Senior Medical Sharing

Do not cast me off in the studio! Well, Lauren, we've heard about your Senior Share program, and we've wanted to talk to you about it for some time, but before we do that, give us just a quick overview of how cost sharing works at CHM. Sure, I'd be happy to do that. So when we say cost sharing, what we're referring to is Christian Healthcare Ministries is not a health insurance company, but what we do is help people with their medical bills. So the end result to what you get with insurance is similar, it's just the process is a little bit different. So it's a biblical model that we think works even better than insurance, and we are member-based, so you join the ministry, you have medical bills, you submit them to us. We work with your healthcare providers, get discounts on those bills, and then we do what we call sharing the bills, where we remit the payment back to you, the member, and you pay your healthcare providers. And we have been in existence for more than 40 years and have shared nearly 10 billion, billion with a B, dollars in medical bills.

Absolutely incredible. Folks, it's a values-based solution, you don't have the network restrictions, you can enroll any time, it's an alternative to health insurance that's faith-based. Now, the saving opportunities you've offered, Lauren, have been great all along, but you all have made them even better for seniors, so take a moment and tell us about Senior Share.

Yeah, I'd be glad to do that. Senior Share is our program for those who are 65 years old and older, and what you can do with Senior Share is, you know, you'll have to be on Medicare Parts A and B, or have a Medicare Advantage plan, but CHM works with insurance to help pick up the costs of what the insurance does not pay. So we want to make sure that, you know, if you're 65 or over, we don't want you to get stuck with unpaid medical bills, you know, once Medicare is done paying for what they pay.

Yeah. So how does this then affect current CHM members and also, Lauren, folks who might consider becoming a member? Yeah, so for those who are already members, you know, you can continue your membership uninterrupted with Senior Share.

It's a really easy transition once you turn 65. And if you're not a CHM member, you know, you just need to make sure you have Medicare A and B or the Medicare Advantage plan, and then you get the benefits of our BEST program, which is our gold program, at a discounted monthly price of $115. So what does this sharing eligibility look like? Well, what we do is share medical incidents totaling above $500. So as long as your medical bills are eligible, according to our guidelines, anything over $500, you can send that over to us. And we also have an additional program called CHM Plus, which you can add to Senior Share. It's $22 per person. So if there's two of you, there's $44 a month. And what this does is it enables us to share healthcare expenses for you that total more than $125,000 per illness.

Yeah, and that goes to an unlimited amount, I know, as well. Now open enrollment starts next week, Lauren, a lot of folks making healthcare decisions right now, but that's never an issue when it comes to becoming a member of CHM, right? Right, that's correct. So there are some limitations as far as pre-existing conditions are concerned, but you can enroll in CHM anytime throughout the year with no waiting period. All right, and this is really, as you said at the beginning, a biblical solution based on Galatians 6-2, right?

Yes, yep. It's always the right time to enroll here at CHM if you are looking for a biblical solution to your healthcare costs. Very good. Well, we're out of time, but Lauren, we're grateful for our partnership with Christian Healthcare Ministries, and thanks for stopping by. Thank you so much for having me on.

They've shared nearly $10 billion, incredible. You can find out more about this terrific medical cost sharing ministry at chministries.org. That's chministries.org. We'll be right back. The opinions offered during this program represent the personal or professional opinions of the participants given for informational purposes only.

Any information provided is not intended to replace advice from a financial, medical, legal or other professional who understands your specific situation. Well, I'm delighted you've joined us today for Faith and Finance Live. I'm Rob West. It's that time in the program to take your calls and questions. I'm sure there's something you're wrestling with financially. We want to help you process that through the lens of Scripture, applying God's wisdom to your financial decisions and choices.

So what are you thinking about today? Give us a call. 800-525-7000.

That's right. We've got lines open. 800-525-7000.

Let's start in Clark's Summit, Pennsylvania. Bob, you're next to the program, sir. Go ahead. Well, thank you, first of all, for taking my call. The reason why I'm calling is my wife and I, we normally make our RMDs as QCDs, qualified distributions, and if you recall, probably somewhere around 2011, the Congress did not make a decision until very late in December to make those as qualified distribution.

Unfortunately, we had already taken our RMD and therefore could not make that. Then in 2020, the federal government allowed us to waive our distributions, and of course that built up the funds even greater, which was thankful for that, and I was wondering, is there any talk or is there anything that you may have heard where the government may be allowing us to waive our distributions for 2023 as a result of the poor economy? Yeah, it's a good question, Bob, and I certainly understand why you're asking.

You're exactly right. We certainly did have the required minimum distributions from IRAs and 401Ks waived during COVID. I've not heard of any talk of that.

I certainly wouldn't expect that. You never know what Congress might do at the last minute, but I wouldn't really see a basis for that at this point. I mean, the economy isn't even technically in a recession right now. Now, that's just based on the technical definition of two negative quarters of GDP growth.

We haven't even had the first. We are, I realize, grappling with high inflation and high interest rates. That's putting the squeeze on the average American family, so I'm not minimizing that.

I'm just saying in terms of the technical definition of a recession, we're not there, despite the fact that most economists believe we will have a technical recession next year, but even that's uncertain. I wouldn't expect that. I've certainly not heard any talk of it, so I would just assume that you're going to have to take that required minimum distribution.

Now, one option that we do talk about a lot on this program that I think is a great tool you can use is something called a qualified charitable distribution, and the idea there is related to RMDs, if there's an amount you were planning to give away this year, let's say to your church or maybe some end of year giving to a charity or a favorite ministry of yours, and you were going to do that out of after tax savings or your checking account, one option would be you don't give it out of your savings or checking, and you give it straight from the IRA, and essentially that's replacing the money you would have given away out of your after tax savings account, and therefore it's a way to get that money, so to speak, out of that IRA, satisfy the RMD, but do giving you were already planning to do and not recognizing it as income for your adjusted gross income. Does that make sense? Oh, yes. I'm aware of that.

Yes, I'm aware of that, and that's what we do normally, and God has provided and blessed us in a very powerful way, and we're able to do that, and we're very thankful for that. That's great. Great. Glad to hear it. So I think to answer your question, no, I'm not aware of any talk about suspending the RMD for 2023.

I wouldn't be counting on it, but at the end of the day, you and I don't know what's going to happen with Congress at any given moment, but I appreciate you asking the question, sir, and thanks for calling in today there from Clark Summit. We appreciate it. 800-525-7000, we've got some lines open to Arlington Heights, Illinois. Phyllis, go ahead.

Hi, Rob. Thank you for taking my call. I recently inherited some money, and my financial advisor is saying that I should not put all my eggs in one basket with being involved in mutual funds like we have been in the past, and she's recommending that I go into this fee-based account where you have the flexibility of buying and trading stocks without having to pay fees, as well as, she said, having control over how much you would get taxed annually, but there is also a 1 percent fee on the balance of your account annually that they would be charging. So I'm not really comfortable with that, but I don't know enough about is that the way we are entering retirement, so a capital gains of, you know, $40,000 could be a huge tax bill, according to my financial advisor, so I'm calling to you to see.

I appreciate that. I'm a little not totally tracking with you, so let me try to clarify just a bit, if you don't mind. The $375,000, where is it today? Is it in a 401k or something? No, it's an inheritance. Oh, an inheritance.

Okay, got it. So you're receiving it in the form of what? In the form of stocks and bonds? Yes, my mother's trust, yeah, and we would make some changes to my portion of it if I stayed with her. Okay, and when did you receive the inheritance?

When did your mom pass away? In June of this year, the distribution is just now taking place. Okay, and so why would there be a capital gain? Well, she wants to, like, take the money out of how my mother had it invested and invested differently for me in my retirement. Okay, yeah.

Well, I'm on board with that. I like the idea that if you don't have the time and the skills to invest this money yourself, you certainly could do that. But I think for most folks, this is a significant sum of money, nearly $400,000. You probably are busy doing whatever God's called you to do, and having a professional in the same way we'd hire an attorney to design a will or a trust, and we'd hire a real estate professional to sell our house, I think hiring an investment advisor to manage this portfolio makes a lot of sense. Now, you received that as an inheritance, and therefore the cost basis was stepped up to the date of death.

So unless those stocks and bonds have moved significantly up higher, which with this market, I doubt it, but unless they moved up significantly since June, you probably don't have much in the way of capital gains. So you'd be free to reposition this portfolio however you want. And so I think at that point, then having an advisor who can help you take a step back and understand your values and goals, and what are you trying to accomplish, and what income needs do you have, and how much risk are you willing to take, and how are you doing toward your ability to have something to supplement or provide for your income in retirement, and then building a portfolio that supports that to then manage this money in the stock market with a stock and bond portfolio, maybe an allocation of precious metals, that makes sense to me. And I like the idea of that advisor charging you a fee based on the assets that are management, and 1% of the assets would be very typical. So I don't have any issue with that whatsoever, but I want to make sure that covers what it is you're concerned about.

I know there was the fee portion, we could talk about that, but I want to see if there's anything else. Let's do this. I've got to take a break, but I want to finish this question on the other side.

So you stay right there, and we'll pick it up just after the break. We'll be right back on Faith and Finance Live. Great to have you with us today on Faith and Finance Live. Just before the break, we were talking to Phyllis.

She was not able to hold, but I think when it comes to managing a significant amount of wealth, and certainly $375,000 would qualify as a significant amount of wealth, it's always a good idea to have a financial advisor weigh in who can really help go through that discovery process. And one piece I didn't mention is more and more believers want their values reflected in their investment decisions based on their own conscience and convictions. That might mean avoiding certain companies that conflict with their values.

It might be embracing other companies, perhaps even engaging and expressing their values through shareholder advocacy. So there's just a whole host of opportunities there, and I think bringing a skilled professional to the table is really key. If you're looking for an advisor who shares your values, perhaps two or three to interview, head to our website, faithfi.com, that's faithfi.com, and just click Find a CKA. All right, let's head back to the phones. By the way, we do have some lines open today for your financial questions. 800-525-7000 is the number to call. That's 800-525-7000.

You'll get through if you call right now. Let's head to Florida. Susan is driving. Susan, you be careful. But how can I help you? Hi.

Good afternoon. Yes. We have a mortgage. It's an adjustable rate. I just wanted to know what's the wisest thing to do right now if we have to refinance, or what can we do about it? Yeah.

Yeah, very good. Well, so typically, you know, at least historically before the last couple of years, we would have advised people against an adjustable rate mortgage simply because we had rates that were just so low, I mean, in the twos and threes. That's not the case now. Of course, we just yesterday crossed over to 8% now for the average 30-year mortgage. And so although over the last 100 years, that's not too bad, just given the last couple of decades, it's obviously significantly higher, you know, almost three times higher than where we've been. So you're actually in a decent spot right now because we think we're close to the top end of these mortgage rates. You know, I would think, although it certainly could continue to tick up, we're probably not going much higher than we are now. And if you were to refinance now and try to lock it in at a fixed rate, well, you'd take this adjustable rate, which has the ability to go back down, and you'd lock it in at these high, high interest rates, again, compared to the last 20 years. So I'd probably stick with what you have and look to potentially refinance when rates are, you know, half of what they are today or less, which is probably one to two years down the road. I think we're probably going to end the year next year somewhere in the fives. That's at least the best estimate from economists who think about this kind of stuff, although it could be higher than that in that, you know, five handle could get pushed out into 2025.

A lot of it just depends on how quickly we see the recession come on, how quickly this economy slows, and therefore inflation comes down, resulting in the Fed, Federal Reserve feeling like they can drop interest rates. So I think you should sit tight right now. I realize that that that mortgage payment has been going up with this adjustable rate. You're probably feeling the squeeze on that.

But there's really not another alternative because refinancing isn't going to solve anything. Does that make sense? Yes. Thank you so much. All right, Susan, thanks for your call today. We appreciate you checking in with us. Eight hundred five two five seven thousand. We've got some lines open today for any financial question, whether it's living your lifestyle, giving that what you give to to the Lord, owing that what you pay for debt and taxes or growing your short term and long term savings and investments. Whatever you're struggling with today, we'd love to hear from you.

Eight hundred five two five seven thousand. Let's head to Chattanooga. Hi, Mary Ann.

Go right ahead. Hey, Rob, thank you for taking my call. Yes, I. My question is, I am sixty six and this summer moved out of our home and into a rental sold our home. And so I'm really liking renting and not having the responsibility of home ownership, but wondering how if you have like a benchmark for when it's wise to go ahead and step back in to home ownership or to continue renting. Yeah.

Yeah, I appreciate that. If you were to buy a home, would you have the ability to do that with, you know, for cash? Do you have quite a bit of money on the sideline from your previous home sale or would it require a pretty substantial mortgage? No, I think I would be able to do it without being able to buy it. OK. You'd be able to buy for cash.

Yeah. So then I think it comes down to, you know, the downside of renting is, you know, your rents are high right now because interest rates are high and mortgages are high. And so the people that own those properties that are renting them to you, they've got to, you know, service their own debt. And because of a shortage, housing shortage in this country, it's pushed everything up. Home prices, despite the interest rates and rental prices. So, you know, you're paying a good bit for rent right now and you're not getting anything for it in the sense that you're not building any equity. And so the counter argument to that is, well, you know, given that home prices are continuing to appreciate, wouldn't it be great for you to have a home that you own and, you know, you could continue to see that appreciate over time. Now, you also, depends on what you're doing with that money, you know, the money that you would have to use to buy a house, if you have that invested somewhere, you're doing something else with it, it's growing as well.

And so you could compare, you know, what we might expect in terms of the appreciation of a home you might buy as an asset versus the other asset classes that you have this money in right now, whether that's a banking product like a CD or a bond or a stock or a combination of those. So you can look at it from the financial standpoint, then you have to look at the non-financial side and just say, you know, do you want to own something that you control, you know, whereas when you're renting, you're a little bit at the mercy of your landlord. What if they decide to sell it and that person doesn't want to rent it anymore, you know, or something breaks and, you know, they're not as responsive as you might like. So there's a little bit of a loss of control there when you're renting. But then on the flip side, there's this idea that, you know, you don't have as much upkeep. You're not responsible for certain things. And when something breaks, it's not your responsibility to fix it, even though you're a little bit at their mercy.

So I think you just have to weigh all these things, the financial and the non-financial side, and then decide which is best suited for you. And I don't think there's a right or wrong answer here, Mary Ann. Let's do this. We're going to take a break, but you and I can talk off the air, we'll be right back. Hey, we're so glad to have you with us today on Faith and Finance Live.

I'm Rob West. This is the program where we want to help you manage God's money. Be that wise and faithful steward we know you want to be.

It's not that we have all the answers, it's that we want to help you make decisions in light of biblical wisdom, a biblical worldview. That's what we do each day on this program, and I've got some lines open. They'll probably fill up quickly, but if you have a question today, financially speaking, call right now, 800-525-7000. Hey, before we head to Indiana and talk to Miriam, let me remind you, Faith and Finance Live is listener supported. That just simply means we do what we do on the air every day as a direct result of your financial support. So if you found some value in this program, maybe you listen regularly or you've been able to apply something you learned, and you want to invest back in the ministry to help other stewards become wise and faithful, well, we'd love for you to give a gift of any amount, and we mean that, when you head to our website, faithfi.com, that's faithfi.com, and just click the give button. And especially here in the fourth quarter of the year as we head toward our calendar year end, this is a really important time for us with regard to listener giving. So again, you can give to the ministry when you head to faithfi.com, faithfi.com, just click give.

Thanks in advance. All right, all the lines are full now, so I better get back to the phones. Indiana is where we're going next, Miriam, go right ahead.

Yes, hi. We came into some money, about $25,000, and we put $5,000 back into a safe, and we spent about $5,000 on just some silver, but I'm really bad about, I know it doesn't seem like it's not $375,000, but still $50,000 for us is a lot, so just trying to figure out what to do with that so I'm not nickel and diming it away. Yeah, I like that a lot. So in terms of an emergency fund, and that's just this name that we give to the fund that you would keep in a savings account separate from your operating account, which is typically a checking account, we usually use a rule of thumb there of three to six months expenses. You'll hear a lot of advisors and personal finance folks talk about that three to six months worth of expenses, and the idea behind that is just that if you had an interruption in income, you lost a job, you had a major expense come out of left field, not something that you should have planned for like, hey, we know the tires are going to wear out eventually in the car, we need to have a fund, and we know the house is going to need some maintenance, but something truly unexpected. That's where that emergency fund comes in. So what would that be? How much are you all spending roughly on a monthly basis, do you know? Goodness, I would probably say around between $3,000 and $4,000 a month. Okay, so let's say it's $4,000, so you'd be talking somewhere between $12,000 and $24,000, so basically if you've got $15,000 plus you said you had $5,000 in cash, I wouldn't count the $5,000 in silver because that's illiquid, but between the $5,000 in cash and the $15,000, you're well on your way to that six months, so I'd take whatever portion you want to really call your emergency fund and I'd put it into an online savings account with one of the online banks.

You can find out who has the best rates right now at bankrate.com, but let's say you're getting 4.5% on that, which is, you know, something, and you would move it into that savings account, but you'd link that savings account back to your checking account, so that way if you needed that money, you had an unexpected expense come up within one to two days through the ACH transfer, which will be free, you can move that money back into your checking and it's available, but the key is it's not sitting in that checking account where you write your, you know, cover your monthly bills, and that way you're less inclined to use it because it's kind of socked away for a rainy day. Does that make sense? It does, yes, I appreciate that. Thank you very much. Okay, you're welcome. Thanks for calling today.

We appreciate it. 800-525-7000, I've got just two lines open to Cleveland we go. Hi, Andrew, go ahead. Hi, Rob, how are you? I'm doing great, thanks.

Great. Real quick, two quick questions. First question, in my full retirement age, I've started getting my Social Security this year and I'm continuing working full-time and I plan on working at least another year or so full-time and just wanted to know if the money that's taken out of my check for Social Security, does that, will that affect my future Social Security as far as the increase goes, or I only get the COLA? Yeah, so you've already started taking it, you are collecting, is that right?

Yes. Okay, yeah, so once you start taking it, the only two ways you can see an increase in that Social Security, one is the COLA, as you said, the cost of living adjustment, the second is continuing to work, exactly what you're doing. Now, the way your continued work would affect you in terms of increasing, it can't drop it, but it can increase it, is if your, well, your benefits are based on what's called your high 35. So your highest 35 years of contributions into the system is what determines what your Social Security benefit is, up to a limit. So if by you continuing to work, and let's say the amount you're earning right now and the amount of FICA taxes you're paying in, let's say that eclipses one of the highest 35 years from your, you know, working years, then it would replace that one that was lower, and that would result in you having an increase in your benefits. So you continuing to work does have the potential, you know, to replace one of those high 35 and therefore increase that benefit over and above the COLA. Okay, great.

That's what I was wondering. And I believe it would, because I know going back to 35, you know, I wasn't making much I'm making. Yeah, exactly.

Yeah, that's the typical approach, you know, when you were flipping burgers back in the day, you probably weren't making a whole lot. And so, you know, maybe now you're, you're making a bit more so exactly right. Great.

Thank you. And now how about when does that go? I mean, how long does it take for that to kick in, you know, once they, you know, replace one of those 35 years?

Yeah, they would, they would look at that annually. Annually. Okay. Okay. Great. Yep. And once we're real quick, another question, I put some money on my 401k plan that I'm still putting into with my job, I'm currently working with, I left some in there, but I pulled out a couple hundred thousand out of the year.

And that was back in May. And I got a financial guy kind of handling for me and, you know, invested in whatever. And since May, I got a statement in September and I'm, I'm down about, about 200.

I mean, I mean, I'm not putting into her. I'm down about, about 10. And I was just wondering, is that is that that a lot? I mean, since May from now, you know, a couple couple 152, I think it's like 250 altogether is what I got him working with. And I just know I'm just down about 10,000 since May.

And I was like, man, I could have probably just put a high yield savings account in and did better than that. Oh, I don't know. I'm just saying. Yeah.

Yeah. On a quarter of a million, you being down 10% is only 4%. And I realized 10,000 is not an insignificant sum of money, but it happens to be a period where it's just a really challenging environment for both stocks and bonds.

So I don't think you can really evaluate the performance based on this window of time. Keep in mind when we're investing, we invest based on a long time horizon and we build that portfolio based on goals and objectives and a risk tolerance. But we really should always have a minimum of 10 years. And the good news is even when you get to retirement, let's say the Lord Terry's, I mean, life expectancy for a 65 year old male is still another almost 20 years.

And a lot of folks are living a lot more than that. So even when you retire, you have a 20 or 30 year time horizon, and that's the way to think about investing. That's how I would measure the performance of your advisor, not on a very small window of time, especially in a challenging stock market and bond market like we've been in.

So I would say as long as your allocation is right, you have a good relationship with your advisor. I'd stay the course, keep the long-term perspective and take those short-term movements with a grain of salt. Thanks for your call, Andrew. We'll be right back on Faith and Finance Live. Thanks for joining us today on Faith and Finance Live. I'm Rob West here in our final segment.

We'll get to as many calls as we can. Let's head to Elgin, Illinois. Hi, Terry. Go right ahead.

Hi, Rob. Thanks so much, and thanks again for your ministry. It's wonderful. Well, thank you.

I appreciate that. Yeah. I bought an I-bond, a $10,000 I-bond back in October 22, last year, about a year ago. And rates were high on those, and so I got that. I'm just wondering, is that something I should keep for a few years and keep investing into, add more to that? Or is that something that I should think about getting out of?

Yeah. So you got probably that 6.89% rate for the first six months, and then you're at 4.3 right now. So let's say you got 11.19, would be between the two, obviously. And then if we average that, you're running around 5.6, if you blend the two rates. Now if you pull it out after a year, you're going to give up about three months' worth as a penalty, so about a half a point. And so that's about 1.4%. So let's say you were running 5.5, and we take 1.4 off of that. So you still got about 4.1 even after the penalty, a pretty good rate of return. For those folks who got in the six months prior to you, they got a six months at 9.6.

That was when it was really attractive. But the big question is, where is it going from here? And I think just given the fact, Terry, that the Federal Reserve is so focused on getting inflation under control, we've come from 9%, we're now mid-fours. And basically, Fed Chairman Powell was talking today just about the fact that inflation is still too high, and lower economic growth is likely needed to bring it down, was his basic thought when he was speaking today. And what that just is signaling is, they're not going to lower rates anytime soon. They're going to keep rates up because they are focused on getting inflation down. And as inflation comes down, those I bonds, the I standing for inflation, are going to come down with it. So I think moving forward, you're not going to see really an attractive rate here. I had always said this is probably, the only money you'd want to put into this was money that had a one to three year time horizon on it, because anything more than three years, I think you'd do better in a stock and bond portfolio. And anything less than a year, you'd be better in high yield savings, because you have to keep it in for a year. But I think what you've gotten in this I bond is about all you're going to get.

I think the rate will continue to fall. And so I think this is a good time to pull it out, pay that three month penalty, and look for another place to deploy it. And the good news is, there are places, I mean, you could take that 10,000 and put it in a one year CD right now at 5.6%. So I think there are places to go and given the reasons I just shared, I'd probably think about getting out. I appreciate that because that's, I've heard you speak on the I bonds prior and I just was starting to get that itchy feeling like maybe I should start thinking about moving this somewhere else. So yeah, I greatly appreciate your help on this, Rob. All right, Terry, thanks for calling today and thanks for your kind remarks about the program. I appreciate it. Let's head to Charleston, South Carolina, Renee, go ahead. Hey, I was telling the nice lady that I just started listening to you a week ago.

I've been telling my whole family, I'm a truck driver, so I'm in the truck for 10 to 12 hours every day. And I love your program. Oh, wow.

Oh, thank you, Renee. That's very kind of you. Are you on the road right now? I am. All right. What are you hauling today? Well, I work at the port, so I pulled this port stuff out of the rails, warehouses, that kind of stuff. Okay, great.

Well, hey, I'm so glad you found us and I'm delighted you're listening to Moody radio. How can I help you? Okay.

So my husband passed away about five years ago. All I have is a mobile home, but it's on a property where you rent the lot, you know, you pay a lot rent in the little neighborhood. Yes.

And that's about $6.50 a month. And I feel like I'm just wasting my money. And I didn't know if you thought it would be a good idea to maybe sell the mobile home and invest that money into a piece of land somewhere else because I can pretty much live anywhere, you know? Yeah. And so what would you buy instead? Would you buy raw land or something else?

Just maybe another mobile home on a piece of land and or a house, you know? Yeah. I'm not sure. Okay. Yeah. I mean, I like the idea of you buying something.

I mean, that would obviously give you an asset that could appreciate over time. You know, in terms of the property you have right now, you pay a lot rent, but you own the mobile home on top of it, correct? Yes. I straight up own the home, but because it's on their property, you know, they have a property fee, which is like $6.50 a month. Yeah.

Okay. And do you have the assets, Renee, where you'd be able to buy a piece of property? My credit, as far as my credit, is not good because of the past and medical bills and that type of thing. So I know that if I did that, the interest rate would probably be really bad. Well the rates are already high right now. We just crossed over to 8% and if you've got poor credit from some things that happened in the past, it'd be even higher.

So I think from that standpoint, you might be better off just kind of waiting this one out until maybe you improve your credit a bit and we see interest rates come down before it'd be a good idea to take on a mortgage for a piece of property. Yeah. That's what I was feeling in my gut. So I wanted some confirmation and you did it. You gave it to me. All right.

Well, hey, we did it together. Listen, I appreciate you calling today. Thanks for being so sweet about the program and you call back anytime, Renee, okay? All right. Thank you. God bless you. All right. And you too. That's great. To Elgin, Illinois. Hey, Len, how are you, sir? I am doing well.

Thank you. My question is actually inspired by yesterday's talk about Roth IRAs. My wife and I each have an IRA, regular IRAs of $200,000 each and we've been told by people at 2026 that income tax rates may well change and we're just in the 12% bracket now and we think our income is actually going to increase. We're both retired, but due to waiting for social security until 70, our income is going to increase considerably. So we're thinking about converting our regular IRAs into Roths and paying that tax.

Yeah, I think you're headed in the right direction here. Many of the provisions in the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act that President Trump put in place are scheduled to expire at the end of 25, which is what you're talking about here. And so I think given that, given your low bracket right now, the fact that you said your income might be going up and rates going up with it, I think that makes some sense. Perhaps what I would consider is connecting with a CPA, Len, just to work on the appropriate schedule for how you might do that. Because if you have, you know, let's say you did it all in one year and you all had between the two IRAs, you had $400,000 in income you were recognizing, clearly you'd be in a much higher bracket than 12%. So you just want to work with your CPA to say, you know, what is the appropriate schedule between now and 2025 to convert at least a portion of this money without, you know, unnecessarily pushing it up into a higher bracket or at least, you know, too high of a bracket.

Does that make sense? Yes. When we say the end of 2025, would that give me three years to do this or just two?

Yeah, three tax years. So 23, 24 and 25. Okay. Okay.

Thank you very much. All right, Len. Thanks for your call today. We appreciate it.

Let's head to Washington State. Kevin, go ahead. Hi, sir. How are you today? I'm doing great.

Thank you. Hey, so I sold my house a little over a year ago and I had a piece of property that I sold and I paid cash for a house in Kennewick just about just a little over a year now. And I took some of the money out of my Roth IRA because the other property had to sell for me to be able to pay the whole thing in cash for the new house. And so when that property sold, I was going to take that money and put it back into my Roth, but then the market kind of just tanked. So I stuck all that money into a high-yield savings account along with my emergency fund. I have about $81,000 in there right now. So I plan on putting 40 grand back into my Roth IRA, but my wife and I have to stay in this house for one more year. We want to kind of move to a kind of a bigger house, but be able to pay cash for it. But I would probably have to use some of that retirement money to get the new house just because I don't want a mortgage. What do you think, man?

This is a good idea. Well, I'm having a little bit of a struggle following you here. I mean, so you took the money out of the Roth. You only have 60 days to put that back in. Are you 59 and a half or older? No, no, I am 45 years old, but the lady at Vanguard told me that once a year I could put one, I could basically put it all back in, they give you like, I think it's once every 12 months to put all that money back in there.

No, you've only got 60. You can do what's called a rollover once a year, but when you pull money out, you only have 60 days to put it back in. So what I would do is I'd probably go back to your advisor, either at Fidelity or another advisor and just understand the implications of pulling this money out because if you can always get back your original contributions, there's no penalty or taxes there, but if any portion of what you pulled out was gains and you're not 59 and a half, you're going to have to pay the taxes on it plus a penalty and this money is not able to be put back in after 60 days.

So fortunately, I'm right up against the end of the program, so we're going to have to leave it here, but I'd get some more financial counsel on this from an advisor or a CPA. Kevin, God bless you, my friend. Thanks for calling today. Faith in Finance Live is a partnership between Moody Radio and FaithFi. Thank you to Lynn, Amy, Tahir, and Jim. See you tomorrow.