3 Ways to Lose Money

Only one way you can help me. You don't happen to have $8,000 bucks on you? No, no, we don't use money in heaven.

Oh yeah, that's right. It comes in pretty handy down here, Bob. Hi, I'm Rob West.

That's George Bailey and the angel Clarence in the movie It's a Wonderful Life. Money does come in handy down here, so you don't want to let it slip through your fingers if you can help it. I'll talk about that first today, and 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 journey. Well, James 1-5 tells us, If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask God, who gives generously to all without reproach, and it will be given him. God wants to be a part of your life, and that certainly includes how you handle money. To be a good steward, you need to be on the lookout for ways to save money so you can hang on to more of it.

Not for the love of money, but to have more to use for God's purposes and His glory. Today I've got three ways you may be losing money. The first is not contributing enough to your 401k to get the maximum matching contribution, if your employer offers one. But even if you're already getting the maximum match, you may not realize there's a way to get an even greater return on your 401k contributions. In addition to your regular payroll contributions, the more you front load contributions at the beginning of the year, the more opportunity you have for compound earnings. Granted, that takes planning and diligence, but if you have the cash to live on while you make contributions that take up a big part of your paycheck early in the year, well, you'll be money ahead. Just keep in mind that the total annual contribution limit is $22,500 or $30,000 if you're 50 or older. The only hitch is if you contribute more early in the year, you still have to contribute enough each pay period to get the maximum match. That's because most employers put in those matching contributions on a pay period basis. So you don't want to front load all your annual contributions just enough to get the best of both worlds. But what if your employer doesn't offer a 401k at all? You can't just say, Oh, well, I'll save for retirement at my next job.

Again, because of compound earnings, time really is money. Every year you don't set up a Roth IRA, money is slipping through your fingers. A Roth has several key benefits starting with tax free retirement income. That's not the case with a traditional IRA where contributions are pre tax, you deduct them from adjusted gross income on your tax return. But you have to pay income tax on your withdrawals when you retire. A Roth doesn't work that way. Your contributions are with after tax dollars. True, you don't get the tax benefit now. But it's worth it because your withdrawals during retirement are 100% tax free.

The IRS figures it already got what's coming to it. A Roth is especially good if you project your tax rate will be higher in retirement than it is now. Generally, that means the longer time until you retire, the better a Roth works for you. Also, unlike a traditional IRA or 401k, you won't have required minimum distribution someday.

And two more quick benefits. Almost anyone can contribute to a Roth IRA. And if you bequeath one to your heirs, they won't have to pay taxes on withdrawals either. The second way you may be losing money is by not taking full advantage of a flexible spending account if your employer offers one. A lot of folks shy away from them because contributions not spent during the year are lost.

But with a little planning and calculation, you can set your contributions pretty close to what you'll spend on qualified items during the year. Now, there are actually two versions of the FSA. The first is for medical expenses and the list of what's covered is too long to give here. The second is a dependent care flexible spending account, which covers childcare, care for an elderly adult, in home dependent care, before and after school care and nursery school. Both must be offered by your employer. You can't set these up on your own. You also have to sign up for and contribute to each separately.

Your HR department can talk you through the process. Bottom line, an FSA lets you pay for qualified expenses with pre-tax dollars saving you a lot of cash. Okay, the last way to lose money is by lending it to Uncle Sam tax-free instead of putting it where it can earn money for you. I'm talking about having too much withheld from your paycheck for taxes. By the way, the average refund is about $3,000. That's money you could be using to pay down debt or increase your savings.

To adjust that withholding, just fill out a new W-4 withholding form. All right, those are the ways to avoid losing money. Your calls are next, 800-525-7000. That's 800-525-7000. I'm Rob West and this is Faith and Finance Live. We'll be right back. Great to have you with us today on Faith and Finance Live.

I'm Rob West. All right, we're taking your calls and questions now on anything financial. We've got lines open and we'd love to hear from you. The number to call is 800-525-7000.

That's 800-525-7000. We'd love to hear from you today. Let's begin. We're going to start in Wisconsin. Jim, thank you for calling.

Go right ahead, sir. Yeah, thank you, Rob, for taking my call. You guys give good advice and we appreciate your programming.

Thank you. I am retired. My wife and I are both retired. We're 74 years of age. We have our home. Everything we have is in a trust for our children and grandchildren and great-grandchildren. And my granddaughter has always indicated that we should, she was going to take care of us. And as we get up there in age, we're thinking that maybe it's time for us to put an addition on our house. We have property that allows us to have a separate home, a grandparent home. And I'm trying to figure out what's the best route to go for them to sell their home and buy ours. But the interest rates are seem to be higher now.

I was told there are about seven and a half percent or is it, do I try to take out a loan on my own and try to buy it? And I don't know. I'm not sure which way to go.

If you have any advice, I'd appreciate it. Yeah, it's a great question. And this can get somewhat complicated, but let's just try to work our way through it. So what would you like to have happen in the end? Forget how we get there, but how would you want the ownership structure of whatever the improved property looks like to look like when it's all said and done? Well, eventually the home would come out of the trust and be given to our, you know, are taken as part of the trust out. And they would have to certainly pay the difference. And we haven't really investigated all of that because the way our trust is set up so that we have different percentages with a major portion going to our different venues of scenarios and things that we support. But then there'd be a small percentage go to each of our two children and then grandchildren and great grandchildren.

Yeah, no, that makes sense. So would you be adding on to this home? Are you talking about building a new separate single family home on your property? We're looking at both options.

One would be an addition. What we're trying to do is we have a walkout basement right now. We live in the Northwoods, and it's cold up here in the wintertime.

So we have in-floor heat, and we want to put everything on one floor, one level. So we don't have to worry about utilities running up and down the steps and that sort of thing as we get older. And having our grandparent, our granddaughter and husband and our soon to be three great grandchildren close by. And then they, you know, she would take care of us as we advance in years or one of us were to pass away or whatever.

Sure. And are they in a position, I understand you're concerned about the interest rates, but are they in a position to buy your home from you? Well, that's been talked about, but the husband is a little bit leery because of the high interest rates.

They've been living in their current house for about 10 years. And would you be in a position, Jim, to hold the note, meaning they'd buy it from you and essentially they'd pay you and you could charge them a lower interest rate because the IRS will allow you to charge. They establish what a minimum annual rate will be without it being a gift. Right now, it's less than five percent. Are you in a position to do that or would you need to get the cash out to do whatever improvements you're looking to do?

Well, that's a good question. I think we might be able to get some cash out, but we wouldn't be able to get too much because we rely on, between our retirement, which is with a Christian counselor, we would be, we rely on part of that for our contributions, you know, to help. And they could essentially, if you're willing to hold the note, they could buy it from you. You'd close the sale. They would become the new owner of the property.

But you're holding the loan as the seller and then they're paying you a monthly payment at a reduced interest rate that's more reasonable if that's something you're looking to do. Do you follow that? Yeah. OK, that's a good idea. See, this is kind of a new area for us because we were just having this conversation and she said, Grandpa, you're not going to go to a nursing home. Sure.

Well, I so appreciate what she's trying to do there. I think you need to let this play out a little bit further and you need to, with them, sit down and really talk through it with some specificity around what is it we're trying to do? Do we want to build a second home on the property where you all are right next to each other and they can provide the care? Are you looking to just add on and improve the existing dwelling? That's going to be a major difference because if it's a single structure that you're improving, well, then you're going to have shared ownership of that where you're going to own a portion of it that would pass to your heirs.

A small portion may go to your granddaughter, but it's going to go, according to your trust, to all of your heirs and charity. And they might own a percentage of that property in their name, or it would be cleaner if you all decide, well, we want to build a separate dwelling on the same property. You sell it to them either outright and they get their own conventional financing now, or if you're not in need of this care today, maybe you wait a couple of years, they continue to save and then they're buying this home from you at a better, more conventional rate.

Or you follow my suggestion on potentially considering owner financing where you're essentially the owner, they're giving you the down payment and then they're paying you monthly at a lower interest rate. And you've got that income stream coming in. And then some at some point they pay it off, you know, down the road or pay the estate off after your death. So I think you've got to kind of work through. The first question is, are we going to improve the existing property or are we going to sell it and build a second one? And I think once you know that, then you can start to play out the various options that I mentioned.

Separate ownership, selling and them getting a conventional mortgage maybe a couple of years down the road or buying it now and you become the owner financing to actually extend the loan to them and they're paying you every month and not the lender. Does that make sense? Yeah, that does make sense.

Yeah, I'll have to investigate that. We were thinking originally that we would have a separate house, a smaller one, like an apartment close by, but we would still have to add separate separate septic and we'd probably have to go with a different wealth system, you know, those all things that would be smaller. And construction costs are still pretty high right now. And so I suspect, I mean, would it be true that you'd need the the proceeds out of your existing home in order to go build that home you're describing? That's possible.

Yeah, yeah. So in that case, you may need to sell it. And then we're back to the scenario of okay, we can't hold the note because we need the cash so we can go build on our same property. And then it's a matter, okay, now what's the right timing for all this to take place? Are you all in need of the care they're looking to provide right away?

Or are we thinking down the road at some point? Well, we're thinking we're starting to investigate that because some of us, my wife and I both have, you know, as we get up there in years, we're starting to have all these aches and pains. And so we want to make sure that we're cared for.

And we don't want to go into a nursing home since we have a daughter, granddaughter will care for us. Well, what a blessing that you do, Jim. I'm so delighted to hear that.

I think your next steps are to talk to your granddaughter and her husband, really process it through on the timing and the plan, and then get with your estate planning attorney who drafted the trust and a real estate attorney to figure out the right timing and the best structure. I hope that gives you some things to think about. We appreciate you calling today. God bless you, sir. And thanks for your kind remarks about the program. A quick break and then back with more questions right around the corner. It's great to have you with us today on Faith and Finance Live. I'm Rob West. Hey, coming up a little later in our broadcast, Jerry Boyer will stop by.

We'll get Jerry's take on the markets and the economy. But in the meantime, we're taking your calls and questions today. The number eight hundred five two five seven thousand. I've got a few lines open. They'll fill up quick, though. So if you have a question, go ahead and get in the queue and we'll try to get to as many as we can.

Eight hundred five two five seven thousand. Let's head out to Missouri. Hi, David. Go ahead.

Yes, sir. I the company I work for was just recently sold. And so I have a 401k that I have a few options. I can roll it over into the new company's 401k. I can roll it over to an IRA or I can take the money with the penalties.

Obviously, I don't want to take the money with the penalties. But my question was whether or not the IRA is a better choice or the 401k. Yeah, it's a good question. How much is in that 401k? Do you know?

About one hundred and forty thousand. OK. Yeah. So it's a significant sum. You could do either. I kind of like the idea, you know, with that amount of money, rolling it to an IRA gives you a lot more flexibility in the investments that are selected. But I would probably use an adviser to manage it just because it is a lot of money. And having somebody that really has the time and expertise to build and manage the portfolio based on your values and goals, I think would be great. Do you have an adviser that you've worked with in the past?

I don't. And listening to your show, you've talked about the kingdom builders and I saw I will approach it that way. Yeah, I mean, it's a certified kingdom adviser, a CKA, and there's about fourteen hundred of them around the country.

And so you could go to our Web site, Faith Fi dot com, Faith Fi dot com, click find a CKA and I'd interview two or three. That would be one option. And again, that's going to give you the most flexibility in terms of how the portfolio is built, because essentially you can invest in anything. And through a self-directed IRA, you could even invest it in real estate or any number of of asset classes. But even if you just want a traditional stock and bond portfolio, then this person could manage it for you. The other option is is the more simple approach, which is just roll it into that 401K with your new employer and then just put it into whatever, you know, of the menu of choices you would have selected or you will select for your new contributions moving forward. And then once you're ready to retire, you could in separate from the company, then you could roll the whole thing out and get an adviser at that point. But I think you've got enough built up that it's probably worth considering going ahead and getting an adviser right now.

And then perhaps you could do some retirement planning at the same time. OK, that'd be great. All right.

Yeah, cool. Faith Fi dot com. Just click find to see David. Thank you for calling to Plainfield, Illinois.

Hi, Agnes. Go ahead. Yes.

Thank you. Well, first of all, what is your take on the music car or buying a car? My daughter has just graduated and I've always always talked of buying a car, not losing. So she agreed to it.

But it's truly that the high interest rate is going to drive. So and I have some money. I put aside for a car, but now I don't need to buy a car anymore. So I wanted to use it to buy the car for her. And then whatever she can pay monthly is out of pain. So somebody else with high interest rates, she can send it to me. And even if she doesn't want to send it, that's fine.

But my question is, how do I do it? Do I buy the car in my name and her name or I buy it in my name or in her name? So what is your best thought about that? Yeah. Yeah.

How do you want this to be structured when it's all said and done? You you want her eventually to be the owner of the car. You just want her to be able to pay you, essentially buy it from you with you being the financing for it and then charge her a more reasonable interest rate. Is that right?

Yeah. Not charging a car. She can pay whatever she can pay just so because the high interest rate that even to her and I would drown her.

And I don't want to eat. She's a fresh starter. She just finished school. She had a job, but I would just want to help her. And then do I buy the car in my name or buy it with her name and then eventually transfer it to her or what you're searching?

Yeah, very good. So yeah, I mean, I think the if you're wanting to purchase it and then let her buy it over time, I mean, typically what you would do is you would purchase the car and then essentially you would enter in an agreement with her to sell it to her. But you would do owner financing where you have a written agreement between the two of you. You have a fixed repayment schedule and a minimum interest rate.

And the IRS publishes the acceptable interest rate. So you'd want to work with a, you know, probably your CPA to put all of that in place. And then eventually she would pay you those monthly payments based on that repayment schedule that you come up with. And then, you know, eventually she'd own the car and take title to it. But until then, it would be yours. And then, you know, she would have to pay you out.

The only consideration there is just the potential for the relational damage if she got into a place where she couldn't afford to pay it anymore. But it sounds like Agnes that you're willing to give this to her if you had to, or if she was unable to pay, you would be okay with that. Is that right?

Is that what I'm hearing? Yeah, yeah, I'm okay with that. But I would be I do I have to go into all these contracts as the funding and everything.

That's fine. If you can't pay in the future, that's fine. Yeah, I mean, otherwise, you'd make it a gift to her. And then you'd have to let the IRS know that you did that. And it's not taxable, but it would be a gift. Because if you're charging, if you're just giving her an asset that you purchased, or you're not charging the minimum interest rate that they expect for a loan, then they're going to consider that a gift. And you're going to need to tell them that you're making the gift. And so that's why it's better for you to go ahead and buy it.

Now you're the owner. And then you come up with a written agreement and a fixed repayment schedule, and a minimum interest rate that fits her budget, but that's more reasonable than she'd get on the open market right now with with conventional rates being higher. So what I would probably do is contact the CPA, a certified public accountant, let them know what you're trying to do. And they can help you come up with that agreement, the fixed payment schedule, they'll tell you what the minimum interest rate is. And then you could essentially buy the car and then sell it to your daughter over time, but do it in a way that fits within her budget. Just recognize that whenever you become a lender, it changes the relationship.

So you just want to be careful with that. Thanks for your call. We'll be right back. So glad to have you with us today on faith and finance. We're taking your calls and questions today on anything financial and coming up in our next segment, Jerry Boyer will stop by. Let's head to Chicago. Hey, Nick, thanks for calling. Go ahead.

Hi, Rob. A year ago, I purchased an I bond at like 9% interest as you had timely informed your listeners at the time. Yeah, you suggested to cash it in after about a year ago. And can you please explain when and why one would want to cash it in early before it fully matures in five years?

I'm not really clear on that. Yeah, well, it's just because you're going to be able to do better elsewhere. So when it was at 9.6, it was really attractive. When it was at 6.8, it was still attractive. And now at 4.3, it's not attractive, just because that rate is going to continue to decline as the Fed fights inflation. So I standing for inflation, these inflation bonds are pegged to the inflation rate, it's a function of a composite rate, which is now less than 1%.

And then another portion that's pegged to CPI, the consumer price index. So we knew that this was temporary, because when we spiked with 40 year high inflation, the I bonds went up with it, which gave you essentially a risk free investment with a far greater return than you get in anything else. But as that rate comes down, you can do better elsewhere. So for instance, today, you can get for that same $10,000, you could get a CD at five and a half percent for a year, and you're now making 4.3. And when the new rates come out in November, they're going to go down even further. So we knew it was temporary. And that's why we said it's really just for the bucket of money that we consider one to three years. Because if it was longer than three years, certainly longer than five year money, then I'd rather you put that in a stock and bond portfolio and grow it to offset inflation, because we knew that this was temporary. But for someone who said, Listen, I need this money in a year or two, well, you might as well take advantage of these high rates, but they're really, you know, they're no longer available, and they're going to continue to fall.

So I think even though you've got to pay that penalty of three months worth of interest, it's probably time to kind of take your profits, so to speak, and now move that over to something else. I see that that totally makes sense to me. Thank you, Rob. You're good. And God bless you. All right. Thank you, Nick.

We appreciate your kind remarks there, sir. 800-525-7000 to Ocala. Diana, thank you for calling. Go ahead.

Hi, yes. I haven't I've been on disability since 2012. I'm 57.

I will not be going back to work. And maybe in about five years, my monthly income is going to drop drastically probably half as much as what I'm getting now. My question is, I got a letter from my employer that I no longer work for, saying that they would like me to I have an option to collect my pension at a at a lower amount, I think it's one third, take it out early and a lump sum versus waiting till I'm 65 and collecting monthly.

I don't know what to do considering I'm not working and I'm not really going to have an income except for Social Security once I turn 65. And that's probably going to be reduced by my it's going to be less than what my disability is because I haven't worked in 11 years. Yeah, I see.

Yeah. I mean, I'm a little hesitant just based on what you're describing for you to take that that lump sum, even though I like the lump sum option. If you're going to only be able to get a third of what it would really be worth and what would be what they're basing the monthly pension payments on at your full retirement age, if whatever that number is, they're going to essentially give you a third of that as a lump sum. That doesn't sound like a great offer. Do you know what the amount is that they're suggesting they would be able to give you?

It's like 43,600. But my my monthly amount would be 447 a month. And I did a 20 year speculation I didn't do cost of living increase, but just on a 20 year if I took what they want to pay out, and I divide it by 20 years, it would be $181 versus 447 a month 180.

And then the other was, I was concerned, well, what if I did wait? And they went out of business? What if they went bankrupt or out of business? Now it's a bit pretty big company, but I looked at their financial, their their profits, their profitable income in 2021 is was 3,068 billion, but last year it was 414 million.

So it dropped drastically. It's an interesting company. Yeah, what what is the insurance company? It's Liberty Mutual. Yeah, that's that's a massive company. I suspect you were probably looking at that.

Perhaps not correctly that that's not right in terms of the difference between the years. But, you know, I wouldn't be concerned about that. I mean, even if the company failed, the pension baron Guarantee Benefit Corporation would step in and protect your assets there. Investors in the company would would lose money, but pension holders should not. So I wouldn't be concerned about that.

I would be very hesitant for you to take this. I mean, apart from you doing some real financial planning with an advisor to really look at the fine print and the details, but just the 45,000 roughly that they're talking about versus you being able to get 400 a month. So essentially, you know, $5,000 a year, you know, when you turn 65 sounds like a much better option than the 40 a month. I mean, if you had 45,000 a month, I would tell you only take about 150 a month on that in order to preserve it. And you're going to get more than twice that with the with the monthly pension payment.

So it feels like they're they're really, you know, cutting it back significantly. And you're going to give up a lot of money. And I realize you're not going to have the principal to touch. But what you need is a good stable income to cover your bills. And that 400 a month is a pretty, you know, significant payment versus what you could generate monthly on a $45,000 investment. Does that make sense? Right.

Yes, it does. Yeah, you're saying just hold off and collect the 447 a month. Just based on what I know today that yeah, that sounds like a much better deal for you.

And if you can get to that point, which it sounds like that, does that sync up pretty well with the point which you're where your income drops? Right? Yeah.

Well, what I was, I thought, you know, that I would just take, I wasn't going to go with the deal. But then I thought, well, what if they go bankrupt or something? And then, but it's a pretty big company. It's a massive company. Yeah.

And it's very highly rated. And again, you have protections, even if they were to fail on the pension itself from the pension benefit guarantee corporation. So I wouldn't I wouldn't worry about that. And so I think just based on what I'm hearing, I like the option of you waiting and taking that larger monthly payout. And that way you've got that for the rest of your life. That plus your social security, you know, hopefully will cover your bills.

And then, you know, that give you quite a bit of peace of mind and you don't have to worry about stock market investments or risk or anything like that. Awesome. Okay. I'll call Monday for my second question. Okay.

That sounds great. And you as well, Diana, we appreciate it. Hey, folks, before we hit this break, let me remind you, faith and finance live is listener supported. We've got a gap here as we close out September.

This is the last business day of the month of about $5,000 in what we were planning on from listener support for the month of September. So if you can help, we'd be grateful. A gift of any amount would go a long way to helping us continue to equip God's people to be wise stewards. Just head to our website, faithfi.com. Click Give. That's faithfi.com and click Give.

A gift today would be a real blessing. We'll be right back. Stay with us. It's great to have you with us today on Faith and Finance Live. Well, here on a Friday afternoon, we always look forward to having Jerry Boyer stop by with his market analysis and commentary. Jerry, crosscurrents galore, the Fed's favorite inflation indicator, it sounds like came in less than expected in August. And yet news coming out today about the Republican spending plan failing a House vote, which is then fueling federal government shutdown fears. I mean, it sounds like you can pick your good news or bad, depending on what you're looking for.

Yeah. And you also have to read your good news a little bit more carefully or have to read the fine print because the Wall Street Journal headlines were about the inflation rate being down a bit. And by the way, this is the inflation. There's a bunch of ways you measure inflation. And the one that people talk about the most is CPI, which is they sort of take a bucket of goods that Americans would would typically buy.

And did that go up or down? But they also have another one where they say, well, these are the goods that Americans actually bought. So if you don't buy as much ground beef because of inflation and but you buy more ground turkey, you know, to save money or ground pork, well, then it counts ground beef, not as much and accounts that, you know, so it's kind of like a little easier to to not have high inflation in that metric because it kind of takes it when we when we bargain hunt, it doesn't say that's high inflation. It just says, oh, you spent less. Well, yeah, I spent less on an inferior nothing personal towards ground pork, but it's cheaper than ground beef. So you so you spend on an inferior good. That's called a substitution effect.

So when you look into that, that's the one that was released today. And yeah, it's down when you look at what they call core inflation. But what's core inflation?

Core inflation is inflation that doesn't count food or energy. Well, I use food and energy. I use them every day. I'm using energy right now. After we're done, I'm going to use food.

I will have used them both within 15 minutes. And so that ought to count. So when you count, there was a point four percent in one month, which times twelve, four point eight percent inflation annual. That's high. The average American inflation rate is about three, three and a half percent over the long run. The proper American inflation rate should be zero. It shouldn't be positive at all. There shouldn't be inflation. It's it's staffed of property.

It hurts people. But, you know, the Fed says, well, it's OK if it's two, two and a half percent. OK, but it wasn't. It was four point eight percent.

When you count food and energy, which we should if we're really trying to be honest about it. And the market saw that and said, OK, the Fed's not done. And so the market reacted accordingly, you know, by selling gold and buying dollars, all the things that you do when you when you realize the Fed has not beaten inflation and they're going to keep trying. So they're going to keep contracting the money supply. And the other thing that happens is the way they contract the money supply is they take money out of financial markets. So there the Fed is a big investor. It can be a buyer or a seller. And so, you know, what it's buying, it's putting money into the markets.

Right. And when it's selling, it's pulling money out of the markets. So what the market said this week and basically what they've been saying for the corner, really, that's just ending is the Fed has not won the battle of inflation yet. It's going to keep pulling money out of markets and it's going to contract the money supply and it's probably going to slow the economy down. That's what markets have been indicating in this week was is pretty much consistent with the quarter that just ended or it's just about to end.

Yeah, that's really helpful, Jerry. I saw an interview today with Ray Dalio, the billionaire hedge fund investor, and he was made no mince, no words. He said, quote, We're going to have a debt crisis in this country. Now, you didn't say when, of course. And I know this is something you and I've been talking about for a long time. You know, here we are. U.S. debt levels have now for the first time surpassed 33 trillion. He talked about the fact that, you know, federal spending between fiscal 19 and fiscal 21 is up 50 percent.

And he says the problem he's expecting is that growth could fall to zero. And you put all that together and, you know, we're going to see this perhaps sooner rather than later. I know that's something we've discussed at length. But what do you make of all that? Well, that's interesting. I just did a speech to a group of Christian CEOs are actually people who are conveners of CEOs and to investors. This week, I was on the road with some of our friends down in Houston and I was asked about Ray Dalio and what he said.

And my answer is I am concerned about a debt crisis. The difference that I have with Ray Dalio is that I'm a Christ follower and Ray Dalio is a Mahri Mahesh, whatever his name is. He's a transcendental meditation guy. And so I believe in a personal God and the possibility of repentance and renewal.

So I don't believe that. So Ray Dalio is a cyclical guy. There's just these cycles of reality and you can't escape them. It's fate, which is kind of an Eastern religion idea, the cyclical nature of reality. So I believe we're at rising risk for a debt crisis, but I don't believe in cyclical fate.

There are times in the history of the West and there are times in America when it really looked like we were going to have serious economic problems, even a crisis or a collapse. But something happened. There were revivals and renewals. There was repentance.

There were things, we have free will, in other words. We're not faded to a debt crisis. So I wouldn't say, yeah, we're definitely going to have a debt crisis.

I'd be more like this. If we don't repent and change our ways, then I think we're going to have a debt crisis. But there's nothing that says that we can't turn to God and say, help us and help us change our ways and help us become more fiscally responsible and help us become savers and help us become more productive so we can grow our way out of some of our debt. So the difference I have between me and Ray Dalio isn't that I don't share his risk assessment.

It's that I don't share the idea that it's fate and cyclical and inevitable. What I put out to those CEOs and their representatives this week is, how do we avoid it? We change. We Christians lead the way out. The church says to the nation that inflation is a sin and you have to repent of it. The church says to the nation, we need to get our work ethic back because the commandments, six days thou shall labor, but the seventh is a Sabbath. It's not really one commandment.

It's two commandments. If we get our work ethic back, if we get our frugality back, if we turn to God and in his mercy, he restores us, then no, we don't have to have a debt crisis. So I see the possibility of it and the warning of it. Ray Dalio sees the inevitability of it because that's the cycle and it's inescapable. But I don't think it is inescapable with God's grace and us responding to that. That's very well said, Jerry.

And you're articulating a biblical worldview, which is clearly missing from the other perspectives we're talking about. Well, Jerry, where would you want to wrap up with today? What are your final thoughts? Well we always talk a little bit about corporate engagement and something happened recently where Bank of America, according to press reports, de-banked a ministry that serves widows and orphans in Uganda. And so the next project we're working on is working with an investor to say to Bank of America, it's certainly, you have not given a reasonable explanation, this hurts widows and orphans.

Poor people in Uganda missed paychecks and they didn't, they can't afford it. So this is this idea of instead of just talking about companies or complaining about, you know, companies and how they've all gone ideological and how they're all politically correct, talking to the companies. So that's the next thing on the agenda for us. And I think that's going to be important in the next annual meeting cycle is there was a conversation last year with JPMorgan Chase. And I think this year there needs to be one with Bank of America to say, why did you cancel the services of this long-term customer who's serving widows and orphans? It looks like anti-Christian bias.

Give us a better explanation. It's not anti-Christian bias. And if it is, then clean house and don't be biased against Christians.

Bank with anyone who's behaving ethically, morally and legally. Yeah, very good. Well, I love that, Jerry. Well, certainly keep us up to date on that and I know you'll bring more along the way. We appreciate you stopping by today. My pleasure.

God bless. All right. That's Jerry Boyer. He's president of Boyer Research.

You can read his opinions and columns at World News Group and he joins us each Friday on this broadcast. All right. Let's try to get to as many questions as we can here before the end of the program to Michigan.

Hi, Jean. Go ahead. One quick question. I have a CD cutting due for one hundred thousand dollars. If I put that money, close that account, put it into my checking account and bought bonds instead.

Your opinion, please. Yeah, I mean, I like that. I mean, you're going to get a good yield on it. And as rates fall and they will at some point, certainly not any time soon, we're probably going higher before we go lower. But as those rates fall, you'll do well. So you could buy individual bonds, you could buy a bond mutual fund with high quality corporate and government bonds. I'd probably stay, Jean, on the shorter end of the duration. So 10 years or less.

But I think for high quality bonds that are in a relatively short term, you can absolutely do very well in those. Thank you very much. I appreciate it. I appreciate you in the show. Thank you, Jean. That's very kind of you to miss. Let's see.

Chicago. Harriet, go ahead. Hi.

Can you hear me? Yes, ma'am. Hello.

Hi. Oh, OK. So I have turned life insurance which expires as of November.

And to renew it, they sent me one for like 890 each quarter. My question is, is it wise to have life insurance? And if yes, I know whole life would be better.

But I'm just wondering if I should put money to the side. Yes, exactly. Sure. So what is your age? 58. 58. All right. And are you still working? Yes.

OK. Yeah. I mean, so I like term insurance. It's significantly cheaper. So it's a lot more affordable, which means for most folks, it allows you to get the amount of coverage you need, which is typically 10 to 12 times the income you're trying to replace at a minimum. So if somebody is depending on you for your income and you're making $60,000 a year, you want to have somewhere around $600,000 to $800,000 in coverage. And in order to do that, buying a term policy and for you, maybe a 10-year term policy is going to be the most cost effective way to do that. And then if you don't need it or your loved ones don't need it because you retire and you're able to let it lapse, well, that's fine. You only paid for the pure insurance, but you covered the risk. So that would be my approach. And let's do your savings outside of an insurance policy. Thanks for your call.

Faith in Finance Live is a partnership between Moody Radio and Faith Buy. Thank you to Tahira, Josie, Dan and Jim. We'll see you next time. Bye-bye.