10/4/2023_MWL

You know, we think programs like the one you're listening to right now make a big difference in people's lives. And that's why we're asking you as a listener to join us in our mission to create Christ-centered programming and share Jesus boldly with the world. You can see our impact and support our work when you visit fallshare.org.

Check it out, fallshare.org. Thank you. The following episode of Faith and Finance Live is prerecorded, so please don't call in. The dictionary says integrity is being honest and having strong moral principles. God's Word says, better is the poor who walks in his integrity than one perverse in his ways, though he be rich. Hi, I'm Rob West. Are you living with integrity in your financial dealings?

We'll check up on that today, and we have some great calls lined up, but we won't be taking your live calls today because we're prerecorded. This is Faith and Finance Live, biblical wisdom for your financial journey. You know, integrity has another definition besides being honest. It can also mean strength and dependability. When we say a bridge has integrity, we mean it's sturdy and consistently reliable.

No matter how much traffic drives over that bridge, it's not going to break up and fall into the river. Christians are called to be like that bridge. We represent Jesus Christ to the world, so it's our responsibility—and our privilege—to be honest, strong, and dependable in all we do. Of course, we're not always going to do everything right, but with God's help, we persevere. As it says in James 1-12, Blessed is the one who perseveres under trial, because, having stood the test, that person will receive the crown of life that the Lord has promised to those who love him. Well, we're talking about financial integrity today, because your attitudes and actions around money reveal a lot about your heart.

So here's the question. Are you being honest, morally strong, and dependable in your personal money matters? We'll start with honesty, because it's the most important element of integrity. Honesty is one of the first things Jesus requires of new believers. When some tax collectors approached Jesus to be baptized, they asked, Teacher, what shall we do? And he said to them, Collect no more than what you have been ordered to. That's from Luke 3.13. You need to be honest to be effective for God's Kingdom work.

Titus 1.7 says, The overseer must be above reproach as God's steward. Reaches are healthier when people are honest. Proverbs 28, 12, and 13 paints a vivid picture. When the righteous triumph, there is great glory, but when the wicked rise, men hide themselves.

He who conceals his transgressions will not prosper. Here's what honesty looks like in real life. It means doing what is right, whether people are watching you or not. It means always telling the truth on timesheets, tax forms, tests, and applications, and in your social media posts as well. Honesty also requires fair treatment of employees, clients, co-workers, and customers.

All financial dealings should be transparent and upright. The second element of integrity is moral strength. Moral strength isn't something we can come up with on our own. The power we need to live the Christian life comes from God.

He fills us with His Holy Spirit and leads us in paths of righteousness for His name's sake, as it says in Psalm 23. The more time you spend studying the Bible, the better you'll understand God's ways. The more you apply biblical principles to your life and finances, the stronger your moral principles will become. As a person of integrity who belongs to Christ, you can be confident that God will supply all your needs according to His riches and glory. The third characteristic that defines integrity is dependability.

Dependability goes hand in hand with good reputation. Proverbs 22 29 confirms this. Do you see a man skillful in his work? He will stand before kings.

He will not stand before obscure men. You see, our goal as Christians is to point people to Christ, and a solid reputation gives you a platform to do just that. In light of all of this, ask yourself, can your family, friends and co-workers depend on you to do what's right? Are your words and actions consistently godly?

As far as personal finances, are you sticking to a clear, manageable plan? Being honest, morally strong and dependable is a challenge, and nobody does it right all the time. Selfishness and ungodly desires often get in the way of integrity. That's when we have to repent, pray for God's forgiveness, and ask for His help.

Then we can make things right with anyone we've injured and move forward. Remember, the only power Satan has is to accuse and confuse. He can't snatch you from the hands of your Heavenly Father. Romans 8 1 reads, There is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.

So you can afford to pursue integrity in your personal and financial life, even if you fail from time to time. I hope that's been an encouragement to you today. Hey, you're listening to Faith and Finance Live with Rob West. Today's broadcast is prerecorded, and that means we won't be taking any calls. But we do have some calls lined up and lots of great information coming your way that we think you'll find helpful. So stick around for more Faith and Finance Live after this brief break. You know, we think programs like the one you're listening to right now make a big difference in people's lives. And that's why we're asking you as a listener to join us in our mission to create Christ-centered programming and share Jesus boldly with the world. You can see our impact and support our work when you visit fallshare.org.

Check it out, fallshare.org. Thank you. It is always great to have you with us today on Faith and Finance Live.

I'm Rob West. Our team is not here today, so let me just remind you not to call in. But I will also remind you that we have some great questions that we lined up in advance, so you're not going to want to miss today's broadcast. Before we head to the phones, though, a quick email. These come to us at askrobb at faithfi.com. This one comes to us from Tom.

He writes, I'm 67 years old. God has blessed my business. I have investments and no debt. I'm concerned about the possibility that the government will take over banks and investment institutions. Would it be wise to buy gold as a part of my portfolio? Well, it's never a bad idea to have gold in your portfolio. It's a hedge against inflation.

It's a store of value. It's a way to diversify with another asset class beyond stocks, bonds, and real estate. But I would say only to a maximum of 10% of your portfolio.

Here's the way I like to think about that. Perhaps that first 5% is what we call your buy and hold or your buy for life portion. And I might consider buying that with physical gold, that first 5% where you'd buy their gold bars or with gold coins, where you're buying not much more than the spot price of the gold and you're holding that forever. Perhaps you pass that down to your heirs. If you want to go up to 10%, I'd say perhaps consider with that next 5% using an ETF like GLD or one of the tracking ETFs that tracks the price of gold.

I wouldn't be concerned about the government taking over banks and brokerages. That's not going to happen in my opinion. We appreciate your writing to us. All right, we're going to dive into our calls today. Let's begin in Georgia. Rose, you will be our first caller and you can go right ahead. Hi. Hi. So, I'm wondering what to do with excess, well, excess money that we made from a cell of our home.

My husband and I are 65 and 63, first time parents four years ago of a 17 month and a five-year-old and we decided to try to pay off all our debts so that their future looked secure as our, you know, ages. And so, I have a lot of information. I'm not sure where to start.

Okay, very good. Well, just tell me what did you all take on foster kids? Did you adopt?

What were you doing? There are great, great nieces. Oh, wow.

That's incredible. Well, I'm confident the Lord is honored and pleased with that and what a blessing that you're taking them on in this stage of life and I know they will be forever grateful. And I love that you're thinking about getting your financial house in order at the same time.

So, just give me kind of a rundown of what you've got currently. So, you are debt-free including your mortgage, is that right? Well, we had two properties. One a rental property in Georgia which is why we're now living here.

We just moved. We got here Sunday and basically, I'm the sole income maker at present, about $110,000, $115,000 a year if I count my bonus and allowances. We have like $6,000 cash on hand and we netted about $276,000 from the Florida property paid off this Georgia property at $151,000. We have $115,000 left and $50,000 in changing credit card debts for really the Christian school that we had paid for and we're going to start homeschooling. Oh, that's great.

I love that. So, the current home in Georgia is paid off. The Florida home has been sold and after all that's been done, you've got $110,000 to $115,000 just currently sitting in the savings account, correct? Correct. Okay. And you said you've got some credit card debt.

How much was on those credit cards? Just over $50,000. Okay.

$50,343. Okay. All right. And tell me about, do you have any other liquid savings other than that amount that remains from the sale? Yeah, like 401K and Roth IRA. Okay. Yeah. So, if you put all those retirement accounts together plus the stocks, what do you think that's worth total?

No, my 401K at work is around $40,000. I had written it down. Now, I can't find it. And then, Ken, what is the rest?

Roth IRA stocks worth about $100,000. Yeah. So, $100,000 and the other one. Great. Yeah. And what is your plan for working, Rose? Are you planning to continue to work for the foreseeable future? Yes, I am. I love my job, 12 years there doing good. And as long as I'm mentally able, I can do it.

I work remotely. So, there's that benefit. Very good. And then beyond that, you're obviously, neither of you have started collecting Social Security at this point, correct? Correct.

Okay. So, you're just living solely off of your income and you've got about $140,000 in investable assets. What are your total expenses, would you say, on a typical month roughly? Now, will probably be, I wonder, well, if I exclude the credit card debt. Yeah.

What would you say? Maybe $3,000 a month considering food and gas and insurance. Okay. Taxes.

Yeah. I'd love for you to take a hard look at that, especially now as your situation is changing. It's always a good idea to have a budget, a spending plan. Now, it's really going to be critical for you all to have a documented plan every month on what is your income, what are your expenses, not only those things you get a bill for, but the discretionary spending, eating out or buying some clothes. Also, those non-recurring expenses. You might have a quarterly insurance payment or an annual HOA, something like that.

All that needs to be baked in. Christmas is going to take on a whole new meaning now with you having two kids in the mix. You could plan for that every month, one twelfth of what you want to have for Christmas. When you put all of that in there, let's say that's as much as $3,500 a month, I'd love for you to have six months worth of expenses.

That's about $20,000. If it were me, what I would focus on is let's eliminate the credit card debt as long as you've rectified what got you there in the first place. That's going to be key to getting that spending plan in place where the budget balances and you have a little cushion left over.

I'd pay off that credit card debt because those credit card interest rates are probably sky high unless you're playing the balance transfer game and you've got a temporary 0% interest or something. That would be $50,000 of the $115,000. Then if you add $20,000 to it for my emergency fund, that's going to take about $71,000. If we take $115,000, that would leave you about $44,000. What I'd like for you to do is try to get that into a tax-deferred environment.

If you haven't made the Roth IRA contributions this year, you guys could put in $14,000 between the two of you, $7,000 apiece. You could accelerate your 401k contributions. If you're not maxing that out, that would be an opportunity. Even if that, by maxing it out, took too much away from your spending plan, you could supplement that out of savings, thereby transferring into that tax-deferred environment. Now, all of a sudden, we're in a situation where we've got a balanced budget. We've got six months worth of reserves and an online savings account earning 4.5% interest.

We've eliminated the credit card debt. That's gone, which now that payment doesn't have to be made every month. We're accelerating the money going into our retirement savings, which that's going to be key because you guys, at some point, you're going to want to wait as long as you can to take Social Security.

Let's say because you love your job, you wait seven more years at least, which means you both wait until age 70 to take your Social Security. Well, now you're going to get an additional probably 24% over and above what you would have received at full retirement age every month in the form of that Social Security check. Let's say you grow this 140 plus the 40 you have, call it 200, 400, 500,000 over the next seven years.

Well, that'll give you another 20,000 a year to add to your income. Let's finish off the air, but hopefully that gives you some direction. We'll be right back on Faith in Finance. Stay with us. We think programs like the one you're listening to right now make a big difference in people's lives, and that's why we're asking you as a listener to join us in our mission to create Christ-centered programming and share Jesus boldly with the world. You can see our impact and support our work when you visit fallshare.org. Check it out, fallshare.org.

Thank you. You're listening to Faith in Finance Live. This program is prerecorded, so we're not available to answer your calls, but you can email us your questions at askrob at faithfi.com. If you'd like to jump into our faith and finance community, ask a question, get an answer, maybe check out our Learn tab in our app where you can get the best content in Christian finance podcasts, videos, articles. It's all there in the Faithfi app, which you can check out on our website at faithfi.com. That's faithfi.com, or you can find it in your app store. Wherever you get apps, just search for Faithfi. Faith in Finance, you can download it today. We'd love for you to check it out. The community and all the content, absolutely free, including broadcast archives of this program.

Faithfi.com, just click app. All right, we're going to head back to the phones. In just a moment, we'll head to Missouri and talk to Guy about advisors that he says he's wondering when they say they don't get paid unless you get paid. Is that true? We'll get to that in just a moment.

But first to Texas. Hi, Tina. How can I help you with your parents' rental property? Hi. Hi. Can you hear me? Yes, ma'am.

Okay. I believe been asked by God to help my parents. They're elderly now, but they have rental property that's in a lot of debt. My issue with the property is my goal is to have the property be in the black and to tight on it. But the problem is that we're about $27,000 in credit card debt, and my parents have put personal loans on it to help with repairs on the house over $95,000. We don't have an emergency fund, and there's a parking lot in the area that we need for the house. A church owns it. But if we get a loan for that particular property, it would be over $100,000.

So my question is, would it be wise to try and get that property, or should we try and pay off the debt? So I'm just kind of overwhelmed. And I want an emergency fund, which we don't have now because we've had so much repair work.

And some of it has been poor management as well. Sure. Sure. Well, I'm delighted to hear that you're coming alongside to help them, Tina.

I know that's going to go a long way, and I think you're correct to raise these concerns. I guess before we even think about adding any more debt, obviously the $27,000 in credit card debt concerns me just because the interest rate is probably sky high on that. But with that $95,000, what kind of debt is that? Is that like a home equity loan, or what is that? No, it was money from my mom's accounts and my dad's accounts, like my dad's savings. Okay, so you don't owe $95,000, you put $95,000 into it? Right, but they're being paid back from the house. My dad took out a credit union loan and he's being paid like $320 a month.

And then my mom has money going back to her, like $687. So it's like they loan money to the rental property, if that makes sense. Sure, but this is their rental property, right?

Their names are on the deed? Yes. Okay. Yeah, so they're just looking at it like, okay, this is a business and therefore the business needed some working capital. We're going to loan it from ourselves personally and pay ourselves back, but it's all, you know, it's just different buckets. It's all our money, correct? Correct.

All right. Now, are they able to cash flow the debt service on all of this and still have something left over at the end of the month based on the rental income, meaning pay each of themselves, those scheduled monthly payments to pay themselves back, plus cover the debt service on the credit cards? Yes, but we're just paying the minimum and we're still like using some money that they've loaned to the houses to do some repair work. So we basically, it's like from one rental income to the next, I guess paycheck to paycheck, but I'm not saying it correctly.

No, no, I get it. It's paycheck to paycheck, but in the case of a rental property, a rental income to rental income. So yeah, there's, but there's really no margin.

I mean, there's just enough and even some months there's not enough to cover the minimums on the credit card plus pay themselves back on the debt. Because if you have something unexpected come up, then you're underwater, correct? Yes. Yeah.

Okay. So then we absolutely don't need to take on the parking lot. I realize, you know, that may be causing challenges to even maximize the true value of the property if there's no parking. And so that may be a bigger issue that just speaks to the viability of these properties and keeping them rented and maximizing the rental income. But clearly there's not enough there, you know, to service the debt and cover the expenses without, you know, this new loan.

And obviously that would be even more problematic with a new $100,000 loan at the interest rates where they are now. Is the lack of that parking creating a problem? I mean, would that parking lot in some way provide more income or would you have the same income?

No, it would be the same. It works out right now because it's owned by a church and they're allowing us to park there unless, you know, they have a big event. So we wanted to try and get it from the church if possible.

Well, now's not the time to do it. I think the challenge is just, you know, given the debt that they already have, I would say what they probably need to do is focus on directing what they're currently paying themselves back with if they have the ability to do this and still cash flow their personal expenses, redirect that to the credit cards and let's try to get that paid off as quick as possible just because of those interest rates and try to get this on a more solid footing where with that gone, hopefully they can continue to service the debt that they're paying back to themselves just out of the regular cash flow and start working toward paying this down. Let's continue to take full advantage of that generous offer by the church to park in their lot without buying it just because that's going to really put the squeeze on with all of these loans.

And then you're right, they need to get to a place where they have reserves. And there's a few ways you can think about reserves with a rental property. One is a percentage of the rent. So somewhere between 15 and 30%, which is going to depend on the age of the property. So 15 for new construction or newly renovated, 30 for an older home in a weaker market, you can go a second approach was just just a number of months of fixed monthly expenses. So like property management, long care utilities, plus, you know, any debt service three to six months worth of those expenses.

And the third is just itemize all the major appliances and capital expenditures and actually set aside what you need for the true replacement cost of all of those items. There's a lot to this, but they'll get there. Stay on the line. We'll talk off the air and we'll be right back. You know, we think programs like the one you're listening to right now make a big difference in people's lives. And that's why we're asking you as a listener to join us in our mission to create Christ-centered programming and share Jesus boldly with the world. You can see our impact and support our work when you visit fallshare.org.

Check it out fallshare.org. Thank you. This is Faith in Finance live with Rob West. Hey, if you hear a phone number mentioned today, please ignore that number and don't call us because today's broadcast was previously recorded. But we think the upcoming information will help you and make you a wise steward of what God's given you. So please stay tuned. Guy in Missouri has been really patient and we're coming to you in just a moment, Guy. But first, Tina, I know you had a follow up question on that rental property related to tithing.

Quickly go ahead with that. Yes. My question is, once God helps us to get out of this debt, how do I set things up for tithing on the income that we receive?

Yeah. You know, New Testament giving is giving freely, giving cheerfully, giving proportionately. But certainly in the Old Testament, under the law of Moses, which we're not under anymore, it's a great principle, I think, that we can use to apply to our systematic giving as a beginning point. A lot of folks like to do that. A lot of churches teach tithing.

I think that's fine. You know, if you want to apply the principle of the tithe to a business, you do it a little differently than you do with your personal income, because when we look at our personal income, our increase, which is what the tithe is based on, is anything we receive. I would say it's wages, it's gifts, it's, you know, an inheritance. That's all your increase. Not so with a business. You've got expenses.

You don't really have a true increase until you recognize your profit. So what I would do with a rental property is I would say, okay, you take maybe a scheduled period of time every year. Maybe it's once a year when you pay your taxes. And you say, okay, I got all this rental income, but then I paid all the expenses.

I had debt service, and in your parents' case, that includes the money they're paying themselves back with. I had marketing expense to get a renter in there. I had property taxes and insurance.

I had to put a new roof on. At the end of the year, I had, you know, X dollars in profit over and above all of the expenses. That's your increase. And so if then you wanted to tithe on that as a business, which is what a rental property is, it's just a sole proprietor business, then you would write a check and make a gift.

Does that make sense? Thank you. You're welcome. Hey, Tina, God bless you. Thanks for walking alongside your parents during this season of life. I know they're grateful. All right, Guy, you've been incredibly patient there in Missouri. How can I help you, sir? Thank you very much for your service.

I really appreciate your heart. Currently, we have no money in the stock market, so I just want to tell you that up front. But I'm sure everyone has seen the commercials that one particular company says that they only do better when their clients do better. So do they make any money off of you if your investments don't do better? Yes, they do.

So here's the key to that. Most fee based money managers that charge and they would typically charge for active money management a percentage of the assets under management. What they do is oftentimes they won't have commissions, so they don't earn a commission on a trade like a percentage of a purchase like a load mutual fund.

They use no load mutual funds or they buy individual stocks. So they're not earning commissions, but they're getting a percent of the assets under management. So when they say we do better, when you do better, well, one and a half percent of one hundred and fifty thousand is more than one and a half percent of one hundred thousand. So if you gave them one hundred and they grow it to one fifty, you've done better and they're going to do better because they're getting a percentage of that bigger amount. But let's say your hundred goes to seventy five. Well, they're still going to get paid. They're just going to get one and a half percent of seventy five thousand. So it's not keep in mind, it's not we don't get paid unless you make money.

No, it's we do better when you do better, which is a good thing. I mean, I'm a fan of a fee based money management where you'd work your whole life to build up a nest egg. You have a money manager who's focused on, you know, helping you manage that money. And they're active and they're incented to protect it and make it grow.

I would use an adviser who's a fiduciary who's required by law to put your interests above their own. And yes, they get paid every quarter, no matter whether you're making money or losing money, but they are going to get more as your account grows. Does that make sense? Yes, that's kind of kind of what I thought. But I better find out.

OK. All right, guy, we appreciate your call today. I do think as you think about getting started in investing, it is absolutely worthwhile to have an adviser who's not emotional, who can use a kind of a rules based process, who can help you think about what types of asset classes to use. And then obviously the individual investments in those asset classes help you minimize risk, not take unnecessary risk, meaning being more risky than you need to be based on your goals and your season of life and your risk tolerance. And this is a whole new area of investing that's really just exploding. They could even help you align your values to your investments.

If that was a conviction of yours, eliminating companies, paring back the universe of investments to eliminate companies that are misaligned with your values and even screening in companies that are intentionally or specifically aligned with your values, creating a kingdom impact, promoting human flourishing. There's a mutual fund, Eventide, one of the great faith based fund families that they're doing some great work in investing in solar, but they're only doing it with companies that have eliminated human slavery in the solar supply chain because it's very common in certain parts of the world for the solar industry to use slave labor. And they're saying, no, we're not going to invest in any company that's doing that. Well, in deploying your capital, they're actually promoting human flourishing, which is great.

So why not take advantage of that if you can? So I think for all of those reasons, there's really a really good case to use an advisor when it comes to investing. And if you listen to this program, you know, we promote the Certified Kingdom Advisor designation, those advisors that have achieved the only industry accepted designation around biblically wise professional financial advice. And you can find a CKA in your area at faithfi.com. Hey, thanks for your call guy. Let's head to New Jersey. Michael, how can I help you, sir?

Thank you so much for the show and what you all do. I had a question on claiming spousal versus several Social Security versus claiming on your own record. So I'm 61.

My wife is 65. So I'm not going to claim Social Security until probably 70 or at least 67. So she can't get the spousal benefit until I have claimed. My question is, if she can claim on her own earnings record, if she does that now, does that permanently I know will permanently reduce her own, but will that permanently also reduce what she would get from spousal benefit? It does not.

No. So whichever one you start taking does lock in that reduction. So you want to be very careful about taking that early. And, you know, I think there's a good case to be made for delaying that as long as possible to get that guaranteed 8% increase, especially if you're in good health. But you do have the option at any time to switch over to, you know, if you started with the spousal benefit, and then you let your own benefit grow and then you could switch over because you are entitled to take the higher of either amount at any time and vice versa. So if your spousal benefit up to 50% of your spouse's benefit is higher than your own benefit based on your own work record, you could wait and switch to that at full retirement age and get the full amount of that. So you are going to lock it in whenever you take it, but that doesn't lock in the other one, if that makes sense. Okay, so she starts taking her own benefit early. That's not going to affect what she would ultimately get from my spousal benefit. That is correct. She could delay on that and switch over to it, and if 50% of your benefit later is more than the benefit she's locking in now, then she could switch to that at any point.

Always a good idea to make an appointment with SSA and just go over your own record to confirm it, but that's how it works. We'll be right back. You know, we think programs like the one you're listening to right now make a big difference in people's lives, and that's why we're asking you as a listener to join us in our mission to create Christ-centered programming and share Jesus boldly with the world. You can see our impact and support our work when you visit fallshare.org.

Check it out, fallshare.org. Thank you. We're so glad you've joined us for Faith and Finance Live today.

Here in our final segment, let me remind you not to call in because we're not live today, but we'd love for you to stick around and enjoy the rest of the program. This is where we apply the wisdom from God's Word to your financial decisions and choices, looking to Scripture, living in light of eternity, holding God's money loosely, giving it generously, and also enjoying what we have. Part of what God tells us in His Word is that we're to enjoy what He's given us within the proper context, as long as we're not loving money and pursuing money as an end and allowing our hearts to be captivated by the things that money can buy. As long as God is our true treasure and our money is being used to accomplish God's purposes, well, it's at that point that we can enjoy what God has given us because we're now in a proper place in terms of viewing money, seeing it as a way to be investing in the eternal, the life that is to come, but also enjoying it now, building memories with our families and enjoying the blessing that comes from what God has entrusted to us.

You see, when we put it in its proper place, well, everything changes at that point. Hey, before we go back to the phones, let me address a topic that we talk about a lot here on this program, and it's answering the question, how much is enough? You know, one of my mentors, Ron Blue, the popular author and teacher on biblical personal finance, says that every Christian needs to answer three questions as it relates to their money. The first is, who owns it? The second is, how much is enough? And the third is, is the next steward chosen and prepared? And that last part is critical. And prepared means that they're ready to receive that. Think, you know, your children, maybe even adult children, what would that money do to their spiritual life?

Are they pursuing a lifestyle counter to God's word, and would a half a million dollars dropped in their laps accelerate that? So those are three key questions. Well, how do we answer that second one? How much is enough? Well, first, we need to understand the difference between needs and wants. Believers in Christ serve a God who promises to meet and to supply our basic needs. So we need to understand that. That means we need to put Jesus first, and we will always have enough of what we need to live, and then we can trust God to know what that is. I think where people often get confused is in the matter of wants and desires, the things that are not essential for survival.

How much is enough of those? Well, that's a matter of priority, right? God has to be first. He either exists and is sovereign, or he doesn't exist and you're on your own. Once you commit to following Christ, you admit that God is sovereign and that changes everything. And placing the Lord first means acknowledging his ownership of everything. And then as the Holy Spirit works in your heart, your motivation to accumulate gradually changes by the grace of God, from self-centered to God-centered. And with Jesus as the Lord of your life, your idea of enough begins to change too, because now you're trusting God to meet your needs, and your desires start to line up with what God wants. You'll begin to desire less of worldly things. All this is a part of a miraculous heart change that happens when God gets a hold of you. So while the worldly person is asking, how can I get more? The Christian starts asking, how can I serve more with what God has provided?

So think about that today as you consider this idea of enough and try to counteract the messages that we get in this culture. All right, let's head to the phones. We're going to Arkansas next. Bruce is a first time caller. Go ahead, sir. Yeah, man.

Thanks for taking the call. I was wondering if you know of any kind of programs for like folks who don't make a whole lot of income? I'm thinking, you know, because I've heard about these programs, somebody that wants to invest 15, 20, 25, 50 bucks a month.

And I looked at some of them, and some of them looked a little bit snakey, you know, and I just wonder if you knew anything about that, and if there's any of those that might even like reflect Christian values. Yeah, interesting. So you're looking to put away a systematic amount, you want to, you know, go ahead and invest it in, you know, 10 bucks, let's say. So you've got a time horizon of 10 years or more. But you know, you're talking, you know, a minimal amount every month or every paycheck of somewhere between 10 and $25.

Do I have that right? Yeah, yeah, maybe a little bit more. But, you know, I just don't want to do with something like Vanguard or some other nonsense.

Yeah, no, I hear you. So here's what I would probably do. I'd probably invest directly in one of the faith based investing mutual funds. So for instance, Eventide, you can look it up online, Eventide Asset Management, you can open an account and invest directly into the Eventide Gilead fund or the Eventide Health and Life Sciences fund. And you could put in that kind of systematic investment. And you would know that it's faith based. You could look at Timothy Plan, you could look at Crossmark Global, One Ascent, you know, and these are faith based investing funds that are going to have a stated purpose to avoid companies that are misaligned with Christian values, and to specifically align the investments with companies that are promoting human flourishing and even having a kingdom impact.

So I would probably head to our website, Bruce, if you go to faithfi.com and click on the show, you could see a listing among our underwriters of a lot of the most well known and premier faith based investing mutual fund families in the country. And, you know, you could just, you know, go directly to them, open an account, and then just start, you know, systematically adding, you know, whatever's available every month. And you'd have the objective to be long term appreciation.

So you'd want to take a long view with it. But the nice thing is you would know that you're with a fund family that's going to ensure that, you know, you're aligned with your values in terms of the companies they're deploying that capital in. Hey, that sounds great. And they'll take minimum amounts like 20, 25, 30 bucks per month. Yeah, they have different classifications of shares that have different minimums. So you may need to just kind of sock it away in savings until you get to, you know, an initial minimum investment. And you'll want to check with each of them on their minimums.

But I'm confident you'll find one that, you know, allows you to start at the level you're describing. All right, buddy. Well, I appreciate that. And God bless you. All right, Bruce, thanks for being on the program today, my friend.

God bless you as well. You know, one of the things we need is we need a robo advisor for faith based investing. So robo advisor may be a new term to you. But essentially, a robo advisor is an automated solution using algorithms based on questions you answer to build a low cost diversified portfolio.

But the great thing about the robo is essentially there's no minimums, and they're very low in fees. So it's almost an indexed approach to investing, but with a very small dollar amount. Well, those exist with the major indexes, the S&P 500s and the Russell 1000 and the Dow 30 and the, you know, the, you know, aggregate bond indexes.

The problem is, if you want to be aligned with your values, you're probably not going to want to invest in all 500 of the S&P 500 stocks, I can guarantee you won't. And so what we need is a robo solution that is for someone who's just starting out, but where it's only using faith based investing fund options that are values aligned for those investors that want to honor their convictions in that area. I can tell you I know of a couple that are in the works. Now, we don't have any of those yet, but we'll certainly keep you posted. And when they start to roll out, you'll be the first to hear about it here. Hopefully come sooner than later. All right, let's head back to the phones to Texas. Hi, Will, also a first time caller.

Go ahead. Yeah, I have a question. I have a question on the I bonds where if we cash them in before five years, we lose very much interest. Is that the last three months that you had it in there? Say if I had it in there 12 months, 15 months, it would just be those last three months of interest that I would lose not some average number. That's exactly right. It'd be the last three months of interest would be subtracted from the amount that's credited at redemption.

Okay, that's what I was wondering. I mean, if it drops to four point something now, I might be better off to leave it in there another three months. I don't lose three months of a six plus percent interest.

Yeah, I think that's a good idea. I mean, we're already at four point three percent now, but you get the rate that was prevailing when you started when you drop the money in, you get that for a full six months, even if you don't start on the day that they release that rate and then you switch to the next rate for a full six months. So you're right, even though it's already at four point three, you may still be at the higher rate. And therefore, if you wait until it tips over into the next six month cycle and give it three months, then you would have less of an impact on that withdrawal. Okay, that's perfect.

Thank you for the advice. All right, well, we appreciate your call today. Well, folks, we covered a lot of ground today. And just a moment ago, I was talking about how much is enough. Let me finish on that topic.

You know, here's the reality. As we're thinking about defining enough for each of us, if you're a Christ follower, your job is to find out what God wants you to do with the financial resources entrusted to you. So here's some ideas.

Maybe you're a teenager. God may be pointing you toward college and a career where you can influence others for the kingdom. That could mean anything from ministry to teaching, automotive repair to medicine. Put your resources in his hands and follow his call. If you're a mom or dad, God has given you unique opportunities to raise your children and the respect and knowledge of the Lord. Teach them how to hold their possessions lightly and demonstrate godly financial principles. If you're a worker, and we all are, do it with all your heart as though you're working for the Lord. That's what scripture says.

Trust him to provide for you and your family. If you're approaching retirement, ask the Lord how he would use you and your resources to advance the kingdom and serve those around you in this amazing season of life where you have the most to give in terms of wisdom and experience. Following Christ is the way to peace, to joy, to the abundant life. So when we ask how much is enough, we're actually asking the wrong question. For believers, the real question is, who is enough? No matter what your financial situation is, you can ask God to fill you with the Holy Spirit and change your desire for accumulation.

Well folks, that's going to do it for us today. So thankful that you stopped by as we together in community try to find God's heart for managing his money. You know, when we think about our role as steward, it's a high calling. We're money managers for the King of Kings.

Well, it doesn't get any bigger than that. So we want to be found faithful and we want to go back to his word so we understand how to go about that. You know, we've covered a lot of ground today. And before we wrap up, thank you to my amazing broadcast team. Thank you for being here as well.

Faith and Finance Live is a partnership between Moody Radio and Faithfi. I hope you have a great rest of your day and come back and join us next time. We'll see you then.

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