to an IRA, you took a withdrawal, correct?

That's right. All right, and what do you have left after the taxes are paid? I understand you haven't paid state taxes, but what do you have left before the state taxes, but after the federal?

$170,000. Okay, and do you have that earmarked for anything other than just to continue to grow for the future? No, I don't. Okay, so, and do you all plan to sell the house and downsize, or do you think you'll stay there through retirement?

Actually, right now it's cheaper for me to live on that. Okay, all right, very good. Yeah, so then the question is, you know, what to do with $170,000?

Let me just ask one last question, and then on the other side of the break, I'll give you my thoughts. Do you have an emergency fund other than the $170,000, like a liquid savings account? Yeah, we're building it, yeah.

Okay, do you have at least a few months expenses in there? Yeah. Okay, great. All right, let's do this. If you stay right there, Marie, this was really helpful background. We have to take a quick break, but when we come back, I'll give you my thoughts on where you go from here.

Thanks for your call. We'll be right back with you. Jeff, coming your way as well. Stay tuned. Thanks for joining us today on Faith and Finance Live. I'm Rob West. We're taking your calls and questions.

I've got a few lines open, 800-525-7000. A little later in the broadcast, Jerry Boyer will stop by. We always look forward to Jerry's visit on Fridays with his market commentary and some updates on his corporate engagement. He was a part of a recent shareholder meeting with a big sneaker company that you'll know, and he was surprised by what was not on the agenda in terms of a shareholder issue that was proposed by some activists.

We'll talk about that a little later in the broadcast, but first let's head back to the phones. We were talking to Marie in New Jersey before the break. She and her husband are still working close to retirement, three years out perhaps. They are living on or can live on social security alone, even though they have some other income coming in while they're still working. She took a pension out because she wasn't comfortable with the direction of what was going on with the 401k. She actually didn't roll it to an IRA, which, you know, Marie would have been my recommendation because then we keep it in that tax-deferred environment, but that's okay.

That's already done. So it's now in a taxable environment, but you've already paid the taxes. So you're left with 170,000 minus what you'll owe on some state taxes. And that's the extent of your retirement assets. But the good news is you're living modestly.

So as you said, once that income goes away, you know, you should be in a great spot to be able to live on social security alone. I think for the next three years, let's try to sock away as much as you can, because I would imagine you've got plenty of surplus, you know, given that you're still working. Now, what to do with the 170? You asked about gold.

We'll get to that in a second. I mean, typically when somebody's, let's say 65, I don't remember if you told me your exact age, I would say you probably want, you know, as much as 40% in stocks, maybe five to 10% in precious metals, but no more than that of your investable assets, and then maybe 50% in bonds. And that would be a fairly conservative portfolio with still the ability to grow and offset the effects of inflation, which is reducing the purchasing power every month of that 170,000. That same pot of 170 buys less goods and services because of the effects of inflation. Well, one way we offset that is by, you know, taking the opportunity to grow it modestly through an investment strategy.

Yes, there's risk involved in that, but we take a long-term perspective because, you know, once you reach age 65, your life expectancy is 86 and your husband's is 83. So the Lord tarries and you're in good health, we need this money to last decades or more. And we do that by investing it. And I would recommend you get an advisor to help you with that. This is a big nest egg that you've spent a lot of time accumulating. So I'd find a certified kingdom advisor there in New Jersey, maybe interview two or three and find one that could take over and manage this, not based on their objectives, but yours. So they'd spend a lot of time getting to know you and your husband. What are your goals and objectives?

And what does this next season look like for you all? How much income do you need? How much risk do you want to take? And then they would manage a portfolio accordingly so that you would have the peace of mind to know somebody's waking up every day, thinking about how this should be managed now for that five to 10%. And again, that's the most I would put in to the precious metals. I would recommend you do gold over silver primarily because, you know, with gold, you know, it's a, it's a reliable store of value.

It's a good diversification. It is a hedge against inflation. And with silver, there's higher risk. So it offers a higher potential for return, but silver has higher volatility than gold. And it's linked to industrial demand, which when we're heading into a recession, you know, is often difficult for silver. So if there's, you know, a lack in silver's industrial demand, it can work against you as an investor, whereas you don't really have that with the gold, by the way, gold, the reason we don't put more than five to 10% is that can be volatile as well. And it doesn't have the long term performance that stocks and bonds do. So for instance, with gold, it peaked in the August, in August of 2020 at around $2,070 an ounce, it fell 20% to nearly 1600 by last November. It's been, you know, it's bounced back nicely, but it's still cheaper today than it was in the summer of 2020, despite all that's happened since then. And with the uncertainty and the inflation, you would have thought it would have done better. So I think, you know, given all of that, that's where I would head for here from here with this portfolio.

But you're the steward. So give me your thoughts on, you know, what I've shared and whether that fits. Well, I honestly did think about doing that. I'm just afraid that the economy is going to crash and when it crashes, what happens, you know? So let's talk about that. I mean, I, you know, when you say the economy is going to crash, we have to really try to define what that means. I mean, literally it crashes the banking. I mean, we go through bear markets, we go through market, you know, corrections and significant downturns where we lose 20% plus on the market.

That happens, you know, every decade or every few decades and it comes back. You know, we're still the strongest economy in the world. Yes, we have some major headwinds, major budget deficits in this country. Our interest expense will be our largest federal expenditure here in the not too distant future. We have rising debt levels. We've got inflation right now. But you have to put that against the fact that, again, we are the largest and strongest economy in the world. The U.S. dollar has no rival today that's anywhere close.

You know, 90% of transactions trades globally take place in U.S. dollars. So, you know, I, the fact that we could default on our debt or have some major economic event, I think is way down the road. It's important that we elect the right people who understand God's design for economics and wealth creation. Yes, we need to show up and vote for folks who understand that. But there's no, in my mind, imminent collapse or, you know, a crash that is coming. If we got into a recession, could the market sell off 30%? Yeah, but you don't need this money next year or the year after. You're looking way down the road. And if you bury it under the mattress or you put it all in gold, number one, you're gonna have more volatility in gold.

And number two, you're just gonna continue to erode your purchasing power. So just take that for what it's worth and, you know, pray about it. And then perhaps interview two or three certified kingdom advisors to see if one really resonates with you and your husband where you'd like, you know what, this is a great fit. He or she understands us. We understand him or her. And I think they could be, you know, really wise counsel for us moving forward. To find some CKs to interview, just head to our website, faithfi.com.

That's faithfi.com and click Find a CKA. All right, we're gonna take a break when we come back. Jeff, Marie, Jeremy, coming your way just around the corner. We'll be right back. So glad to have you with us today on Faith and Finance Live. Hey, by the way, if you'd like to support our work here at Faith and Finance Live, which is in fact listener supported, there's a quick and easy way to do it. Just head over to our website at faithfi.com. That's faithfi.com and click the Give button.

Thanks in advance. Hey, we've got some lines open today as we head toward the second half of the broadcast. If you have a financial question, feel free to give us a call at 800-525-7000. By the way, Jeremy called and couldn't hold, and he was wondering about where to get the best rate to buy a new home. You know, interest rates now, well, they were three years ago at 3%, now over 7.1, even though they ticked down in the last couple of weeks.

It's still important that you find a great mortgage provider to do business with. I'd like one that shares your values, which is why we've partnered with Movement Mortgage. You can learn more at movement.com forward slash faith.

That's movement.com forward slash faith. All right, let's go to the phones. Jeff, you've been very patient in Indianapolis. Go ahead, sir.

Hi there. I have a good situation. My wife and I inherited over a million dollars. We had close to a million in our retirement net worth with our home value, so like 750 in traditional IRAs or 401ks. And so we're sitting on this money.

We've let it pretty much reside where it was when we received it. But we've got about 400,000 in cash. And we're wondering if we should try to make a move to Roth versus those traditional 401ks. Yeah, so you're talking about trying to convert some portion of the 750,000 in traditional? Yes. Yeah, that would just add a huge tax liability, unless you did it really slowly over time.

And I would question whether or not there's a benefit. Are you still working at this point, or are you retired? Close to retirement. My wife is fully retired.

Your wife is fully retired. Okay, so you're still at the peak of your earning? Pretty much, yeah.

Yeah, okay. So I don't think, you know, you get a whole lot of benefit. I mean, your income is going to drop when you retire, and you'll have largely, you know, passive income coming in, you know, interest income and dividends and capital gains. But your taxable income will drop significantly. And so I think converting this and adding a huge amount to your adjusted gross income to pay that you'll pay income taxes on right now at the peak of your earning potential, I just think is counterproductive, especially when your tax marginal tax rates likely to fall in retirement. And you could pull it out and pay a lower tax rate at that point through the traditional IRA or 401k.

Now, you could say, well, the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act is expiring in 2025, President Trump's tax cuts, and you're right, they are set to expire. There is still a question as to what administration will be, you know, in place when that happens, and where are rates headed from here? Probably not lower.

I think at the very least, they stay flat. They likely are headed higher, again, depending upon what, you know, who is in government. So, but I think just given where you're at right now still working, I don't like the idea of you, you know, having a huge amount added to your taxable income, which could very easily be pushed up that portion of it into a higher tax bracket. So I kind of like the idea of you having, you know, the the after tax bucket to pull from and the pre-tax, and then you can decide which one to pull from based on what's going on in the tax code and your income. I think the key is, I mean, it sounds like you guys have a million dollars in a taxable account. Is that just sitting in a savings account or is that still invested in the equities that you received in the inheritance or what? Yes, it is. It's mostly banking, which is frightful.

We had two of the banks that failed, so that was a considerable loss. Oh, wow. Yeah, so kind of a scary situation to let it just remain where it is, but that's what we've selected to do. Yeah, well, I mean, obviously you're sitting on a huge portfolio here. Are you making all the decisions yourself? No, no. Okay, so you have an advisor account.

Yeah, yeah, okay. Yeah, I mean, I think bottom line is I would have some really wise trusted counsel that's making the investment decisions for you. I'd make sure you're not highly concentrated in any one company or a couple of companies or even one sector.

As you said, you know, when you do that, you can have big losses like you had with these regional banks where the depositors were protected, the investors were not, of course. So make sure you're properly diversified and, you know, given the significance of this portfolio in total, no reason to take unnecessary risk beyond what you, you know, feel the need to. I mean, this is ultimately a tool to accomplish God's purposes, whether that's giving, and I'd look at asset-based giving, you know, as appropriate, especially where you have capital gains along the way, and you could make gifts to donor-advised funds that allow you to do giving where you don't ever, you know, realize the capital gains on the sale if you have some profits along the way. So that's going to be a really effective strategy.

Our friends at ncfgiving.com can help you, National Christian Foundation. But I think the big idea here is to get this into a portfolio that works for you all and fits with God's plan for this next season of life, which means don't take unnecessary risk. Maybe you're using CDs for part of it, you know, high-quality government bonds for part of it. And yes, stocks, I think, make sense, whether you're in their 60s or 70s, you still want probably, you know, as much as 30, 40, maybe even more than that percent in stocks to overcome the effects of inflation. So you've got something to give away or pass on to the next steward. But I think at the end of the day, Jeff, I'd probably not at this point be a big fan of you converting it to a Roth.

You just don't have the time to realize the benefits, and I think you're in a higher tax bracket today than you will be down the road. Okay, thank you. All right, we appreciate your call.

To Florida. Hi, Marie, go ahead. Hi, thank you for taking my call, and thank you for your ministry. We listen to you every chance we get.

Well, thank you. My question is, my question is, I'm retired and I am taking RMD. I am 10 years older than my husband.

I have always been self-managed in my account, and so for the past couple of years, I've been pulling some money out every single month. I was wondering, is it time for me to get a financial advisor because of tax complications, tax questions, where to take the money from first? Now, let me just say this, that my husband is younger than I am. He's 10 years younger than I am. He wants me to spend or take as much money as I can because he says, just say you spend all your money, just say it was all gone. Well, then my retirement will come into effect, and he said, you should spend your money.

You made it, you saved it. Spend your money, enjoy yourself, do what you want to do. So, I'm thinking, well, you know, it's an idea. I never really thought of it like that, but am I ready for a tax advisor and should I just go ahead and take as much money as I can stand?

Yeah, well, I think there's a lot there. I mean, it's always good to get wise counsel, whether it's for taxes or investments, which I know you said you've been managing yourself, but also somebody who's just objective, who could engage you and your husband in a process of thinking through why has God entrusted us with this money? What is the purpose of it? One of the purposes, because money is a gift from God, it's a blessing, he created it, is to enjoy it. So, I'm not opposed to that, but I also don't think he's given it to you just to spend frivolously. Now, I'm not saying you're indicating you would, but it's worth thinking about and even praying about, God, why have you entrusted this to us? What is the appropriate lifestyle you call me to? How much should I enjoy and how much should I give away?

Through a qualified charitable distribution, you can meet that RMD and send it to ministry or charity and not ever pay taxes on it. So, I like you getting an advisor here. It's great to have you on Faith and Finance Live. I always look forward to Fridays in part because Jerry Boyer stops by with his market commentary and analysis.

Jerry, I told them earlier in the broadcast that we were going to give them an update on corporate engagement related to a sneaker company that they may be familiar with. We'll get to that in a moment, but let's start with your favorite topic, the Federal Reserve. All eyes on the Fed this week. Of course, they didn't raise any rates, but it was all about the comments, right?

Yeah, and it is often all about the comments because it's all about what are they thinking, because what they're thinking might determine what they're going to do in the future. One thing to remember is a very important lesson is markets act on what they expect in the future. God knows the future. We don't. So, God doesn't have expectations. He has knowledge, right?

He's not betting, I wonder, you know, 60% chance he knows the future. We, however, don't. So, we have expectations about the future and we're always adjusting them, and we do that in our lives all the time. And markets are just another way that we do that. So, when we think that there's an expectations difference, when the Fed says something that makes us think, hmm, they probably are going, they've acknowledged that they haven't beaten inflation. And so, even though they didn't raise rates, which is just another way of saying contract the money supply, even though they didn't tighten the money supply this week, they're probably going to tighten it in the future or they're going to keep it tight longer, then that means that that's less money being poured into markets. That's money being pulled out of markets. And so, markets in general go down because when you pull money out of markets, they go down.

I mean, that's pretty obvious. The other thing is when we understand that the Fed thinks that the way to fight inflation is to slow down the economy, and we think that they're going to act that way, well, then things that are like inflation hedges, excuse me, recession hedges, like treasury bonds, they hardly went down at all. But corporate bonds, which are a little riskier, they went down a little more. And high yield bonds called junk bonds, they went down more. So, you see, everything that's riskier goes down a little more. Stocks went down more than bonds. And growth stocks, like the NASDAQ, went down more than kind of your blue chip stocks. So, the basic message here is the riskier it is, the more it went down this week. And that is the market saying, okay, the Fed, they confessed, we have not beaten inflation. We know that their distorted Keynesian model is such that they think that they have to slow the economy down to beat inflation. And so, markets basically this week had an expectation shift. Okay, they're going to slow down the economy, maybe even enough to cause a recession.

Yeah. One of the Fed governors was out this week talking about the basis for their no action this week with regard to the Fed funds rate and was talking about meeting or satisfying their mandate as a body. What would you say that mandate is versus the way they see it? Historically, the mandate was to be the lender of last resort. In the early 20th century, there were some financial crises and a bunch of wealthy guys got together and they said, oh, there's a crisis and our banks are going to go bankrupt. So, we're going to dig into our own pockets and we, the owners of the bank, will bail the bank out.

By the way, I think that's the right thing. I think that the owners of banks should bail them out. But Teddy Roosevelt didn't like that. And he said, no, it ought to be the public.

We shouldn't be dependent on these wealthy people. So, he started getting the ball rolling to form the Fed. So, that was supposed to be the bailout entity when things got tough. So, that was the first mandate. The second mandate is, okay, I guess we need to keep the money stable. And so, that was their mandate for a long time. Then later on, when they started doing this thing where they would slow down the economy to fight inflation, they gave themselves the mandate of basically managing the economy. Some people in Congress, especially those aligned with unions, said, well, wait a minute, you need another mandate.

You need to keep unemployment low. So, they added a mandate on top of that. And as you probably note, the mandate to fight inflation by raising unemployment conflicts with the mandate to fight unemployment by raising inflation. So, they go back and forth between those two mandates. Of course, really, a Fed chairman has one mandate, which is to get reappointed as Fed chairman. That's the unstated mandate, or to go down in history with a good legacy and not have people hate you too much.

So, the unstated mandate of not having people hate you too much is probably more real than their legal mandates. Yeah, no doubt about it. Well, that was helpful, Jerry.

Thanks for that explanation. All right, let's turn our attention then to that sneaker company. We get an update from you each time you join us on what's happening in the world of corporate engagement. And you were pointing out to me earlier today that you were surprised, maybe pleased, that a big sneaker company refused a shareholder proposal that we would have expected would have made it through.

Tell us about it. Yeah, well, Nike is the company. Am I allowed to say that or are you saying? Yeah, absolutely. No, no, I was just kidding.

All right, got it. So, they're kind of, you know, a progressive company when there were controversies about taking a knee during the Pledge of Allegiance, or no, I guess it's during the National Anthem. Yeah, a little senior moment there. During the National Anthem, they kind of aligned with some of the athletes. So, it was really interesting to see when they just had their annual meeting where things were put before shareholders, that they did not do a lot of, they didn't do political posturing. They didn't do all of the things we've gotten used to seeing from these annual meetings, you know, pride flags and all the rest of it.

They didn't do the political pandering. And there was an activist group from outside which had a proposal which said, we want you to disclose the gap and pay based on race and gender. Now, on the surface, that might seem like a good thing because we want to know if companies are discriminating.

Yeah. But the company said, well, we already do disclose the gap when we're comparing the same jobs. In other words, a white engineer gets compared to a black engineer.

A male daycare worker gets compared to a female daycare worker. So, we're adjusting for the job. So, we're already doing the thing that actually is a fair way of describing this.

This is what any statistician would say, this is the right way to do it. So, the activists don't like that because when you actually do it this way, most companies are actually really fair. In other words, the market is so efficient that people of different genders who do the same job get very similar pay and people of different races who do the same job get very similar pay. In fact, sometimes the minority get slightly higher pay. And so, they're not satisfied with that. So, the people who want to divide us racially are saying, no, no, no, we don't like that number.

We want you to not adjust for any of this. So, we want you to compare a janitor's pay to a CFO's pay to a financial analyst's pay. We want you to compare race and gender paying no attention to what the job responsibility is.

Well, that's obviously designed to divide us, right? And it's not good statistics. There's a famous book, How to Lie with Statistics. This is a way to lie with statistics. What we really want to know is, are people getting paid the same for doing the same job?

And the answer is, by and large, yes, they are. Nike opposed the proposal. We put in a statement also in opposition against it.

It was defeated. And I think we're going to see a lot of that. I think companies are now, they figured out that playing with culturally divisive or racially divisive issues, they get a certain hipness for a little while, but they're essentially kind of making a deal with activist groups. And they feel like that's the end of the deal. Hey, you know, we said what you wanted us to say.

We're good now, right? And the activist groups said, no, no, no, no, that's just the beginning of our relationship. Now you need to, okay, so you're in favor of LGBTQ inclusion.

Okay, now you need to have a, you know, you didn't have a spokesman that reflects that. Now you need to defund conservative politicians. I think companies are beginning to figure out that these deals are not in their interests and that it's probably best just to stay out of politics. I mean, making sneakers is a full-time job.

Yeah. And politician is a different job. And if the CEOs want to do it, they can quit and run for the Senate. They're not doing that. So they should probably just stick to the state.

I mean, Nike's good at sneakers, right? Yeah, there you go, Jerry. Well, maybe it's getting through.

I don't know. We'll certainly keep an eye on it, but we always appreciate your updates. All right, my friend, thank you to you and to Susan in the background and you guys have a great weekend. And same to you. God bless you. That's Jerry Boyer, president of Boyer Research and our resident economist.

He joins us each Friday. All right, let's jump back to the phones here and get to hopefully a couple more questions quickly to Idaho. Cora, go right ahead.

Yes, thank you for calling my call. We have savings from Capital One and at the time they have at least three, I think 3.75% annual percentage yield. But now it's point zero eight. My question is, can we transfer that to a different that is more higher?

Yeah, absolutely. Now, what I would do is probably if you're looking for the bank that's just paying the highest interest rate, I would go to bankrate.com. That's bankrate.com. And you could do a search there and they're constantly updating their list of who has the best high yield savings accounts with FDIC insurance. Now, I know Capital One actually still today has 4.3% on their what they call their Capital One 360 performance. So you may want to look at that just because you're already there and there's no fees on that, no minimum. Again, it's called the Capital One 360. But if you want to do a search to see who offers the highest rate, that's where you'd go to bankrate.com.

And if you want a bank or credit unions that shares your values, you could also check out joinchristiancommunity.com. Quickly to Ohio. Laura, we're going to finish with you. I have just 30 seconds. Go ahead. Hi, I am a grandma of six grandsons, four of which are under the age of six. And I was just wondering like what my best course of action would be to start savings for them that is not a 529, just in case one of them decide not to go to college. Sure, yeah. And do you want it in savings or investments?

Um, I wasn't sure. What was the best course of action? I mean, I think as you're just getting started, savings would be fine. And I do the same thing I just told Cora, go to bankrate.com. Find who has the best high yield savings. It's going to be an online bank with no fees or minimums. Open one for each child in your name, but earmarked for them.

And then just set up an automatic transfer into that account. I think that's the best way to get started. God bless you.

I think that's the best way to get started. God bless you. We appreciate you calling today. Faith and Finance Live is a partnership between Moody Radio and Faith Fi. Have a great weekend.