7 Steps for Buying a Used Car

Inflation has jacked up the price of just about everything these past three years, but perhaps nothing so much as used cars. I am Rob West. Other things like COVID and supply chain interruptions contributed to huge price hikes for used cars, but those factors are now in the rearview mirror.

So shouldn't things be getting better? We'll take a look at current prices and I'll give you seven steps for making a wise used car purchase. Then it's on to your calls at 800-525-7000.

That's 800-525-7000. This is Faith and Finance Live, biblical wisdom for your financial decisions. Okay, let's turn the calendar back to 2019. You need to get another car and you've decided to buy used. You've done your homework and the make and model you want to buy is three years old and selling on average for just over $23,000. You think that's a lot of money, but at least you know you'll have five or more years of mostly trouble-free driving, so you go ahead with the purchase. Today you're hoping that car lasts you a good deal longer because a similar purchase now will cost you, wait for it, $32,000 according to the car shopping site iccars.com.

That's a 41% increase. If you go used car shopping today with the same budget you had in 2019, $23,000, you'll have to settle for a six-year-old vehicle and those figures take into account that used car prices have gone down nearly 7% in the last year and 1.2% in August alone according to government figures. Analysts expect used car prices to fall even more as the inventory of new cars continues to improve in the months ahead. By the way, that's good news if you're looking to buy a new vehicle as well. New car prices are predicted to drop significantly in the near term as there's now something of a global glut of new vehicles, about 5 million more than predicted sales, which will force prices down and that will have a ripple effect on used car prices pushing them down as well.

But what if you can't wait? What's the best way to buy a used car now? Well, the steps to making a wise used car purchase haven't changed.

Here are seven of them. The first is especially important when making a major purchase like a car. Establish how much you can afford to spend.

If you've been saving for the purchase and you're using cash, you already know that number. If you plan on financing the car, you've got to figure out how much you can spend while making sure the payments fit within your budget. You can use a loan calculator to help you figure that out. You want to put at least 10% down on the car, 20% would be better. Then try to keep the term of the loan as short as possible.

Three years is ideal. Of course, once you have the loan paid off, keep making the payments to yourself by putting them in a special savings account so you can pay cash for the next car. Okay, second, determine the make and model vehicle that's best for you. Take into account the size of your family, cargo space, safety, and of course reliability. You may come up with two or three different vehicles that meet your needs.

That's okay. Having options will probably make the car hunting experience easier. Three, go online to Kelly Blue Book or Edmonds to get the estimated value of your chosen vehicles.

We'll put links to all of the sites we mentioned in today's show notes. You can plug in a vehicle's year, make, model, and mileage to get an idea of what you should expect to pay. Four, you can start searching online at AutoTrader, Craigslist, Autolist, and CarMax. Make a list of the vehicles that seem to be priced fairly for their condition.

Five, contact the seller and ask for the vehicle identification number or VIN. You then use that to get a vehicle history report and you can do that online at Carfax and AutoCheck. Make sure it has a clean title and that it's not been in a serious accident or totaled by an insurance company. Also check the mileage.

Sometimes shady characters will spin back the odometer to make the vehicle appear to have fewer miles. If the vehicle history checks out, then move to step six. Ask the seller to allow you to take the vehicle to an independent shop of your choosing to have it inspected. If the owner or lot salesperson says no, that's a deal breaker.

Just walk away. Now if the car checks out at the repair shop, you can move on to step seven, which is to make an offer. Since used car inventories are still limited, you probably can't haggle very much. But if you've done steps one through six properly, you at least know that the car you're buying is in good shape and should last many years if you take proper care of it. All right, so those are your seven steps for buying a used car. I hope you find them helpful. And by the way, be patient.

If you're willing to put in the time and work, you'll find the right car for you. All right, your calls are next at 800-525-7000. That's 800-525-7000. I'm Rob West and this is Faith and Finance Live. 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. Thanks for joining us today on Faith and Finance Live. I'm Rob West. We're looking forward to taking your calls and questions today. The number to call is 800-525-7000.

That's 800-525-7000. We've got a few lines open. The calls will come in quick, so be sure to get in the queue because we'd love to tackle your financial question today. Let's actually begin as we go to Kansas City and talk to Sharon first. Sharon, go right ahead. I appreciate your topic today.

I like the idea of buying used cars. However, today I have a different question. I'd like to know the best way to consolidate student loan debt and if consolidation is a good idea.

Yeah, very good. It can be. I mean, are we talking about federal student loans? A combination of federal student loans and private loans.

Okay, very good. You know, with the federal student loans, you know, you can do a loan consolidation. I wouldn't consolidate them though with a new private loan.

I would keep it in the federal loan program. That way you're going to have the simplification of one easy payment. It will actually still be the same interest rate.

It'll just be combined into one new rate, but you'll still have all of the federal protections. So, you know, you'll still have the ability to get loan forgiveness. You'll still have the ability to do income-based repayment, and you could do that at studentaid.gov. With those private loans, you could consolidate them into one new private loan if you have the ability to save on the interest rate. I wouldn't do it if you don't, but if you do, that would give you the ability to perhaps lower your payment.

If you're looking for that, obviously the more you can send the better because that's going to help you pay it off quicker. So the only reason you would want to refinance those private loans into a new private loan is simply because you could in fact save on the interest. Now, that's probably not the case now because I suspect where interest rates are today is likely higher than where they were when you got these loans, so it probably doesn't make sense. But that federal loan consolidation, again, if as long as you're just doing it with federal loans, can make things a bit simpler with just one monthly bill. You can choose the repayment plan that fits your current finances, and you still have all of those protections, but you don't want to mix them. Does that make sense?

It does, and I think the question of mixing was my biggest question, and you've answered that nicely. Thank you. Okay, you're welcome, Sharon. Thanks for your call today. A few lines open with your questions on any financial topic. 800-525-7000.

Again, that's 800-525-7000. Now, we started today, and I shared seven steps for buying a used car. It sounds like Mark has some experience in this area and wants to weigh in, and perhaps, Mark, you want to offer a different perspective on at least one of these steps. Go right ahead. Hey, Rob. Thanks for taking my call. I listen to you almost every day that I can. Awesome.

Yeah, you put on a great show. Yeah, I was a car dealer for 34 years and now retired, living in sunny Florida, and we ran a really good, clean Christian shop, had all our own employees, did all our own inspections and cleanups and reconditioning, and we had a number of salesmen. We had a pretty nice operation, and that step number six, I believe, was to let somebody take your car to their shop.

Yeah. I'm not sure if it was your number six, but we used to do that, and we found out, and we finally had to stop it because we got cars back that the wheels weren't tight. The car had been lifted improperly, damaged the floor panels, dirty. All of our cars were prepared that you could eat off the floors, and everything was fresh and clean and waxed and shampooed, and we got our cars back. They were filthy. They had lots of miles on them.

People took them on trips. We just had to stop doing it. It was... Yeah, you got to think about that one, and the other thing is... Go ahead. No, no, that's fine.

Finish your thought. Okay, the other thing I was going to mention about Carfax, don't put all your eggs in one basket with Carfax because the Carfax situation is not 100%. Believe me, don't trust the Carfax. Yeah, would you pull AutoCheck as well or something else? Well, AutoCheck is mainly for the auto auctions. We had apps on our phones for Carfax and AutoCheck, and there was always a difference... Not always, many, many times there was a difference.

AutoCheck would not show an accident. Carfax would, vice versa, and at one point, I bought a Toyota pickup, a Tacoma pickup that was only maybe two years old, only had a few miles on it, and was hit by a semi, and it was just slammed. I mean, there was nothing left of it, and it went through the auto auction, and I bought it for two grand only because it had a clean Carfax, and I put that car right on the front corner of my lot. It sat there for about two years, and people would always ask about it, and I said, I just want to show you this truck has a clean Carfax, so don't always trust Carfax.

Wow. Yeah, that's great advice, so perhaps check both of them and make sure you're working with a trustworthy dealer. Now, you were obviously at a dealership, you guys obviously ran a great shop, and you were trustworthy. I guess the challenge is you've got a lot of folks, they're looking for cars online, they're going to AutoTrader, they're getting a mix of both dealers as well as private sales and even lots where it's not connected to a dealer. They're perhaps settling on a make and model and just scouring the internet for the very best options, so if they're not going to a dealer that perhaps maybe has even a used car warranty or has been checked out with the dealers however many point they have on their checking process, then would it also at that point make sense to take it to an independent mechanic if they'll allow you to?

My experience here is my mom was shopping for a used car, found the one she wanted. It was from a private lot, not a dealership. We took it to her trustworthy mechanic that had worked on her cars for 25 years, and he pointed out three or four things that weren't listed on the car documentation, and she ended up passing on it. So obviously you're coming at it from the dealer's perspective. I guess my question to you is does it make sense if they'll allow you to to get your mechanic check to check it out? Well what we ended up doing, Rob, after a period of time, because we did get some feedback from that, and I wasn't a franchise dealer, we just sold used mostly used trucks and SUVs.

Okay. We were up in snow country up in Pennsylvania, and we sold a lot of almost exclusively four-wheel drives, but what we ended up doing after a period of time was we would send one of our people with the people to their garage. We would say, fine, make an appointment, you know, we'll take your car over, and our guy would make sure that the car was lifted properly, the wheels were torqued back onto the specifications, because if you don't do things like that, if you run those wheels on with an impact wrench, your rotors are going to warp, and that's when you get the bump in the pedal. Gotcha.

Yes, sir. These cars are technical today, and everything has to be torqued to specifications, and a lot of these garages these people took them to were just backyard garages that didn't know what they were doing. Yeah, well point is well taken. I certainly understand from a seller's perspective why you'd want to make sure that somebody evaluating your car is going to take good care of it, that's for sure.

I think from the buyer's perspective, just working with the dealer on their parameters is the key, but if you can get that independent mechanic to look it over, especially if you have somebody that you've been working with for a while, always better. Thanks for your comments, Mark. We'll be right back. Well, thanks for joining us today on Faith and Finance Live.

I'm Rob West. We've got some lines open for your financial questions today. 800-525-7000. Again, 800-525-7000. Let's go back to the phones.

Riverview, Florida. Hi, Rebecca. Go right ahead. Hello.

Yes, I just have a quick question. I am 76 years old. I am retired, of course. I have, of course, my social security.

I have two annuity accounts, a cash account, a money market account, and just wondering if there is any other financial avenue for me to consider at this point in my life. Hmm. Yeah. So the annuities, are they still in the accumulation phase and growing, or have you annuitized them and you're taking a monthly payout?

What's the status? Okay. One of those, I am doing a monthly payout on, and the other one, I've got another year and a half before that one comes in. All right.

And what is that growing at? Is it a guaranteed fixed annuity? It's a guaranteed fixed, yes. Okay. Very good.

And then the one annuity that's paying you out monthly plus social security, is that enough to cover your expenses? Yes. Okay.

So the other one, once that starts to pay out, if that's what you do, then that would all be surplus? Yes. Uh-huh. Okay. Great. And then do you have any long-term care insurance or anything like that?

I did, and the premiums on that rascal started going crazy on me from like $200 a month to like $600 and $700 a month. So I froze everything. The money that I invested all the years that I had it is there for me to use if I need it. Oh, great. So I'm okay with that, yes.

Yeah, excellent. And then what other assets do you have besides the two annuities? Well, I have a couple of assets.

The two annuities? The cash account. Okay. And how much is in there?

About $650. Okay. And that's all in what, CDs, savings?

What is it? It's in a what they call an asset mark. It's just a cash account where I can take that money out if I need to. Okay.

And what is it earning, do you know? I do not know that right now. Okay. Yeah. And you said that's $650,000? Yes. Okay.

Yeah, I mean, that would be the thing I would check on. It sounds like you're in great shape here, Rebecca. You've got that accumulation on the long-term care if you need it. You've got all your bills covered a year and a half from now.

Arguably, you could have even more monthly income, all of which you don't need because you're obviously living modestly. That's going to give even greater surplus. You've got plenty of cash. You know, with $650,000 in savings, I think you'd just want to check on that and make sure that it is safe. You know, I'd probably spread that across multiple accounts unless it has a sweep function. Do you know if all of that has FDIC insurance or is it beyond the FDIC and coverage in one account?

I will find that out. Like I said, I have another appointment set up with my financial guide to find out. Rather than you going out and opening, you know, accounts at three different banks, there is a way that they can, one institution can actually parse the money out and using multiple banks with one account. So you still have the FDIC insurance on the whole thing, even though you're beyond the $250,000 in coverage. So I would make sure that you do have the full thing, you know, the full amount covered by FDIC insurance.

And I'd also make sure that you have a competitive rate there. I mean, there's not any reason that you shouldn't be getting close to 5% a year on that and all that money just getting reinvested. So then the only other question would just be, you know, do you want to try to grow that a little quicker by putting some of it at risk in, let's say a bond portfolio with maybe a small allocation to stocks, or if you've already reached your finish line and you don't want to take any unnecessary risk, then I think you just stay the course with what you have. The two annuities, plenty of income, long-term care insurance accumulation and, you know, plenty of money in your cash account. And then I think at that point, the question is, you know, you don't owe anything.

You're not looking to increase your lifestyle. You're done growing your money apart from just being wise and taking advantage of yield. And so then the only thing left is giving and just looking at, you know, what do I want to give away now? What do I want to give away at death? And how do I make sure the next steward is chosen and prepared, including your heirs?

And what do you need to do to start investing in the next generation with regard to even doing some giving while you're alive, you know, with your heirs, if you wanted to do that? I mean, those are the kinds of things I would be thinking about because I think from a purely financial standpoint, you're in really good shape here. Yeah. All right.

That's all I wanted to know. I appreciate your advice. All right, Rebecca. God bless you and thanks for calling there from Riverview today. We appreciate it. 800-525-7000 is the number to call. Let's go to Cleveland. Hi, Colleen.

How can we help? Hi. How are you today? Doing great.

Thanks. My question is both my husband and I were completely debt-free and we're in our 50s and we're looking to move to Florida. We've been looking to move to Florida since 2009 and we know what city and everything we want to live in. We've already picked out our church and the property in 2009 was about $60,000 for five acres and we don't want to move down to Florida in debt so we were saving up cash to buy a piece of property. Well, the properties went from $60,000 to $175,000 to $200,000 now.

Wow. And so we have probably about $125,000 saved up in cash to buy a piece of property but it's fallen short and so it's been sitting in the bank now for over 10 years and we just have it in a regular money market savings account. We haven't done anything with it because we want the money available in case a piece of property does come up to purchase but I feel bad that it's been sitting there that long not really doing anything. What are you earning on it now, do you know?

I think it's got to be less than 4%. We have it with Christian Community Credit Union. Okay. Yeah, that's great.

So what I would do is just reach out to them and make sure that it's in the highest yield offering that they have available. Let's do this. I've got to take a quick break, Colleen, but if you can hold, we'll talk about this further on the other side of the break. Stay with us. We'll be right back. Thanks for joining us today on Faith In Finance Live.

I'm Rob West. We've got two lines open, 800-525-7000. Before the break, we were talking to Colleen in Cleveland and they've got 125,000 that they've been adding to to try to buy a piece of property in Florida. Unfortunately, Florida real estate has been going through the roof, so that property a few years ago at 60,000 is now 200,000 today. They'd like to be able to buy something when it becomes available, and so they want to just earn an appropriate rate of return on this money while it's waiting, but they need liquid access to it. You said, Colleen, you're with Christian Community Credit Union. I think that's a great option in terms of a banking partner that shares your values. Clearly, you just want to make sure that you're in their very best liquid option with FDIC insurance, or in this case, it'd be NCUA insurance, and that they are giving you the best possible rate.

If rate was your primary concern, you could look elsewhere and look at other options, but I think the key here is you're in a great spot, you're getting probably a great rate of return at CCCU, and you're ready to make that move whenever that property becomes available, which could be any time, and so you probably don't really want to do anything much different than what you already are today. Okay, yeah, we're waiting on God to call us there, too. Yes. We're only going to borrow money for about four or five years, you know? Yes, yeah.

My husband says we're only going to borrow a little bit of money for about four or five years and pay it off. He's a union plumber, and so he's going to build our house down there. Oh, I love that.

We're not sure. Yep, yep. He told me to tell you that he has 16 hot rods at home that he works in. Oh, wow, that's incredible. Yep, he has a 58 Nash metropolitan, and we save about half of what we make right now, so we're blessed. Colleen, you guys are doing it right, I'll tell you. I love that, that you're living modestly, you're saving diligently. I suspect you all are givers as well, so I imagine whatever he builds is going to have at least one really large garage, huh? Maybe a few of them?

Yes, it's bigger than our house. I can imagine. Wow, that's incredible. Well, hey, thanks for calling.

All the best to you and your husband, Colleen, and we'll pray the Lord has just the right thing picked out for you in whatever timing makes sense. Thanks for being on the program today. Let's head to Texas.

Hi, Hector. Go ahead, sir. Hi, I don't know if you do take this type of question, but I went to Las Vegas, and unfortunately, I got tricked into buying this timeshare, and now I owe $18,000, and they didn't even tell me that I had a recession period, and you know, of course, it passed in now, and I've been trying all the ways trying to get rid of it, but I can't seem to do that.

Is there such a way that I can do that? Because it doesn't seem like if it is. Yeah, it's really difficult.

Hector, I wish I had better news for you. I mean, once you get beyond the recession period, which varies by state, usually somewhere between three and 15 days, you're really in a in a tight spot. You know, you can do a timeshare deed back, which is also a buyback program where the timeshare companies buys your share back from you. Not all resorts, I would say most timeshare developers don't offer this option, but if they do, it's obviously a great one. You could try to resell it on the resale market, and a good website for this is the timeshare users group.

Hector, if you go to the web address TUG, T-U-G, and then the number two.com, tug2.com, that is the timeshare users group, you'll have to join with an annual subscription of like $15. But then you would be able to advertise your timeshare there. And there is a marketplace for buyers and sellers.

Unfortunately, there's more sellers than buyers, but it is it is an option. So you know, I mean, those are usually the best things, obviously, if you could find somebody that you could gift this to, who would be willing to take on the annual maintenance and fees on, you know, moving forward, and you were currently paid up, and your timeshare company allowed you to do that, then you know, that would be one option, I would just make sure you have some representation before you do that, because you want to make sure number one, the timeshare developer is going to allow you to do it. And secondly, that you're not still on the hook and responsible for the maintenance expenses, because the last thing you'd want would be you think you've sold it or given it away. And you find out years later, it's in arrears, and they're coming after you the original purchaser, you know, to be made whole, you'd want to make sure that you do, in fact, legally transfer it to the other party.

And they're now responsible from that point forward. So unfortunately, there's not an easy way to go. There are some companies out there that tell you they'll get you out of these. I've just never found one I was comfortable with. Doesn't mean there's not, you know, some out there.

I've just never found them. So that's about the best advice I have for you today, my friend, and I wish I had better news. But I think TUG2 might be a great place to go and then calling the timeshare developer to see if they have a deed back option available to you. Thanks for your call today. All the best to you.

Let's go to Alabama. Hi, Mike. Hey, glad to talk to you today, Rob. Thank you. I am 61. I am 61. My wife is 63. We built our house 30 years ago.

It's paid for. The only thing we owe for is my vehicle and her vehicle, which is not much. Doing some renovations so we won't have to worry about doing it when we're 80.

We're kind of updating some things. We did the roof last year. We put a metal roof on when we built it so it would last 30 years and paid the house off. We got the house paid off. We put another roof on so we're good there. We're looking to do some flooring and updating some bathrooms.

So what's the best way to go about that? Finance it. We've got a HELOC that we use for a campground we built several years ago. It is a subprime HELOC. Okay.

It's one minus prime. We've got some money we can get out of there if we wanted to. That's the only thing that's tied to the house. What is the line of credit on that that's available, Mike? Probably about $60,000 because we got it for $80,000 and I think there's like $20,000 left on it or something like that on the original.

All right. And what do you think you guys are looking to spend? Maybe $15,000 to $20,000. We're going to do flooring and bathroom and that's it. That'll get us to our 80s and then by that time we won't care if the roof's leaking or not. There you go. Let me ask you, do you have some surplus on a monthly basis right now? Yeah, we do. We're putting that away in our emergency fund. I think we have like an eight, nine month emergency fund so we could use part of that and maybe finance part of it or we could maybe, you know, yeah. Yeah. How much do you have on a monthly basis do you think extra?

I have probably close to a thousand dollars. Okay. Yeah. I mean, I might find kind of a happy middle here. I mean, the nice thing is you've got this HELOC, which normally I wouldn't recommend, especially in a low rate environment. Now it's probably the best option because at least with it being variable as rates come down maybe next year or certainly by the following year, you know, you'll ride that back down. The nice thing is you've got a great rate on that prime minus one. So that's at seven and a half, which is, you know, right on par with what you'd get for a first mortgage today.

So that's great. But given that you guys are kind of overfunded, if you will, I mean, you're not, but you're more than six months expenses. So I would say, you know, what if you were to draw that down to six months expenses and then, you know, throw a thousand dollars a month at this thing, by the time you get all the contractor in place and get it all worked out, you know, maybe you're only pulling five to 10 at the most and you get the other 10 out of savings and monthly cashflow.

I just borrow as little as possible, but I use that HELOC for the difference. We'll be right back. Glad to have you with us today on Faith and Finance Live. Hey, we could use your help here between now and the end of the year. December 31st is a big time for us to shore up our listener support. As a listener support in ministry, we rely on your gifts and financial support to bring you this broadcast every day and all the other resources we provide to help God's people be wise and faithful stewards. So if you'd consider a gift of any amount, we'd certainly be grateful at this time of year here in the last two months of the year, a gift would go a long way to helping us reach our listener support goals.

The way to do it is on our website. Just head to faithfi.com. That's faithfi.com and just click the give button. If you could do that today, a gift of any amount would go a long way.

Faithfi.com, just click give. Thanks in advance. All right, back to the phones we go here in our final segment.

We'll get to as many calls as we can. Takokomo, Indiana. Hi, Eva. Go ahead.

Hi, thank you. My husband and I are in our early 50s. We're still working. We have a nice retirement plan and we don't have any debt. We have an emergency fund, but we're wondering about mutual funds to fund things that we might want to do five, ten years from now.

Yeah, so you believe the retirement savings that you've accumulated, that plus social security, is enough to cover your bills in the future? You're just wanting to save outside of that for some specific goals? Yes, and goals we're hoping to start paying on some things.

We have a house that we're wanting to rebuild on the inside and we'd like to cash flow it. And our goal is to start that somewhere between five and ten years from now. All right, and do you have that money set aside today or would you be building that up over the next five to ten years? We'd be building it up over the next five to ten years. We think we can save around a thousand dollars a month. Yeah, okay.

Well, it's a good question. I mean, so, you know, if you've got a five-year time horizon, you're kind of right on that bubble where, you know, you could go either way in terms of do you just go ahead and lock it up in a five-year CD and take four and a half percent for the next five years and be, you know, happy with it? The problem is you, you know, you've got this money on a monthly basis.

It's not like you have it today. So the other option is you could dollar cost average into a mutual fund. Now, you know, could it be, you know, lower than it is today five years from now?

Probably not. I mean, it's possible. Certainly a much greater likelihood that you'll, you know, do better on it and outpace inflation over a ten-year period. And the nice thing is with the dollar cost averaging, you're taking advantage of those sell-offs along the way. So it's not like you've got quarter of a million dollars. You're dropping in the market today and then all of a sudden we hit a recession and that quarter of a million is, you know, 190, you know, you know, a year from now and, you know, you're, you're frustrated with yourself. I mean, I think the thing here is you'd have to keep that time horizon, stay focused on the five to ten-year time horizon. But given that your dollar cost averaging into the market every month, you know, you're buying at the various points along the way. So, you know, if the market is down, let's say we're in a bear market a year from now because we're in a recession, you know, you're buying more shares with that same thousand dollars a month because you're buying shares at a discount.

And then as they recover, you know, you'll do well. So I like that option. I think then the key is, okay, which mutual fund do you put it in? Because you don't want to buy individual stocks given, you know, the amount of money you're talking about.

And you've got a couple of options there. You could use what's called a robo advisor, which is a very low cost indexed approach. So you'd go to Betterment or the Schwab Intelligent portfolios, you'd answer a series of questions. And then, you know, you would set up every time you made your contribution of a thousand dollars, it would automatically reinvest into the mix of indexes that are appropriate for your age and risk tolerance. And there's not any transaction costs. So it's very low cost.

It might cost you in total, maybe one quarter of one percent a year, which is pretty modest. And then you just capture the broad moves of the market. If you wanted to be a little more hands-on, you could pick a mutual fund with a money manager who's trying to beat the market. And you could do that with traditional mutual funds, or you could do it with faith-based investing mutual funds, where they're only investing in companies that wouldn't be misaligned with your values, but where they're seeking to create value for the shareholders by making an impact in the world, you know, positively. So, you know, either one of those options would be available to you as well. But I think the bottom line is, just kind of given what you're describing here, I kind of like the idea of you dollar-cost averaging systematically every month into some sort of mutual fund, you know, along the lines of the options I described.

How does that sound though? Well, that sounds like a good idea. The RoboAdvisor, you mentioned Schwab, and what was the other one? Yeah, so it's the Schwab Intelligent Portfolios, which is the Schwab RoboAdvisor.

The other one is called Betterment, B-E-T-T-E-R-M-E-N-T, and you could go to betterment.com or download the Betterment app. They make it very easy to do, and again, that would be where you're just, you're not trying to beat the market, you're just capturing the broad moves of the stock and bond market, and depending on how aggressive or conservative you want to be, would kind of dial up what percent is in bonds versus in stocks. Okay, that sounds good. We're hoping to work maybe close to 70, so we're hoping we'll be healthy.

Well, it's a very simple solution for you, and I think, you know, you could absolutely accomplish what you're looking for here, so I'd probably head, you know, to Betterment or the Schwab Intelligent Portfolios if that sounds like a good option. Hey, all the best to you guys, Eva. Thanks for calling today. We appreciate it.

To Miami, Florida. Hi, Tricia. Thanks for calling. Go ahead. Hi. Hi, Rob.

Thank you for taking my call. So, my question, I want to purchase a home, and I'm thinking to invest in this little business that I found where I can make like residual income, but where I am here now, the rent is like extremely high, and I don't really have much cash flow to save. I don't have cash flow at all, really. I'm just basically making it month to month, and so I'm considering taking out a loan so that I can help, you know, pay off some debts and invest in this little business that I think will bring me, you know, extra income and then try to use that to pay off a loan and then start saving and pay off whatever debts and stuff like that. I don't know.

That's what I'm thinking to do to try to get myself out of this pickle where I feel like I'm just going day to day. Sure. No, I can certainly appreciate that, Tricia.

Let's talk about this just a bit more, though. So, do you have a full-time job, or are you in business for yourself full-time? Yeah, no, I'm full-time employed. Okay, and then you're looking to start a business on the side, is that right? Yes. Okay, so with your full-time employment where you're working and getting a salary or hourly, that's just enough to cover your bills, but you have nothing left over at the end of the month?

That's correct. All right, and what debts do you have that you're trying to get paid off? So, I have a couple of credit cards that I want to pay off, and there's a personal loan also that I'm trying to pay off. All right, how much on credit cards? So, let's see, about $6,000, $7,000. Okay, and the personal loan? That's the big one.

That one is almost $30,000. Okay, and is that to an individual or a bank or another institution? Yeah, a credit card company. Okay, got it. All right, yeah, and so you're servicing the debt, you're staying current every month, you're just not able to make any progress on these, is that right?

Exactly, yeah, I'm on time and everything, but yes. Yeah, all right, and what is the side business? So, it's something in cryptocurrency, which I know is a little bit volatile, but yeah. Yeah, I would need to know a lot more about that. I mean, I have obviously a lot of concerns when I hear crypto, especially because you're talking about going deeper into debt in order to do it, and you know, I think it is very volatile and unproven. We don't know kind of where that whole space is headed from a regulatory standpoint. You know, it's still kind of the wild, wild west. I mean, think the dot-com era in the early days.

I mean, there was a lot of, you know, winners, but there was more losers, you know, before it all shook out and we kind of figured out how to value these companies and what it would look like. And so, you trying to, you know, pursue something like that in order to get out of these other things, I feel like is just not a recipe for success here. Not to mention, you know, you buying a house before you're ready as much as you want to, especially there in South Florida.

That's going to be really difficult to do. So, I think, you know, what I would feel more comfortable with, Tricia, is you kind of stay in the course with what you've got. I mean, you certainly could be looking for other options that might give you more income if you make a move to another company, but trying to start something on your own in the financial condition you are right now, I just don't feel good about. I mean, it'd be different if you were out of debt and you've got some savings and you had a new venture. Forget what it is for a second, but, you know, any kind of startup just takes more time and expense than you imagine it will.

Not to mention something in the space that you're describing here. So, if it were me, I would probably set the side business aside. I would set the home aside and I'd just really focus on kind of getting your financial house in order, limiting your lifestyle, looking to cut back on your spending, trying to, you know, if you want to get a second job or work extra hours or make a move to another company where you could get more compensation, great, but let's focus in on that budget. And I'd probably reach out to our friends at christiancreditcounselors.org, see if they could help you get on a level monthly payment that fits into your budget, but with much lower interest rates so you can actually make some progress toward paying these debts off. And then once they're paid off, you know, I think at that point, now we're in a whole different situation because you can take all that money that you're putting toward debt service now and use it to build up some savings that you can ultimately, you know, use to buy your house.

And if you want to decide, you know, to start a side job, I, you know, only look at things where you don't have to make an investment out of pocket, especially where you're having to borrow to do it. So I wish I had better news for you, Tricia. We'll certainly pray that the Lord will give you some wisdom here as you navigate this, and I would reach out to our friends at christiancreditcounselors.org as soon as you can. God bless you. Thanks for your call today.

Well, Faith in Finance Live is a partnership between Moody Radio and FaithFi. Thank you to Lynn and Amy and Tahira and Jim. Couldn't do it without them. We'll see you tomorrow. Bye-bye.