Lessons from a Capitalist Thanksgiving

Today's Faith in Finance Live is actually prerecorded, so our phone lines are not open. Thanksgiving is just two weeks away. It's become a frenzy of food preparation and football, and perhaps a holiday we just take for granted. Hi, I'm Rob West.

You have to wonder how many people will pause to reflect on what really happened at the first Thanksgiving feast. Well, no worries, because Jerry Boyer joins us today to fill us in and give us a whole new reason to be grateful. Then we'll have some great calls that we've lined up, but since this program is not live today, please hold your calls until we're back in the studio. This is Faith in Finance Live, biblical wisdom for your financial journey. Well, Jerry Boyer is the president of Boyer Research and our resident economist here at Faith in Finance. You can read his insightful columns for World Magazine at WNG.org. Jerry, great to have you back with us. And always great to be with you, my friend. Jerry, most folks identify Thanksgiving with the Puritans at Plymouth Plantation and how they survived incredible hardships, but are not aware that part of their suffering was self-inflicted.

Tell us about that. Yeah, these hardships didn't just happen and they didn't just end arbitrarily. These hardships were the result of bad economic policy, and that bad economic policy is what we would call communism. The charter that was granted to them when they came here to form Plymouth Plantation required communal handling of property so that nobody owned their plot of land. You know, the men all worked all of the land and the women all cooked for everybody.

And so, in essence, I mean, you know, it's communal family almost. And what happened is exactly what you'd expect, which is that people who were strong and healthy didn't work because they knew they were working for somebody else. And people started making excuses, and the women would always say, I'm too sick or I'm too tired, you know, to cook the meal because they didn't want to really cook a meal for somebody else's husband or for somebody else's children. And the men didn't want to work the land for other people. And so that's what led to the starvation that is the privation that we hear about the tough times that the Puritans went through.

It wasn't just, you know, just sort of the quote bad luck of bad weather, but it was in fact bad economic policy. Jerry, some commentators have said that's revisionist history. How do we know this is true? Because they wrote about it in the Plymouth Plantation.

William Bradford admitted the mistake. So the only, you know, primary sources we have here all describe this. I think revisionist history is just history that some people don't like.

So I remember debating with Jared Bernstein, who was about to go to work for the Obama administration on this. He didn't know this story. So he thought it must have been made up. But it's based on primary sources.

We know that this happened at the time that that plantation was formed. The kind of the hot idea back in England among intellectual elites was based on the philosophy of Plato. And Plato believed in a communistic system. So they were just doing the best thinking of the time they were just following what the expert economic thinking was at the moment, which is it'll be more efficient if everybody owns everything. Of course, that's not efficient.

That's extremely inefficient, because it doesn't take into account human nature. So they realized their mistake, and they essentially went against their charter. And they decided to parcel out land so that people own their own little bits of land and they worked for themselves and for their family. And it's interesting when they did that, William Bradford saw it as explicitly moving away from what he called, quote, the conceit of Plato, the conceitedness, the arrogance, the pride of the philosophy of Plato, in order to embrace the wisdom of Moses, which we find in the Ten Commandments, which include thou shalt not steal, which is the foundation of private property. So they understood that they had been following pagan economics, and that they needed to go back to biblical economics.

And when that happens, everything transformed overnight. People would go out, men would go out and work the fields, and even the women would come out and bring the children and say, we're going to work the fields too. Women who wouldn't even be willing to cook the food, now we're out there helping in the field, because they had gone through a tough time, and now they were working for their family's benefits.

And it's amazing how what fathers and mothers will do for the love of one another and for their children in an economic system that allows them to care for those that they love. And by the way, that's something I think we need to talk about a little bit, which is, there's a strong tendency to think about focusing on economic productivity as Fascinating. All right, when we come back, we'll continue our conversation with Jerry Boyer today. We'll talk about the founders and God's providence and putting those uniquely gifted people together in one place and time to forge the Constitution and how that relates to our economy today. Much more with Jerry Boyer just around the corner.

Stay with us. Great to have you with us today on Faith and Finance Live. Well, as we head toward Thanksgiving, we're joined today by our resident economist, Jerry Boyer, president of Boyer Research. He's taking us back to that first Thanksgiving to help us understand the economics behind the pilgrims and the Puritans there at Plymouth Plantation.

Jerry, what you were sharing perhaps may be a surprise to some. Just recap that for us and then tell us how that intersects with the very first Thanksgiving that we'll be celebrating here very soon. Well, the settlement of Plymouth, which is called Plymouth Plantation, had imposed on it a system of communism, meaning that property was held in common and that men would all work the whole field and women would cook for the whole community rather than men working their part of the field for their family and their wives cooking for them and their children. And that what happened is human nature being what it is. The men didn't work and the women didn't cook. And everyone made a lot of excuses. And so there was a shortage of food and they went through their provisions and they starved.

Eventually they decided that they were going to go in a different direction and they threw off what they saw as the pagan philosophy from Plato of communism and embraced the biblical philosophy of Moses, which holds to private property. When that happened, then they went from starvation to abundance. So that's the recap.

Yeah. And where does that then intersect with the story that we're celebrating at that first Thanksgiving? Well, that's what they celebrated. They celebrated the abundance that came when they moved from a communistic system to a private property system. So they had good harvest because they were working hard. They started trading with the Indians. The Indians would share ideas with them. So there's another capitalist thing there, the idea of trade between people of different tribes.

Instead of enmity between settler and Indian, they could share ideas with one another about what's the best way to farm here and oh, here's some technology that we have. So there was a mutually beneficial exchange. And then they had abundance and that was their Thanksgiving. They were thanking God for the abundance, but it's not just that abundance comes directly from God. God also gives us the abundance of wisdom that tells us how to properly order an economy. So the first gift that they needed to get from God wasn't the harvest. The first gift that they needed to get from God was the private property system that we find in the Ten Commandments. The wisdom from God then led to the abundance in the field. Yeah, that's really helpful. Now, Jerry, of course, several other countries have Thanksgiving-like holidays, but ours is rooted in American exceptionalism, isn't it?

Yeah, it is. Because I think maybe partly because we had this early experiment with communism, we learned in a very painful way about it. But I think the thing that's most exceptional is that William Bradford was a thoroughly committed man of the Bible. In fact, a lot of his writings were in biblical Hebrew.

He would keep his diary in biblical Hebrew. That's how biblically entrenched they were. And so they had something to turn from.

In a lot of European countries, they see socialism not working, but they say, well, I guess we'll just muddle through or we'll just blame business or whatever. But in this case, they had a better way presented to them because they were saturated in the Bible. The real tragedy is that this was lost. This is a story that schoolchildren would learn for hundreds of years in America.

But something has happened. I don't know exactly when, maybe three or four generations ago, where this was dropped so that when I happened to talk about this story on CNBC with Larry Kudlow in 2008, I was on there with an economist who was about to join the Obama administration as then Joe Biden's chief economist. And he had no idea of this story.

And he thought I was making it up. That's tragic because they went on to repeat the conceits of Plato. They went on to nationalize banks. They went on to nationalize auto companies.

And we actually had economic stagnation, some of which is still with us to some degree. So it's, you know, it's one thing to have a tragedy. It's another thing to forget the lessons and repeat them once again. Well, we need these stories to be told again, especially by people in authority.

That's right. I'm glad you're reminding us of them today. All right, Jerry, let's move on then to the founders. You know, the image of the nation's founders has been, well, bashed in recent years, unfortunately. Do you see God's providence in putting those uniquely gifted people in one place in time to forge the Constitution?

I do. And I also see the providence leading up to it, because this thing that I just talked about, the Puritans really did have an ambiguity about commerce and about the free market system. So they started out with a communistic system and then they moved to basically free market farming. But they were still negative about other forms of commerce, technology, trade, you know, shipping, things like that. They saw that as not really being genuinely economically productive. So there's a process of about 100 years where people who are in finance and trading are being accused of not really being biblical in their economic system.

Some of them were excommunicated, in fact, and then they would offer defenses in their excommunication trials. And over a period of about 100 years after this, the colonialists, the Puritans, gradually come to reconcile their theology with a free market capitalist system, not just for farming, but for everything, for investments, for trade, for finance. And that happens basically that's just about done around the time that someone like Benjamin Franklin is growing up. You know, he's kind of he was kind of sort of the oldest of the major founders. So that influence, that theological shift takes place just in the right time before the war for independence and the creation of our own free market private property based system as found in the US Constitution.

Yeah, that's helpful. So then how would you compare that economy at our founding to what we have today? Well, we've drifted far, very far indeed. And in some ways, our economy now is a great deal more like the economy of George III that was imposed on us that we saw as tyrannical. The amount of economic control, the level of taxation, the really the lack of representation.

I know technically we have representation in Congress when it comes to tax policy, but when you have such an incredibly complex tax system, it's essentially lobbyist driven. He sent forth his officers to harass us and to eat out our substance, is what we said in the Declaration of Independence about the King of England. Well, now our kings are here in Washington, D.C. So we have backslidden in some sense to before 1776, where we are now something more like the tyranny that we rebelled against. Now, I'm not calling for this same solution.

It's different now. I'm not saying anyone should pick up their musket. And start suiting at the IRS. Quite to the contrary, we don't need to do that. We have the electoral process. We have cultural change process.

We have evangelism. We have the ability to make our case in the public square. So this rebellion, I think, is more an intellectual rebellion against the bad ideas. They were imposed by London on us. Now they're imposed by Washington on us.

Well, the reaction is to go back to the lessons lost, which are really found in the Bible, which in economics is very much focused on private property as opposed to government control. And we just need to persuade again. That's the job in every generation, to go back to those basics and persuade again and again and again in order to be free. And so, Jerry, to head back to that biblical economy, we need to repent. We need to pray. We need to engage and show up. I mean, is that what you're advocating?

Yes. And I'm also advocating we need to change ourselves because most of the people listening to us right now are Christians, right? So we can be economically productive. And we can tap into that part of communism that is falsely adopted, which is the idea of sharing. See, the problem with communism is the compulsion of sharing.

But to the degree that we don't share with one another as Christians, to that degree, we leave a vacuum into which the state tends to try to come in and solve the problem. Well said, Jerry, we're going to have to leave it there. Thanks for stopping by, my friend. Happy Thanksgiving. My pleasure, and to you and yours.

That's Jerry Boyer, president of Boyer Research and our resident economist. Just a quick reminder, we're not here today, so don't call in, but we're going to head to a break and much more coming just after this. Stay with us.

So thankful to have you with us today on Faith and Finance Live. I'm Rob West, your host. Now, our team is away from the studio today, so don't call in.

But we lined up some questions in advance that I know will be helpful to you. Let's go to Marilyn. Hi, Eric. Go right ahead, sir. Hi. So should I rent for my entire life or buy a house?

Forty years old. If I was to save up, say, a hundred thousand dollars, I might be able to place a down payment on a house. But it's a large sum of money. And I'm wondering if it's worth that effort versus going into business. Hmm, yeah. Well, those are both great things, and I, you know, they really can't be answered at face value without just taking a step back and starting with your values and priorities as a believer.

Where is God leading you? And then looking at both the financial and the non-financial aspect of this. I mean, all things being equal, I'd love for you to own a home as long as you're adequately prepared to make that purchase. And I typically would say that means you've got at least that 20% down payment to avoid PMI and have some equity in case the housing market turns down. And that that PITI, principal interest taxes and insurance payment, the mortgage payment, is less than 25% of your take-home pay.

And if so, then that'd be great. Let's, you know, take the opportunity to build some equity and have another asset that's growing for your future. But you're putting that alongside starting a business, which I'm all for as well, if done properly.

I'd love for you to be able to do both, but certainly I want to make sure that you have readiness for both. I mentioned readiness for buying a home as that 20% down payment and making sure that that mortgage payment fits into your budget no more than ideally 25% of your take-home pay. So that would be kind of on one side of this. Now, home ownership is, in terms of the cost of home ownership, it's in its most challenging environment that we've ever seen just because we've got now the median house price today. Whereas in, you know, just three years ago, it was at 300,000. Today it's more than 400,000.

This is the median. And whereas we were at 3% interest rates three years ago, we're at seven and a half today. So that obviously is making home ownership more challenging and we don't see prices really turning down.

In fact, mostly just a leveling off of the rapid rise due to inflation of these high interest rates. But at the end of the day, we have a housing shortage of about two to three million homes in this country. So I love the idea of you owning a home.

I just want you to be ready for it. Now, I also love the idea of you starting a business. If, you know, you've got a product or a service with a good market, you know, your players, you have a plan, you've got a good brand idea, you face the fear of failure, which, you know, 65% of Americans want to start a business. Most don't because, you know, they fear failure and we want to be, again, financially ready. So you want to know what are the true startup costs and what are your startup expenses going to be on a monthly basis.

And I'd love for you to have a full 12 months of those in the bank. So you give yourself plenty of running room. So you're not, you know, one of those businesses that small businesses that does fail and 70% of them do. So, you know, as you think about these two decisions, which is, you know, really the more of the priority for you and how are you processing this decision? So for me, I think that houses are better suited to families. And there are several Christians who are saying it's your obligation to start a family. You need to have a wife and kids. I don't see that in my future, which is why I'm considering that it might not be worth me personally buying a home and living in it myself. I have worked in nursing homes and I'm realistic as to what I might need as I age. It's just, I'm going to be spending a lot of money on whichever direction I go. What are my responsibilities more like, should I cancel the business idea and follow through with what other people are saying about starting a family and getting a home and settling down kind of thing?

Yeah, wow. I appreciate that question and your transparency there. You know, I would tell you that if you look to Scripture, you know, although there's clear directives that tell us that, you know, it's helpful for man to not be alone, at the same time I think singleness is perfectly appropriate. And I think that's between you and the Lord as to what direction he's leading. And we see plenty of example of God-fearing single people in the Bible that do incredible things for the Lord.

So I wouldn't say that you have to go one way or the other. I think the key for you is to pursue the heart of God and lean into him as your primary objective, and then see where he leads. And if that's ultimately to a helpmate, to a spouse, so that two can become one and as one flesh you can pursue God's best for you all as a couple, that's great.

And then starting a family would be wonderful. If that's not the direction he leads and you remain a single person, I don't think there's anything, well I know just based on my reading, there's nothing in the Bible that says you've missed something, you know, that may be in fact what God has for you. And so, you know, I think that's the decision you need to make between you and the Lord. As to whether you buy a home, you know, again there's not a responsibility there.

I think in some respect it becomes a math equation, just as we look at this decision in light of, you know, should I be sending money to rent when I could be putting the same amount into a home and building an asset that, you know, I can have for the future that will appreciate, you know, and then I could sell someday and have as a part of my estate to maybe fund my expenses in retirement as you maybe downsize at that point or something like that. But there's no requirement there by any means and if God is leading you to start a business, and again you've counted the cost and you really have thought through your business plan and you've got a really solid idea and brand strategy and you've considered the, you know, the other players and competition in the area, you know, then I think that's a great thing for you to do. And if that prevented you from buying a home but it was a real passion of yours that you felt like the Lord was directing you toward and you felt like you had the financial resources to do it, well then I would say go for it.

I don't think there would be any reason not to do that just because you haven't found a wife and started a family or haven't purchased a home. Rob, thank you. And before you move on to the next caller, I want to thank you for your ministry and I also want to thank the sponsors for supporting you. Christian Credit Union has been an asset to me.

Well that's incredible. Thank you for mentioning that. We are incredibly grateful for the underwriters of this program.

They help us do what we do every day and one of those is the one that you mentioned. We're incredibly grateful for Christian Community Credit Union. You can learn more at joinchristiancommunity.com. Eric, God bless you. Thanks for calling today and thanks for your kind remarks about the program. We'll be right back. So glad to have you with us today on Faith and Finance Live.

Our team is away today so don't call in but we lined up some great questions in advance and we'll be going to those here in just a moment. Let me also remind you that the advice that I give each day on this program is general in nature. We offer principles and ideas that apply at a high level. They are not personalized so that's why you should always seek professional financial advice. And if you'd like to find a professional who shares your values, we of course here at Faith and Finance Live recommend the Certified Kingdom Advisor designation. These are men and women who've met high standards and they've been trained to bring a biblical worldview of financial decision making.

You can find one at faithfi.com. Let's head to Illinois. Steve is a first-time caller and Steve, go right ahead. I sold a boat that I bought seven years ago last year. I had a small gain on it of $1200. Is that a taxable situation?

It is, yeah. So generally speaking, when you sell something, the IRS is really not concerned about it unless you have a gain. And when you have a gain, then it would either be treated as a short-term or a long-term capital gain, and at that point you would report it on your taxes. So do you prepare your taxes yourself?

Yes, believe it or not I do. Okay, that's okay. So the IRS Schedule D, as in David, is the form used to report your capital gains and it includes worksheets to help you determine your adjusted cost basis so you can properly report net gains and losses. Even after seven years it's got to be reported. Well yeah, it doesn't matter about the length of time you've owned it. What matters is whether or not you actually had a profit or not. Okay, gotcha. Okay, yep.

You would report that on Schedule D. Now they say the best days for owning a boat are the day you buy it and the day you sell it. Did that hold up in your case? No, I think I should have gotten more for it, but yeah, I think that's how most people feel about when they sell something, you know. That's great. All right, Steve. Hey, all the best to you. Thanks for being on the program today. Let's go to Montana, beautiful Montana.

Hi, Brandon. How can we serve you? Thanks for taking my call.

Sure. Yeah, a tax question. I'm going to receive a settlement for a Medicare fraud whistleblower case and I'm probably going to turn around and invest a lot of that into real estate. And my question is, is there any way such as an LLC or an S corp that will save me on the federal income tax that I'm expecting to pay?

No, I don't think so. I mean, you know, there's only limited cases where that would not be taxable and that would be where it's considered restitution. So in just about every case, funds awarded as punitive damages are considered taxable and that would include your fraud settlement.

Now, never a bad idea in a situation like this, which is out of the normal course of business, which certainly a major fraud settlement of this kind for Medicare would certainly qualify as out of the norm. It's not a bad idea to use a CPA in that year just to make sure you're reporting everything properly and taking full advantage of every opportunity available to you. But the general rule is this is going to be taxable, you know, then you'll turn around. And at that point, you could decide, you know, once you've paid the appropriate tax on this, you know, how do you move forward from there? And, you know, I think managing your tax liability from that point forward is going to be in part by how much are you going to give away, you know, which could reduce your tax liability. And then to your point, I think what is the appropriate business structure for you to set up if you are, you know, going to use this in some way to start a business? If not, then it's just a matter of turning around and investing it.

And then you're, of course, going to have capital gains along the way, whether you buy real estate or stocks and bonds or whatever that might be. But kind of lessening that burden on the front end, there's probably not a whole lot you can do about that. Okay. All right. Well, I appreciate that.

That was basically my only question. All right. Thanks, Brandon. God bless you. Thanks for being on the program today. To Mississippi.

Steve, go right ahead, sir. Appreciate your program. Thank you.

Question for you. I made a real estate purchase. I'm 70 years old. Had to borrow some money to do that. I've got about a dozen rental properties that are all paid for. Instead of keeping that debt, which is about $300,000, would I be wiser to sell two or three of the rentals and pay that debt off in full? And then, you know, as I'm able to purchase more rental properties?

Yeah, yeah. Well, you know, this I mean, there's a financial side to this. And then there's a non-financial side. The financial side is, you know, what is the interest rate you're paying on that? And, you know, how does that compare to, let's say, the growth rates you're getting in the asset that you would have to liquidate to pay it off? Because clearly with 12 rental properties that are owned free and clear, you're throwing off, I would imagine, a ton of cash. So servicing that debt that you have, that personal debt, is probably not an issue just given the cash flow that you have.

Correct me if I'm wrong. But so if you've got plenty of cash, including plenty of surplus, then I don't think there's any problem in continuing to carry that debt. I think the two reasons why you'd pay it off would be, one, do you have a conviction to be debt-free? And if so, I'd say, then don't look back, don't calculate the numbers, pay it off. Then that'll give you the peace of mind and help you honor your conviction, perhaps from the Lord, that you, you know, want to be debt-free. The second reason why you'd pay it off, if you didn't necessarily have a conviction to be debt-free right away, would just be because you feel like you can do better by paying it off. So, you know, whatever that interest rate is on that personal loan, you know, when you pay it off, you get a guaranteed return equal to that. And you just have to compare that against the expected returns on the asset you're liquidating to satisfy that obligation. Does that make sense?

It does. And, you know, prime, prime rate now is right at nine percent. So that's where I'm at. Yeah. So I think given that, I'd probably do it because I can't imagine, well, you're certainly not getting a guaranteed nine percent, even though real estate has done well. So I think, you know, liquidating a couple of those properties and then, you know, satisfying this debt, which, you know, is now going to throw off more every month in the form of income because you're not paying that mortgage every month. So that allows you to continue to build up a nest egg that perhaps could allow you in short order to go out and buy another piece of property. Okay.

All right. That's kind of what I was thinking, but I've always heard, you know, we're on property, good investment, don't sell it and everything. But again, at my age and the interest rates and the economy where we're in, I just feel better being totally out of debt. Yeah, I think there's something about being debt free.

I would agree with you, Steve. I think, you know, there's just a peace of mind that comes with that, that, you know, being unencumbered gives you complete flexibility to follow the leading of the Lord, whatever he might be directing you to. And so, yeah, I think you could certainly make a case that financially you might want to hang on to it. But just given where interest rates are right now and given, I think, what I'm hearing in your voice, which I would concur with, just the delight you would have in knowing that you're completely unencumbered.

I don't think you can put a price tag on that. So I would tend to lead in the direction that you feel you're being directed as well. Thanks for your call. Before we head to our break, you know, as I read Scripture, I see this big idea jumping off the page around contentment. You know, I think as we consider our role as stewards of God's money, we need to foster this attitude that the apostle Paul talked about, and that is contentment.

Remember, he said that it's learned. I've learned to be content. He was in a time of plenty and in a time of need, and he learned to be content in either of those. Contentment's a choice.

And when we increase our contentment, well, then we can focus on what God has given us and not on what he's given others. I hope that's an encouragement to you today. Again, we're not here today. We're away from the studio, so don't call in.

But just around the corner, we have some more questions to tackle. I know you're going to enjoy the calls we have coming up. Stay with us. We'll be right back. Thanks for joining us today on Faith and Finance Live here in our final segment of the broadcast today.

Let me remind you, our team is not here, so don't call in. But we lined up some great questions in advance. We'll get to those in just a moment. Before we do, let me remind you, if you haven't downloaded the Faithfi app, we'd love for you to check it out. It's got three sections in it. The first is the money management system based on Larry Burkett's digital envelope system. It helps you manage God's money in a way where you know exactly what's left in each envelope at any point during the month. There's also our learn tab where you can access the best content and biblical finance to grow in your understanding of God's way of handling money. And our community where you can post questions, get comments and ideas from other stewards on the journey. So download it today on our website, faithfi.com.

Just click app. All right, back to the phones we go. Tatasha, a first-time caller in Texas. Go right ahead, Tatasha. Hello, Mr. West.

Thank you so much for having me. My question is, I want to open up a nonprofit 5013C program for drug addicted people coming off the streets and needing to become clean. I want to have deliverance happen in these people's lives, show them, you know, what God requires in the heart and get those things out.

I am an extra addict and I can, I know that God is calling me into this direction for several years. And I want to implement deliverance, implement health, health and exercise. It's going to be called chemistry. That's what I want, change the chemistry of the mind and the soul and the body towards God's will and its purpose for their lives because they have a destiny. Hallelujah.

I just want to know how to do that. I think you need to start with a little more passion for this. No, I'm just kidding, Tatasha.

You've got all the passion you need. And by the way, did you say that you've been delivered from? Yes, ma'am. Praise the Lord that God has rescued you from this bondage.

Yes. I had several surgeries and things on my back. I began to get addicted to pain medication over years. And God was just pulling me saying, no, this is not where I want you to go.

I spent six years in the bottom, in the gutter, in the gutter, in the, in the, in a place where I knew I wasn't supposed to be as a child of the King. And then they put me on methadone. Methadone, people don't get off methadone. That's a government-given drug. They don't come on, they don't come off. God delivered me from methadone supernaturally and took the pain.

I didn't have no withdrawals or nothing. Wow, that's great. Well, obviously you've got a story to tell and a passion, a burden on your heart. And that's a great starting place. You know, there's several things you need to do here, I think, in terms of where you go from here. The first would be to create a business plan. And I realize we don't want to put God in a box, and yet He gave us a mind to ensure that we're thoughtful about whatever He's leading us to do.

And that's going to include where He leads, there will be resources available. And so I don't want you to go into incur a bunch of debt in order to do something like this. I want God to confirm this on your heart in terms of not only the, not the passion.

I mean, obviously the passion is there. This is something that has been born out of your own personal experience, and God rescuing you from bondage personally, and you want to share and help others with that, that's clear. But with that, I believe God's timing in part will be confirmed not only by the others around you that you trust, God-fearing men and women and people close to you that can affirm this calling on your life, but also your financial readiness, that God will provide the resources for you. And so we need to make sure that you do and have the funding, then you're going to need to form the corporation and apply for tax-exempt status. And that's going to cost you several thousand dollars, it's going to take some time, but you're probably going to want to find a CPA who specializes in this. So I'd probably talk to your pastor or somebody at your church, find out who's a believer, who's a certified public accountant who has some experience helping folks put all the documents together and put the filing together to file for that tax-exempt non-profit status 501c3 with the IRS. That's going to take some time, it's not going to be cheap, but it is going to be important if you want to be able to take tax-deductible charitable contributions to support your work. And then, I think as all of that comes together, you've got the clear passion and vision for where the Lord is leading, you've confirmed that with other people that are wise counselors that also trust Jesus as their Savior that can confirm that, you've got your financial readiness and a business plan for how you're going to operate for this first year, and you've got a professional council that can walk alongside you to set up the corporation and get the tax-exempt status in place.

I think all of those pieces, I don't want you to skip any of those in your passion. The Lord can use us, but we need to do it in His timing, and so I just want you to to temper yourself and not get ahead of the Lord and find yourself missing an opportunity to be a blessing to other people because you've kind of got out over your skis a little bit. And I'm not saying you're doing that, but I just want you to kind of walk slowly and methodically through all of these steps.

So I think your next step is to evaluate your financial readiness, to talk to some people around you that can confirm this calling on your life and to find that CPA that can help you with the non-profit filing and help you determine what are your startup costs going to be, compare that to what you have available in your financial resources, and then get a full understanding of what it's going to take to get that non-profit status filed. And so that you'll be ready, you know, once that comes to get going. So Tasha, listen, all the best to you. We're going to ask our faith and finance community to be praying for you as you endeavor into this wonderful ministry, and we appreciate your call today. May the Lord bless you. To North Carolina. Hi, Lori, go ahead.

Hi, I have a question. My brother-in-law left us some property when he died, and that was about a year ago, and we just recently sold it. How do we list that on taxes? Does that consider capital gains?

It is, yeah. Did you have a profit? Do you have a sense of what the market value was as of the date of death versus what you sold it for? Do you think it's increased? Not since he bought it, but since you inherited it.

Oh, okay. So since he died, when we inherited it, it's about the same price. Yeah, so you're probably not going to have any capital gains. You'll want a CPA to help you establish that cost basis so you can, you know, be able to defend that to the IRS. But essentially, as long as you inherited this, and it wasn't, you know, given to you by somebody placing you on the deed before death, but if you received it as an inheritance through a will or a trust upon the owner's death, then you get a stepped up cost basis, which just means that the cost basis is no longer what he paid for it.

It's the true market value as of the date of death, and then that is your new cost basis to determine whether you have a profit or a loss upon the sale at whether you turn around and sell it right away or you hold it for years following that. Does that make sense? Okay, yeah. And is that Schedule D too?

Yes, that would typically be reported on Schedule D. But again, this is a good time for you to get a CPA and make sure you're getting some wise counsel here, just given that this is a something a little out of the norm for you. Okay. All right. Thank you very much. Thank you. You are welcome. I appreciate that. God bless you. We appreciate your call today.

To Alabama. Hi, Jane. Go right ahead.

Yes, I have a question. My husband passed away in February. And of course, when that happened, I'm 88. His my Social Security ended and I received his. Okay, it's not that much. I have a little money in savings.

What I'm wondering is if there are any government programs to help me such as with food stamps, so I don't really know what's available. Is it all right to use that? Or should I use up the savings first? I'm trying to keep those so say something happens to the house or, you know, I have to take care of those things. Yes, ma'am.

Yes. Well, you know, I think the key is I would take full advantage of whatever is coming to you in terms of what options you have. I mean, I would, you know, contact, you know, local, see if there's any local government assistance there.

I mean, clearly, there are opportunities for food stamps if you qualify. Let's do this. I'm going to have Jane, one of our certified Christian financial counselors, call you if you're comfortable with that. And just go through your income and expenses and perhaps help you with a few ideas on how you can navigate just given your husband's passing. And I'm so sorry to hear that.

But just maybe be there as a sounding board to encourage you to pray with you, but also to help you think about how you're going to cover your expenses and getting everything in order. Is that okay? That sounds wonderful. Thank you very much. Okay, great.

This is not going to cost you anything. We're going to cover the cost of it, but this will be somebody who can walk alongside you in this process. So you stay on the line, we'll get your information, and we'll get one of our certified Christian financial counselors in touch with you. God bless you. To Texas, Sylvia, go right ahead.

How can I assist you? I want to know if I can still, since I'm married, if I can still collect my ex-husband's Social Security that I was getting, and he can collect from his deceased wife. Hmm, yeah. Generally speaking, I would reach out to the Social Security Administration on this, Sylvia, just to go over your specific situation. But generally speaking, once you remarry, you cannot receive benefits on your former spouse's record. That's what I thought. I just wanted to check.

Yeah, so there are a few exceptions to that, and that's why I'd reach out to the SSA at SSA.gov. But generally speaking, that's probably what you're going to find. All right, thank you. Sylvia, thanks for calling today. We appreciate you being on the program.

Well, we're about out of time today. Before we go, let me remind us why we do what we do here on this program every day. We gather for Faith and Finance Live because we recognize we all have a high calling.

We're money managers for the King of Kings, which means we're to be found faithful as we manage God's resources, faithfulness, obedience over a long period of time, applying the wisdom of God's word to every area of our lives, and that includes our finances. So thanks for being here today. Thanks for calling and for writing and for your emails. We love to do what we do and serving you to be wise stewards of God's money. I want to say thanks to my team today, Clara, Deb, Amy and Jim. Couldn't do it without them. Faith and Finance Live is a partnership between FaithFi and Moody Radio. We'll see you next time. God bless you. Bye-bye.