Invite God into Your Finances

Jesus looked at them about what can happen when you to them?

to consider when we want to borrow. The Lord even told us that in Proverbs 22 7, the rich rule over the poor and the borrower is slave to the lender. Now I want to tell you a story and this one's so important to my life as I watch this couple, Matt and Lisa, who were going to get married a few years ago. Lisa had no debt, but Matt was bringing $50,000 debt into their marriage. But God lit a fire under Matt. He decided, I'm going to trust God with my money and I'll do whatever it takes to get out of this mountain of debt.

In fact, he said, God, I'm going to seek your help on this. And he began to tithe at the same time. Now the math seems kind of weird paying off $50,000 and doing that with only 90% of his income. But Matt took a couple of jobs and moved in with some roommates in a less expensive living situation so he could pay more on the debt. So while Matt and Lisa were engaged, he paid his debt down $8,000 to $42,000. So just as they were married, Lisa took a job at a church in California.

In fact, their honeymoon was driving from Georgia to California. Matt had a master's degree, but listen to this. He took a job at a restaurant, certainly not his dream job, so he could pay down the debt.

He worked there with a great attitude and kept getting promotions. And one day, Matt was talking with the Gods in His Life group who were so moved by watching the way that Matt was going after paying his debt and trusting God that one of them pulled Matt aside and said, Matt, I want to give you $5,000 to help you pay down that debt. And Matt said, there's no way I couldn't do that.

And the guy said, no, here's the thing. God's blessed us and we want to bless you. So this will give us joy. Well, Matt was overwhelmed, went home to tell Lisa, and she began to cry and told him that she was so moved by watching him handle his obligations this way. She had been praying and felt like God had whispered, I'm going to help you.

You're not alone in this. And she had written down the number $10,000 in her journal thinking maybe God was going to send $10,000 to help them. She said, you know, I guess I got the number wrong, but God really was faithful and helped us. So Matt and Lisa shared this story with another couple just for the joy of it. And the couple came back later and said, Matt, we want to give you the other $5,000. So the $10,000 really is what God gave to you. And Matt said, I can't let you do that.

You shouldn't do that. It's not your debt. This is my debt.

And here's what the guy said to him. No, Matt, your debt got paid on the cross. This is just money. And money is just part of living in the kingdom and part of what God gives to us.

And we use it for eternal perspectives. So they gave it to him and the Life Group cheered them on. Matt and Lisa paid off $50,000 worth of debt living in the most expensive place in the world in less than two years.

Incredible. Well, I can't imagine setting the stage any better around this idea that God wants to work in our financial lives if we'll invite him in. So we're going to continue to talk about how you can approach your debt from a biblical perspective and invite God into that journey.

Sharon Epps here today. I'm Rob West. This is Faith and Finance Live. We'll be right back. I'm so thankful to have you with us today on Faith and Finance Live.

I'm Rob West. Joining me today, Sharon Epps, president of Kingdom Advisors, frequent contributor here on the broadcast. And we're talking about living, giving, owing and growing, the four things you can do with money. But specifically today, Sharon's joining us to talk about the owing category. And Sharon, before the break, you were establishing that debt can be dangerous economically, spiritually, even psychologically.

But God wants to work in our financial lives. You shared a powerful story about a young couple that you knew personally, Matt and Lisa, that paid off debt. God was amazing at how he allowed his people to intersect into that story and help them pay it off. And I know there's a bit more to the story, isn't there?

There is, and this might be my favorite part. So Matt and Lisa, as we mentioned, paid off $50,000 of debt in two years on a pastor and a restaurant salary. So let me remind you of that. So once they got freedom from debt, what do you think the next thing they did was? Well, the very next month, they were aware of somebody else in their life group who was also struggling to repay debt. And so Matt and Lisa felt like the best thing they could do is sit down and write a check to that person and give the money away that they were saving from not having to make their debt payments to the other person that was trying to pay their debt. And they were able to say, God loves you, we love you, and we want to help you get out of debt. And so to me, when we invite God into our financial life, and when we surrender our finances to him, you go on a spiritual adventure that nothing else can replace.

I suspect that won't be the last time they do that either, now that they've been the recipient of it. And now they've experienced the joy of doing it themselves, which is just the way God's economy works. Sharon, as you kind of pull back from this story and look at it from the bird's eye view, what are some observations maybe you can pull out of it? Well, you know, one of the first things I want to say is a testimony is a story of someone else's life. And we never want to say that God will work exactly in your life the way he did in their life. But what we can say is the same God is working in your life.

But there are a few observations from their story that I think we can take away. The first one is trust God first with your giving. I think all of this journey started with Matt saying, I'm going to put God first in spite of the fact I have this mountain of debt I'm going to give in obedience and then see what God does. I think the second thing is be faithful with your part.

And sometimes I think we miss on this one. We don't ask ourselves, what am I willing to sacrifice to make sure that I'm able to get out of debt? Matt took two to three jobs to be able to do this. This is a guy that had a master's degree and was serving as a waiter at a restaurant to say, I'm this dedicated to getting out of debt. And then finally, allow others to help when needed.

Now, if you're paying off debt, you may not have a friend that writes a check for $5,000 like they did. But there are ways that people want to come alongside you and help you. They want to pray for you. They want to encourage you.

Perhaps they might even have some good ideas about how you might make some additional money. So as we invite other people into our journey, you never know how God will use them. That's so true. We don't want to be prescriptive about this, but I love the part of the story where even in the midst of paying down a significant debt, he continued giving along the way. And we get questions from folks about that very issue all the time. Should I continue giving when I have obligations that are massive?

How do you respond? Well, I think absolutely so. That's a way we indicate to the Lord that he's still first.

And you may need to prayerfully consider the amount, but I would say in every single case, and I think the example of the widow's mite tells us that Jesus honors when we give what we have. That's well said. All right, Sharon, we love to share principles on this program because we want our listeners to be wise decision makers, and principals help us do that. So what are the principles that really undergird this topic of debt?

Well, if you listen to this program regularly, you've probably heard these, but let's recap them. The first one is when I decide about borrowing, I want to make sure that the economic return is greater than the economic cost. So if I am borrowing for a meal out to eat, for example, and I'm not able to pay that off in the very same month, then I'm at a loss because what I've purchased is definitely not going to give me a return greater than the cost. Second thing is you need to be sure that there's a way to repay the amounts borrowed.

And that way may be from your income, it may be from your savings account, it may be from other assets that you own, but you want to make sure that there's truly a way to repay. And I think one of the cautions that I see is, especially in credit card debt, sometimes in student loan debt, is we borrow with a hope for a way to repay, but we may not have a concrete way. Yeah, or we may be too overly optimistic about our ability to pay. And when we're honest with ourselves, we realize, you know what, we really are just hoping this will play out.

That's so true. Now, the third one maybe should be first, and that is your spouses need to be in agreement. God has given us our spouse to be wise counsel and to help us sort through these issues. And I would encourage you that if your spouse is not in agreement about borrowing, that's an absolute warning sign. It's a red flag.

Don't do it until you've worked through the scenario. And that probably leads me to the last one, and that is, we really only want to borrow when there's no other alternatives. Borrowing may deny God an opportunity to work, and it's amazing what he does sometimes in the waiting as we wait to hear from him. Now, somebody may hear you say that, and I have said that before as well, this may deny God an opportunity to work, and they may say, wait a minute, God can do whatever he wants, and yet what we're saying is, we want to invite God in, and we can try to do it in our own strength.

That's right. We want to rely on his strength, on his answers, and he'll give that to us as we seek counsel first from our spouse and then from others on what we should do. All right. Well, we love a good tool around here at Faithfi, and we have a brand new one to tell folks about, don't we?

We do. I am so excited to announce the new Faithfi debt assessment. In fact, I'm going to go ahead and give you the address right now. It's faithfi.com forward slash debt, and let's talk about what this assessment will do. Basically, you can go on there, fill in the various debts that you have, and it will give you the opportunity to determine how you want to pay it off.

So there's many different methods. In fact, I've heard us talk about, do we pay the highest interest rates first, or do we pay the smallest balance first? This assessment will give you the opportunity to select, and I think this is a good time to say each of us have a different approach with money, and this debt assessment takes that into account. The assessment is available today.

Go to faithfi.com forward slash debt to take it, and I think you'll be amazed at the tool that it gives you and the resources on top of that to learn how to pay off your debt. Yeah, Chad Clark, our executive director, and his development team have been working on this, and I've not seen them this excited about something in a while. They're so thrilled, and they're just loving getting into the numbers and building this tool. They think it's perhaps unlike really anything else that's out there, and I've found, Sharon, that unless you have a plan, you can get stuck in not taking your next step, and perhaps this is what someone needs to get going.

I think sometimes it can feel like a black cloud over us, and part of the way that we break that black cloud is information and a plan. That's so good. Well, folks, if you want to check out this debt assessment tool, you can do it, as Sharon mentioned, at faithfi.com forward slash debt.

That's faithfi.com forward slash debt, and you can take advantage of it today. Now, Sharon, you're going to stick around and answer some questions with me, right? That will be so much fun. All right. Let's do it, folks.

The lines are open. We're ready for you. 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, it's great to have you with us today on Faith and Finance Live. I'm Rob West. It's Sharon Epps here today. It's time for us to answer your calls and questions. We'd love to hear from you today. The calls are coming in quickly, but we have a couple remaining open. So if you have a question today, we'd love to hear from you. 800-525-7000. Again, that's 800-525-7000. Let's dive in.

We're going to begin in Chicago. Hi, Ed. Thanks for calling, sir. Go ahead.

Hi, Rob. Thank you so much. It's a real blessing to hear you as it's been listening to you over the years. Awesome.

Thank you. For us, we're listening to MoneyWise. Faith and Finance is just another extension. That's great. And I'm going to kind of bounce here because it's not so much a debt that I'm concerned about, but it is an issue that many people face.

So I'm interested in what your take is on it. In 2000, I'll tell a quick story. 2019, I got my first cancer diagnosis at 60 years old. I've gotten my second one in 2020.

And this one's requiring a little bit more of a battle, and I just started on some chemotherapy. My wife and I have prayerfully made the decision to retire this year. At the end of the year, I'll retire.

She's going to keep working for a couple years. And I'm curious, and I won't go into specifics unless you just want to know them, but I'm curious what advice you have to people who are in this situation as far as how to handle your finances. We think we've done, you know, by listening to you guys and taking the big biblical principles, which I think the ones for debt just follow down the road.

You have to hear them and act on them. But we've been frugal in saving. We've got about a half a million in our 401Ks. We paid off our home. So we're comfortable with our budget going in. We'll be able to continue to tithe. But where would you tell a person like me to put his money? Would you recommend that I keep it in a 401K?

Would you, or how would it, you know, what's my easiest access? And I guess I'm just looking for an opinion on you as to what your main advice would be to people, and I see them every day, who are in this situation and making these choices. Yeah, I appreciate that, Ed, and I'm sorry to hear about your cancer diagnosis. We'll ask our Faith in Finance live community to be praying for you.

We'll certainly do that as well. So you said you have some funds in a 401K, about how much do you have there? We got a little over $500,000. Okay. And are you on Social Security disability at this point? No, I'm not. I've been working, and I was blessed, you know, and God's been very good to me.

So this is just an extension of his grace. But I was working for 30 years in a fairly good paying position. They went on a business, and for the last about 10 years, I've been working at a company where I took a cut, but I was able to get good insurance and was closer to home. So, you know, I'm going to retire at the end of this year in 2024.

Okay, got it. And then the income that you would have at that point, if you didn't take Social Security, you would just be living solely on your withdrawing from your retirement funds. Is that right? Oh, no, my wife's going to continue to work and my wife has a very, very good job also. As far as the budget goes, our monthly budget covers our bills. Okay, so her income alone would cover your bills? Correct. And I shouldn't say that I probably have to add about $500 to it. Okay, great.

Yeah. So that's good news so that you have the option then, to let your Social Security continue to grow by delaying taking it at this point. Would you recommend that? Well, I would just because, you know, that's going to grow at 8% a year between now and age 70. There will come a time, certainly when she stops working, that you guys will want to take that.

You'll have both hers and yours. But your ability to let that, you know, continue to grow, if you can live modestly and minimize the amount you're pulling from your 401k, I think will make up for it. Now, there's always the question just in terms of longevity and obviously, you know, your health factors into that, you referred to that a moment ago.

So the question would just be given, you know, how severe your health situation is, ultimately, only the Lord knows how long he's got you here. And that's true for any of us. But we like the idea of that check continuing to grow. But you know, you may decide just because of my health status, and I don't want to have to touch my 401k, I want to let that continue to work in the market. And we can talk about how you might manage that in a moment. You know, that may cause you to say, Well, maybe I should start collecting, and at least, you know, have that margin that could come in every month, over and above my bills, you could sock that away. And then obviously, your wife could wait and take hers down the road. So that might be one approach.

I mean, typically, for somebody who's healthy, you know, as long as the Lord tarries, we would typically say just wait, and let's at least get to full retirement age, if not beyond that, because locking in that higher check for the rest of your life has some merit. Does that make sense? Sure. Certainly, certainly. Yeah. Yeah. One of the one of the contributing factors we had was, when I took this reduction in pay at this job, I almost ended up making less when I'm missing time for say, during a chemotherapy round, which has been my seventh round. I almost would make more collecting a Social Security check. So that's the only reason that brought that up.

Yeah, yeah. No, that makes sense, and obviously, that's going to be based on your highest 35 years of earnings. So, you know, the closer you can get to full retirement age, the closer you'll get your full benefit.

But again, you're going to have hers on top of it. Now, in terms of the half a million dollars, that's obviously a significant sum of money, we'd recommend you connect with an advisor. And perhaps when you do so, you could do some more in depth retirement planning, just to look at all the pieces and parts, what insurance do you need in this season of life? What about long term care insurance, you know, and then also this big idea of how or who is going to manage the money. And you know, I think having somebody who's waking up thinking about that, minimizing your risk, making sure you're properly diversified, but still growing that money appropriately, so you can offset inflation is important.

So I think that would be my next step, Ed, connect with a CKA on our website at faithfi.com if you don't already have an advisor, and then just as a part of that, make that decision on when you take Social Security. God bless you, sir. Thanks for calling. We'll be right back. You are listening to faith and finance live and I'm Sharon Epps sitting in the studio today with Rob West.

And we're talking about God and your money. And we want to talk about all things live, give, grow. We have several callers on the line. Marielle, thank you for waiting patiently in Fort Lauderdale. How can we help you today? Yes.

Hi. I retired, I leave my job, and I have like 14,000 in a 401 B. And I want to know if I should put it in a RAP IRA, if I keep it in there, I said I could keep it with a company fund, but I can't put money in there or anything. So I'm thinking I would do a RAP IRA, but I think with RAP IRA, you can only do 7,000, is that correct? All right.

Well, let's talk about a couple of different things, Dorel. I'm glad that you're wanting to make the best use of the retirement funds that you've set aside. And basically, when you leave your employer, you're correct. You can't contribute more money to it.

But our larger concern with that is what you just stated. And that is it's limited to just your company stocks. So the idea that you have to move that money out is a good one. Now, what we want to be sure that you do is that you do what we call a rollover.

And that means that you don't touch the money personally, but that you take that money and have the administrator of your new IRA move that money from your job account into the IRA so that it doesn't become a distribution for you so that you literally can just move it from one to the other and be able to add money to it and invest in other things than just your company. Right. But you can only put $7,000, I think, is that correct?

Well, actually, so there's a couple of things going on here. Sharon's exactly right. With the rollover, you can roll over as much as you want.

That's not a new contribution. Now, once it gets into the IRA, you would have the option to continue to make contributions, and you can only contribute up to the maximum amount. So for 2023, over the age of 50, it is $7,000. You're correct. So you could roll the full, I think you said there was $14,000 in there. You could roll over that full $14,000. That's not subject to the annual contribution limit, but you'd only be able to add to that for this calendar year an additional $7,000. Does that make sense? Yes, that does. So you're suggesting, because I'm 66 now.

Okay. So I could roll everything over. Yeah, that's not subject to any annual contribution limits. If there was $100,000 in that 403b, you could roll all that over to a traditional IRA. So there's no limit there on your rollover, the amount that's currently in your 403b.

What we're talking about is, in terms of that $7,000 you're referring to, that would be new contributions that you would make to the IRA in addition to the amount that you rolled over from your employer. Now, you mentioned a Roth IRA. Let me just also say, Darrell, if you're in a traditional 403b that's pre-tax money, it has to be rolled to a traditional IRA. If you can convert it to a Roth, all of that $14,000 would be added to your taxable income in the year that you do it. So typically at retirement, you'd want to keep it in that tax-deferred environment and therefore roll it to a traditional IRA. Let me suggest our friends at soundmindinvesting.org, that's soundmindinvesting.org. They would be able to help you and even give you some mutual fund suggestions on where to invest that money once you roll it over.

You could perhaps open an account at Fidelity or Schwab. And again, there's a lot of helpful articles and resources they have on their website that can help you navigate all of this. Hey, all the best to you in this next season of life. We're excited for you and call back anytime. Let's go to Indianapolis. Hi, Doug.

Go ahead, sir. Hi, I have a niece who is married with kids and recently called me to say that she's way behind in her bills and she needs $40,000 to get back ahead. She's afraid she'll lose her home. I have taught financial classes before and I've told her what to do and she just refuses to do it. But she's got two little ones that I can't let them be homeless and all that sort of stuff. And I'm not sure what to do.

Should I just forget about her or with in mind with the little ones, two little ones, four and 10, I'm just wondering if I need to step up or what do I need to do? Well, that's a great question. I'm looking forward to sharing, weighing in on this. Let me just ask, though, to clarify. So they're not looking to move. Are they in arrears?

What's the situation currently? Where would the $40,000 go? It would go for the bills. It's credit card bills and a home for the home also. OK, so they're behind $40,000 on their bills. And what's the gap on a monthly basis?

Let's say the $40,000 was gone. Are they spending beyond their means every month? So it's a there's an ongoing problem. Yeah, there's an ongoing problem. Yeah. Yeah. Doug.

Wow. That's a hard one because we love our family members so much. You know, at the top of the hour, we were talking about the dangers of debt and the fact that there's relational and spiritual dangers as well as the economic dangers. And so I think that what I would encourage you to do is weigh carefully the potential impact on loaning her that money, especially it looks like there's not a way to repay. So I think the question I would ask you is, are you prepared to or feeling like the Lord's leading you to give her $40,000? Because I think that loaning it to her in this circumstance would just basically break the relationship because it's clear that there's not at least under the current circumstances a way to repay.

I would encourage you to think creatively. It sounds like you've encouraged her. You've taught her wise biblical counsel.

But could you think creatively about ways to serve those kids without actually making it alone? Because I think that the loan itself might possibly dig her deeper versus solving the real problem. Yeah, I think that's good advice, because we don't want to in our desire to help and love our family members well. We don't want to get in the way of God teaching her a hard lesson, perhaps getting her back on the right track and not bailing her out, which could ultimately just perpetuate the poor decision-making. Although I understand what you're saying about those little ones, and you don't want them to get caught in the middle of this if for some reason they were foreclosed upon or something like that. Is she a single mom or is it a couple?

It's a couple, and they both got good jobs. Could it be that a third party, Doug, would be helpful? Like if we were to be willing to pay to have one of our certified Christian financial counselors come in who's not a family member, it's not you, it's somebody who's coming in to give them the hard truth and reality of the situation, perhaps walk with them if they're willing, and they have to be willing to do the work, but to help them put a budget in place and perhaps then, if you knew there was somebody walking alongside them that they were accountable to, and that person could report back to you at various increments, maybe every 30 days, maybe then you could feel a lot better about making some gifts to the situation because you know they're at least on the right track. Does that make sense?

Yes, it does. Okay. Why don't we try that, and then I'd love for you to report back how it's going along the way so we can perhaps celebrate with you if this is what God uses to perhaps teach them some new skills on wise money management. Stay on the line. Our team's going to get your information, and then we're going to have one of our certified Christian financial counselors call you to get connected to them.

Perhaps you can offer it as a gift from you, and that keeps you kind of involved in the situation, but we're going to cover the cost for it just as part of our ministry to you. Thanks for your call, Doug. Stay on the line. We'll be right back. We're so glad you're along with us today on Faith and Finance Live. Sharon Epps and Rob West with you today answering your calls and questions. Hey, before we head back to the phones, let me remind you here at the end of the year, that's right, October is already almost behind us, it's a really important time for us to hear from you with your financial support. As a listener-supported ministry, we can only do what we do every day to equip wise stewards through your generous gifts. So we'd invite you just to be an investor in the Ministry of Faith and Finance Live, a gift of any amount, and we mean that, would go a long way toward helping us continue this ministry into the new year. And so if you'd consider a gift beyond the giving to your local church and then just head to faithfi.com, that's faithfi.com, and just click the Give button.

You'll see a way to give quickly and securely right there, faithfi.com, click Give and thanks in advance. All right, back to the phones. We're going to round out the broadcast here today with as many questions as we can get to.

Let's go to Chicago. Hi, Donna. Thanks for calling today. Go ahead. Hi, Rob.

Good afternoon. Real quick, I just wanted to find out from you, is it wise to pay off your car note? I took a 72-month loan so that I could manage the monthly car note, and I understand that they are earning interest off of that, but many people, including my family members that I spoke with, say that that's not a good idea. In addition, I also wanted to find out if it's good to pay your extra mortgage at the end of the year. I've been told, I don't know if it's true, that that reduces your mortgage loan, so I just need to get the confirmation for both. Well, Donna, those are great questions, and I'm glad you're thinking about paying off debt.

Let me ask you a couple of things. Do you know your interest rate on both your car loan and your home? My home interest rate is 3%, and I don't remember exactly what the percentage is on my car loan. I think it's probably a little over or if not 10%, I think.

Okay. Well, we definitely recommend that you pay off debt when you can. Do you know how much you have to go towards extra debt payments, whether it's your home or your car? I called and they told me just to confirm to see what my payoff amount would be, and they told me $13,200 about the car in 2020.

Excellent. Well, what I would encourage you to do is it is helpful when you have extra income to put it towards your debt. I would encourage you to pay that higher interest rate, which would be your car loan. And the other thing is the car is definitely a depreciating asset, and so you definitely want to pay it off and not get upside down since you do have that longer term.

I think it's an excellent idea, and I think it's also a great idea to go to faithfi.com forward slash debt, and you can actually put the information about your car loan and your home loan in there, and it will tell you how much you can pay per month extra, how much more quickly it could be paid off, and even let you make the choice of which you pay first. So it's a great tool for you. I would encourage you to go ahead and use that, Donna. Oh, okay. All right. Thank you so very much.

I appreciate it. Thank you for calling, Donna. Let's go to Tennessee to talk with Marsha. How can we help you today, Marsha?

Hi. I would like to know the best way to transfer my home to my children and when is the best time. I have two children. And what are you wanting to accomplish in this, Marsha?

What is the objective? Just to transfer to them so they don't have an expense when I pass. All right. Do you have other things in your estate as well? Is it primarily your home? No, primarily my home is the largest thing, yeah.

Okay. Well, the thing that you want to do is you can use a quick claim deed. What's a quick claim deed and actually literally sign the home over to your children. I would make sure that you've got a clear agreement with the kids about how you're using the home, if you're still living in the home, if you're planning for them to move into the home at some point. But the actual process of signing it over would be through a quick claim deed. Yeah.

Sharon's exactly right. That's the way to do it the quickest. The only consideration that I might just throw out though is with regard to taxes. So if they're not looking to take use of it prior to your death and you're just looking to create the most efficient transfer of this asset, your home to them at death, then leaving it in your will to them or using something called a transfer on death deed or even a trust would ensure that they get it at your death. The benefit though is with the quick claim deed, which is again a great way to do it quickly and do it now, they're going to inherit your cost basis, which means that when they go to sell it, the profit will be determined based on the selling price minus your original cost basis when you purchased it. The difference if they inherit it through a will or a transfer on death deed or a trust is that they get the stepped up basis. So the new cost basis is now as the date of your death. And then if they were to turn around and sell it right then, then they basically have no capital gain. And because there's no inheritance tax really, they wouldn't have any taxes owed at that point. So obviously if they hung on to it to enjoy it and they sold it down the road, then they'd pay the gain on it from the date of death to whatever it appreciated to years later.

But if they're going to turn around and sell it, there is some benefit to them inheriting it as opposed to getting it now, if that makes sense. Yes. Okay. Yeah. Yeah. So what state are you in?

You're in the state of Tennessee. Correct? That's correct. Yeah.

Okay. So not every state offers the T.O.D. deed and Tennessee is one of those that does not. So really the only way that you'd be able to transfer it to your kids at death would be through a will and it would go through the probate process and there would be some time and expense involved in that. Or you could create a trust and then you'd retitle the home in the name of the trust and then it would pass to your kids at your death very efficiently outside of probate. But they'd also get that stepped up basis. Now that trust is going to cost you probably a couple of thousand dollars, but it would save time and cost at death when they inherit the house.

So if that's something you wanted to explore, I'd connect with a godly estate planning attorney there in Tennessee and just ask about drawing up a trust to hold your home between now and your death. Okay. So I have another question. What would it do if I just added them to the deed right now?

Yeah. So let's say there was two of them. I don't know how many there are, but let's say there was two of them and you wanted to be on it. So you each had a third ownership. Well with that portion that they got now through the quitclaim deed that Sharon was talking about, that would be how you would do it. The problem is, again, they would inherit your cost basis. So when they turned around to try to sell it, at least their portion that they owned prior to your death, they would now have to pay capital gains on the sale of the market value minus your original cost basis. Okay.

So that's why for tax purposes, it would be better if they inherit it rather than you adding them to the deed right now, which would involve that quitclaim deed. Okay. How about it? All right. Thanks for your call today. We appreciate it.

Quickly to Louisville. John, go ahead, sir. Hi. Thank you very much for taking the call. I appreciate listening to you. Sure. Yeah.

Thank you. I'm 68. I've been retired for about five years and our investments are in an advisor-managed fund. Some of it is 401k plus some additional monies that have been rolled into various. But basically it's, it's stock invested, stock and bonds, and it's just not doing anything as you well know.

And now there are money markets that are paying five to five and a half percent. Is it wise to take a portion of that out of those advice managed funds and put it into some money market at maybe a local bank or a couple of local banks versus leaving alone? I've always been told as an investment, leave it alone. But at 68, I don't know when the market's going to uptick again. And I'm concerned I'm not making wise use of my investment.

Well, John, I think your age is a factor in this. And so as we get older, we want to make sure that our funds are more safe and that those returns are more guaranteed as you might need those funds in your later years. So I definitely would look into looking at those funds, putting them the allocation and perhaps a safer percentage so that you're not so dependent on ups and downs of the market.

Yeah, I think that's exactly right. I think the key here, John, is it can really seem obvious because you're looking at this and saying, wait a minute, I'm losing money in my managed accounts because the market's going down and yet the bank is paying five and a half percent. Why wouldn't I just switch? The challenge is when we look over the long haul, this is why you've been here.

You've heard that all your life. Take the long view. We we realize we can't time the market. And we know, let's say the S&P 500 has generated nine percent annualized returns per year. So annualized for the last hundred years. Now, that includes, you know, the the the bubbles and the crashes of the Great Depression.

And that also includes the dot coms and, you know, all of the ups and downs. So when we try to time our entry and exit points, we just really get ourselves in trouble because we don't know where the market's headed. That's why we constantly go back to what Sharon's talking about, which is if we've got the right allocation, then we can and we you know, we've got time on our side, then we can just let it go because we know that's the very best place to build wealth over time and not trying to jump in and out and take a short term profit. So from that standpoint, I would say to Sharon's point at age 70, you'd probably want no more than maybe 40 percent in stocks. Now, you want to get more conservative. Maybe it's 30. You want to be more aggressive.

Maybe it's 50. But somewhere in that 40 percent range with the balance and fixed income is going to give you that stability of the interest yield with some of the growth potential that comes with the stocks. So hopefully that helps you. I would have a conversation with your advisor about this as well and just have the advisor explain to you his or her strategy for this.

But I think taking the long view is always the best approach. Thanks for your call today. Sharon, great to have you here. Great to be here.

Faith and Finance Live is a partnership between Moody Radio and Faith Fi. Thank you to Josie and Amy and Tahira and Jim. Couldn't do it without them. For Sharon Epps, I'm Rob West. See you next time. All right.