Lowering Energy Costs at Home this Winter

.... .... .... .... ..... .... .... ..... ... . ............. 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 dive in today. We're going to head to Maryland and welcome a first time caller, Helen. Go right ahead. Thank you for taking the call and thank you for your ministry.

Thank you. I would like to ask about for foreign taxes. We have received as a result of a sale out of the state some money and we would like to know how to report that on our income tax and do we need to pay taxes on that? Yeah.

This is the year, Helen. At the same time, there's something out of the ordinary if you don't normally use a CPA, I would use a CPA and have professional tax advice just to make sure you are reporting this properly. Generally speaking, the IRS will not tax a foreign inheritance that comes from someone who is not an American resident or citizen. That being said, you may need to report it to the IRS just for informational purposes if it exceeds a certain amount, I believe that's more than a hundred thousand dollars and you would use the IRS form 3520 to report that receipt of foreign gifts or an inheritance with your individual tax return.

But again, I think using a CPA this year to make sure that you report that properly and that everything's handled appropriately would be important. Okay. Sounds good. Thank you so much. All right, Helen. Thank you for your call today. Thank you. May the Lord bless you.

Bye bye. You know, here on this program each day, we want you to handle money God's way. You know, there's the world's way and then there's God's way. The world's way would say, well, your net worth is equal to your self worth. It would say that you should keep up with the Joneses and that you deserve the American dream, which again, there's nothing wrong with enjoying what God has given us. His resources that he owns and trusted to us as a gift.

He created everything and we should enjoy what we have, but we need to be careful and on our guard about attempting to redeem greed in the name of the American dream. And so we always need to consider all of our handling of money in light of scripture. And that's what we want you to do here on this program. But you know, as we say all the time, the good news is there are many, many benefits to handling your money God's way.

And let me review a few of these. I think this is just a helpful and important reminder for us from time to time. So what are the many benefits to handling money God's way? Well, I think the first one, and this is just so key, is it leads to a deeper relationship with the Lord. You know, following biblical principles in your financial choices means you're listening closely to what God wants for you. You're reading his word, you're trusting Christ to lead you. You see, when you invite God into this important area of your life, and by the way, just as a side note, I think often we miss that. We fail to invite God into our finances.

Perhaps we invite him into every other area of our life, but not this area of finances. When we do that, we begin to understand 1 Timothy 6, godliness with contentment is great gain. And that's a promise from God's word. Another benefit that comes with choosing God's way for your finances is peace.

I hear this from callers literally every day on this program. When we follow God's way of handling money, there is peace that comes with it. You see, the more you know God's heart about money and possessions, the more your actions and your attitudes can begin to line up with his truth. And your financial choices are made in Christ.

The result is peace because God is in control. You see, as it says in Romans 8, 6, the mind governed by the flesh is death, but the mind governed by the spirit is life and peace. Now, while worldly desires and attitudes will lead people astray, pursuing God's way in your financial life can bring about spiritual growth. You see, as you grow in godly wisdom, you understand that money is really just a tool to accomplish God's purposes. I would direct you to 1 Peter 2, 1-3.

He gives this advice, Therefore, rid yourselves of all malice and all deceit, hypocrisy, envy, and slander of every kind, like newborn babies crave pure spiritual milk, so that by it you may grow up in your salvation, that's the key, now that you have tasted that the Lord is good. A fourth benefit to handling your money God's way is the blessing of generosity. You see, God is the ultimate giver, and giving is definitely a part of God's plan for the Christian's financial life. When we give willingly and generously and freely and cheerfully, we're acknowledging God's ownership and lordship over everything. And of course, we see that plainly in 1 Chronicles 29-11, for everything is from you, and we only give you what we have received from you. And then Jesus himself confirms the blessings of generosity when he said in Luke 6-38, Give and you will receive, your gift will return to you in full, pressed down, shaken together to make more room for more, running over and poured into your lap. The amount you give will determine the amount you give back.

That's right out of God's Word. Now take note here that whatever you get back from your giving isn't just for you to accumulate, but for you to continue giving, and it may come not just in the form of financial means. This is not the prosperity gospel, God's not a cosmic ATM.

We give freely because it's a privilege, and we want to be about his activity, but we do know that there is blessing that comes with that, there's immense joy. Jesus himself said it is better to give than to receive. So what do your actions and attitudes about money reveal about you? If you're sold out to Jesus, following the Lord with all your heart, well, it's going to show up in your financial choices. I think the way we handle money is one of the clearest indicators into what's happening in our lives spiritually. So before we head to the phones here, let me just remind you, you can make your financial decisions according to God's principles, or according to secular worldly ideas.

I've only mentioned just a few of the benefits of following God's principles here, but there are a lot more, of course. You can read about them in God's Word. So take the time to dig into Scripture and discover what riches of wisdom he has in store for you.

And here's my experience, folks. You know, our financial journey is one of the key ways God shapes our spiritual journey. So when we lean into this, we can experience all that God has for us. It doesn't mean you'll be without financial hardship.

You will have difficulties, right? We live in a fallen world. There are going to be challenges, but we can trust God, and we can hold his money loosely, and we can use it as a blessing to enjoy and to give and to support the needs of others and to provide for our families. And when we do that, we, I believe, experience God's best.

I hope that's an encouragement to you today. That's what we want to do on this program is direct you back to God's Word and help you process through a biblical lens what it looks like to be that wise and faithful steward of all that God has entrusted to you. Before we head to our break, let me remind you, if you haven't downloaded the Faithfi app, we'd love for you to do that on our website. You can just head to faithfi.com, that's faithfi.com, just click app, and what you'll find is what I believe to be the best money management tool out there, plus our broadcast archives and the Faithfi community where stewards like you are posting questions every day and getting answers. Again, faithfi.com, just click app to learn more.

Now, just a reminder, we're not here today. Our team is away from the studio, so don't call in, but we had some great questions we lined up in advance and they're coming just around the corner. You're listening to Faith in Finance Live. This program is prerecorded, so we're not available to answer your calls, but you can email us your questions at askrob at faithfi.com. Let's dive in.

We're going to head to Alabama show. Thanks for calling. Go right ahead. Hello. So I just recently paid off all of my student loan debt. Wow. I'm absolutely debt free for the first time in a long time. That's great. I'm 23 years old.

I make about $48,000 a year, and I'm just wondering, how should I invest that money? Yeah. Boy, congratulations on that. That's a big deal, the fact that you're... Did you say you're 23? 23, yeah. With a combination of scholarships and not spending a lot of time in school, I was able to get that debt paid off very quickly.

Yeah. Congratulations. I graduated high school. I actually already had two years worth of credit already completed for college. Well done, Cho. That's incredible.

Well, I bet that feels really good to have that kind of off of your back now. And as you said, you're working, and this is a great time for you to start thinking about what it means to live as a wise and faithful steward. First thing I want you to do is start to learn God's way of handling money.

So when we're done here today, I want you to stay on the line. Robert's going to get your information, and we'll put a copy of Howard Dayton's book, Your Money Counts, in the mail to you. It'll just be our gift to you to get you started in the right direction and learning how to handle money God's way. I think the next thing for you to do is just establish that discipline of giving right up front through a systematic gift.

That's between you and the Lord, how much you give. But I would just start somewhere and set up an automatic gift every month as the Lord prospers you so that you can give back proportionately and cheerfully. Beyond that, I think the next step is for you to create what I call your emergency fund, and that really is the money that you will set aside for the unexpected. As a good rule of thumb, you total up all your expenses, and I'd have three to six months expenses in a savings account as a goal for you to fall back on when something comes out of the blue. Now that is predicated on you having a spending plan.

So if you don't have one, that's really the next step is for you to get a real accurate accounting of what does it take for you to live on a monthly basis. Not only the things you get a bill for, but the things you don't get a bill for. You might need to put a little money every month in a clothing account. What about gifts? Where you want to buy friends and family members' birthday and Christmas presents?

What about any media subscriptions you have for streaming services? All of that needs to go in, including a semiannual insurance payment that doesn't come around every month. So we've got to get all of that into the budget, and the idea is for you to live on less than that, so you have what we call margin or cushion. And that's what's going to be available to fund these longer-term goals, starting with that emergency fund. Beyond the emergency fund, I would look at what other short-term saving you need to do. So are you looking to buy a house? Well, we might want to start putting a certain amount per month away for that.

What about a car or replacing a car down the road? We'd like to eliminate any borrowing if possible, and maybe you start putting money every month into a savings account for that. Once you've identified those, then I think there's a great opportunity for you to begin to save for the long-term. I mean, you've got time on your side.

It was Einstein that called compounding the eighth wonder of the world, and he was right. It's a powerful source and force in your life if we understand how to use it for us in the form of investing and not against us in the form of debt with compound interest that's accumulating that has to be paid. Let me ask you this, Sho, do you have a retirement plan available to you at work? Well, I've got a 401k, but I haven't been paying into it much because I've been trying to focus on getting rid of my debt. Yeah, and I understand that, and I think that was great.

But now that you have a little margin, because at the very minimum you have what you were sending to the student loans every month that you have now available, do you know if your company offers any matching for your contributions to your 401k? They offer matching, but that's a benefit for when you work five years at the company, I think. Okay.

All right. I'd check into that just to be sure. There may be some matching now, and maybe it goes up, or it could be that it's all deferred until you reach that milestone of five years.

So I'd check that out. If they are offering any matching, I would take full advantage of that, because that's free money. I mean, let's say they match the first 3% of your contributions. Well, that's 100% return on your money immediately.

You're not going to get that anywhere else, so let's make sure we take advantage of that. If not, then I would open what's called a Roth IRA, R-O-T-H, and you're going to put in after-tax money, so you're going to get your paycheck, you're going to pay taxes on it, and then you're going to make a contribution to your Roth. You can put in up to 6,500 this year for 2023, or whatever you can.

You don't have to put in the whole amount. But I'd probably set up an automatic transfer into your Roth IRA every month, maybe equal to the amount you were sending to your student loans, and then get that invested. Now, you could use a robo-advisor, like the Schwab Intelligent Portfolios, if you wanted to pick the mutual funds to go in there. Maybe you pick from some of the faith-based investing mutual funds on our website at faithfi.com, because then you'd know that they're aligned with your values as a Christian. Or you could check out our friends at soundmindinvesting.org, and the Soundmind Investing newsletter could help you make those investment selections as well. But I think the bottom line is, I'd get that Roth open, and apart from any matching in your 401k, I'd start trying to get as much up to the limit into the Roth every year and get that invested, because you've got a lot of time on your side. I mean, imagine if what you're putting in today compounds for the next 40 years plus, you know, you're going to have quite a nest egg down the road. Yeah, I've been struggling with the fact that I've been looking for index funds that align with my beliefs, and you know, S&P 500 index funds, I mean, they're great or not, they grow great, but I don't want to buy into something that I'm not 100% confident in, and support the same things that I do, if that makes any sense.

It does make a lot of sense, and I love that at 23 you're thinking about this, and the good news show is you can absolutely invest today in a way that aligns with your values, but it's not going to be through an index fund, because when you buy an index, you got to take all the funds unless you do something called direct indexing, but that's probably not available to you right as you're starting out. So here's what I would do, I'd head to our website, faithfi.com, faithfi.com, click on the show, and scroll down and you'll see a list of all the faith-based investing fund families, Timothy, and One Ascent, and Eventide, and Guidestone, and if you pick one of those funds to get started with, you'll know you're investing aligned with your values in that rock. Much more to come just around the corner, stick around. Thanks so much for joining us today on Faith and Finance Live, I'm Rob West, your host.

Hey, our team is away from the studio today. We're not here, but we've got some great questions that we lined up in advance, I know you'll enjoy those. Folks, have you checked out recently our website at faithfi.com, if not, I'd encourage you to do that. You'll find our community there where you can post questions and comments, hear from others that are on the stewardship journey as well, you can also access our content, and check out the faithfi app, it's at faithfi.com.

Let's head right back to the phones, Rose in Texas, thank you for your patience, go ahead. So I needed to know, when is it a good time to file bankruptcy, how do you know that you need to file it, what are the advantages of it, and what are you supposed to accomplish, and what's God's biblical understanding of it? Yeah, I appreciate that, Rose, I mean, I think we need to try to avoid it at all costs, you won't find the word bankruptcy in the Bible, filing bankruptcy is not a sin, the Bible is clear the wicked borrows and does not repay, so we need to have an absolute commitment to repayment, but whether or not we take advantage of bankruptcy for legal protection as a part of that, prior to our desire to and ultimately our ability to repay as we're able to, you know, is just a modern legal mechanism that in some cases, you know, it makes sense to employ, you know, especially when it comes to a bankruptcy where you would reorganize the debt as opposed to trying to get it all discharged. We understand that things happen and through a series of circumstances, maybe it's poor choices, maybe it's just unforeseen, you know, life events, people can get into a situation where they don't actually have the ability to repay, and they can be forced into bankruptcy just for protection, but again, I don't think that's the issue. The question is your heart's desire to ultimately make good as you're able on your obligations and keep your commitments, and there's some wonderful examples, you know, that I can think of over the last hundred years where godly men and women have repaid significant amounts of money as the Lord provided, even in bankruptcy and even where it wasn't easy to pay it back because those that, you know, had the debts that were discharged said, I don't even know if I can take this, but you know, there are ways to get that paid back.

So I think that's the big idea. So the key for you here is to get some wise counsel, somebody who understands the counsel of scripture but who's also astute financially who can help you navigate this to really think through where are you today, what are your income and expenses, your assets and liabilities, and are you able to, you know, lean into your creditors and try to negotiate a payback that fits within your budget so that you can make progress toward these debts and keep them out of bankruptcy and default and, you know, judgments that might come against you through a court, or are you actually to a point where you do need to file bankruptcy and then separate from that, you can think about trying to repay according to your ability. Do you have somebody that's walking alongside you to help you make these decisions? No, my adult children have asked me what I think about it, and I just wanted to know what kind of advice to give them.

Yeah. So I think the key idea here is that according to God's Word, we have to keep our commitments. And the Bible is very clear, the wicked borrows and does not pay back. So we need to have at the core of our thinking in this area, an absolute commitment to repayment. But the question is, how do we go about that? And we don't want to run from our creditors, we want to run to them, we want to open up dialogue, we want to try to work with them, we need to do our part in dialing back our lifestyle and cutting expenses wherever possible. And that's not just where it's convenient, we need to make the hard choices about cutting back so we can honor our commitments, because our integrity, our commitments, our ability to repay is all on the line.

And it's a part of our witness as Christ followers. And so we need to have a commitment to repayment. And we can't see bankruptcy as a quick fix to get out from under it or a quote unquote a clean start, so I can just start over. No, we made a commitment to honor our obligations, and we need to do that.

Now, if somebody is forced into bankruptcy, again, that's where I'm saying I don't think that's necessarily wrong, as long as the preeminent idea is I have an absolute commitment to repayment. So that would be the counsel that I would give them as you respond to this. Okay. All right. Well, thank you so much. Appreciate your help.

All right, Rose. Listen, if it's credit card debt, have them reach out to our friends at Christian credit counselors.org. They may be able to help them get started in getting these interest rates down, giving them some godly counsel, helping them get on a budget and get these debts paid off once and for all.

Christian credit counselors.org may be a great resource for you. Thanks for calling today. Let's head to Oklahoma.

Hi, Matthew. Go ahead, sir. All right, sir. Thank you so much for taking my call. Enjoy your show.

I'll make it quick. My wife and I, we have several children, we have six, and we are at a point right now where we have almost paid everything off completely, pretty much down to nothing. So all of our vehicles are paid for, we paid off some land, and purchased some mobile, and that's paid off as well. And so we're getting to a point where we're trying to figure out when the right time would be to build. We want to build like a metal barn house, just something simple, but a lot of open space for our kids to run around in, but I have available to me a VA loan, but right now the interest rates are so bad. When is a good time to consider that, and what other stipulations should we... Because to be very honest with you, I really hate debt, and that's part of the reason why I really felt like the Lord said specifically for me to sell our home, and we've made enough improvements to where it actually worked out well for everything to be... I mean, we did very well, and paid everything off. That's incredible. On a new vehicle for my wife. Hey, the Lord's faithful, man. It's not me. Well, well done though, my friend.

I'll tell you, you've applied his principles, and made the hard choices, and I'm delighted to hear that. Matthew, so now that you are debt-free, how much surplus do you guys have every month? Well, right now we... It kind of depends. I work for the state, and so we end up having probably... Because we're having to rent a place right now until we finish off. I'm doing some changes, just rehabbing this home.

We're almost there, so I guess the answer to that question, probably around 500 to 1,000 a month. Okay. All right, and do you have an emergency fund of three to six months expenses? We don't have it fully stocked. We have probably 1,000 right now. Okay.

Maybe 1,500. Okay. It's not huge, but it's a start.

Yeah. Normally, I would like to have one a lot bigger than that, but... Yeah. Well, I think that's your first priority, and I love the fact that now that you are debt-free, you've got this margin, so you should be able to build that up quickly if you keep your lifestyle in check, and really watch your spending. With regard to the home projects, what's already committed to, and then what are you wanting to do beyond that? You know, sir, I think what I really love to be able to do is build my wife and my children this home.

I don't know. We bought eight acres of land, and we live in the country. We eat a lot of deer, chicken, and just... I mean, basically, we're trying to get to where we kind of have a small homestead, and we live a pretty simple life. We're not really extravagant people.

We just... So, I guess that would be the goal. I'd love to have probably a 40 by 60 home, something where it's got enough space for them to run around.

Yeah. I think the key is just thinking through what is it going to take for you to have a substantial down payment? What's it actually going to cost for you to build this house?

Construction projects and expenses are really high right now because of the rapid rise in interest rates, the unstable global economy, production delays, supply chain. It's really a challenging environment right now, so let's do this. If you can hold the line, I've got to take a quick break. When we come back, we'll finish up on the other side. We'll be right back. We're so glad you've joined us for Faith and Finance Live today. Here in our final segment, let me remind you not to call in because we're not live today, but we'd love for you to stick around and enjoy the rest of the program. Before the break, we were talking to Matthew.

He and his wife are completely debt-free. They own some land. They're interested at some point in building a home that they would make into somewhat of a homestead where they could live off of their land and have some plenty of space for their kids to run around and enjoy. Just wondering in this challenging environment with high interest rates and challenging construction costs, what's the right timing on all of this, given that $500 to $1,000 a month, and that's what you said, Matthew, you would have surplus potentially, is that right? Yes, sir.

Okay. Yeah, so I think that's the key there is to start building that emergency fund. Now, have you actually start to put together a budget? Have you met with a contractor? Do you have a feel for what you would need to spend to build the home you're imagining?

No, yes, sir. I did meet with one a while back, and it was pretty high, so we were just kind of, you know, just put everything on pause for now, put it on hold. Well, and I think the key is, I mean, it sounds like you don't have any savings, specifically earmarked for this house yet either, right, to go in with a down payment?

No, sir, not at this moment. We went ahead and liquidated everything so we could get to this point, but we're pretty happy with what we have, but I would love to do this for them, you know? I'm okay with what we have, but I would love for them to have what they dream of, you know?

Yeah, no, I understand, and I think everybody listening resonates with that idea as we think about what we want to be able to give to our families. I think the key is that you do it in a way that's prudent so you guys don't get overextended, and so I think right now let's focus on building that emergency fund, and then let's pivot to really starting to sock money away for that down payment. So you're probably going to end up getting a construction to permanent loan. The construction loan would fund the construction and then you can convert it to a permanent loan, but I'd want you to go into that with a good 20%, you know, as a down payment if you can, so you've got immediate equity in it and, you know, you're not trying to finance the whole thing, and that's going to give you time to just enjoy what you've got, maybe do a few more renovations, it sounds like you're pretty handy in doing some of that, and then look toward the future where you're really praying about the right timing on when to actually build, and I think, you know, the construction costs right now are still considerably higher than they were pre-pandemic. Most folks, economists and those in the housing industry believe that we'll see more stabilization in housing prices, you know, in the latter part of this year and into next year, especially if we were to hit a recession. The challenge is that, you know, I don't see, you know, them coming down in any substantial way, and so, you know, I think the key for you is while you're saving, you know, to wait out the interest rate reduction, that probably is the relief that you will get, you know, we expect to end next year probably in the mid fives as opposed to the, you know, sevens that we're seeing today on mortgage interest rates and hopefully then as the Fed starts dropping the rates to stimulate the economy, once we get beyond whatever the recession will look like down the road, then, you know, I think the opportunity for you at that point might be to look toward, you know, borrowing at that point for that construction loan and hopefully, you know, we will see construction prices not only stabilizing but maybe dipping a bit post recession and we'll see much lower interest rates. Hopefully that syncs up with you having a little more cash available that you can put toward this. Does that make sense? Yes, sir. I got it. And so I need to save for the 20% down payment and make sure the emergency fund is fully funded.

That's right. And wait on the interest rate to drop. That's it and maybe start along the way, you know, once you're getting closer and you think like you're ready, start talking to a, you know, contractor and, you know, pulling together your blueprints and actually getting a real, you know, close estimate on what is this actually going to cost you so you've got some, you know, ballpark on, you know, what it's ultimately going to need to be factored into your budget with regard to that mortgage payment. So listen, all the best to you, Matthew, you sound like a great dad and delighted to hear you guys are making so much progress and shoring up your financial foundation. Thanks for your call today. May the Lord bless you. Let's head to Virginia.

Hi, Margaret. Go right ahead. Yes, I'm looking to find a CK a I have a flexible rate loan at a bank in the is about $20,000 and I'm having a problem with the interest rate keep flickering. And I wanted to talk to someone and see if I can get a more flat rate. Okay, so I can get that paid off.

Yeah. Yeah, so the certified kingdom advisor would not be the person you want to go to they help with estate planning and financial planning and wealth management, but you really need a lender that could help you take a look at this. What kind of loan is it that you have?

Is it a personal loan? Oh, yeah. Okay.

And you want to replace Go ahead. Well, it's a second mortgage like mortgage. I see. It's a second mortgage.

Okay. So tell me about your first mortgage. How much do you owe on it? And what's the interest rate? My first mortgage is paid off. Oh, great. All right.

So this home equity loan that you have or second mortgage, how much do you owe on it about 20,000? Did you say? Yes. And is it variable? Or it fixed interest? It's variable.

That's why I'm calling because I was trying to get a fixed rate. Got it. Got it. Okay, very good. Yeah. So you I would probably check with our friends at Movement Mortgage if you do you use the internet Margaret? Much, but I could get someone to help me. Okay. You could go to movement.com forward slash faith that just tell them movement.com forward slash faith and and let them know that you're looking to refinance a home equity loan or a line of credit probably.

Yes. Okay, and they could probably help you with that. Otherwise you could go to to our friends at Christian Community Credit Union at join Christian community.com either of those would give you a great resource to consider what other options you have to perhaps replace this variable rate loan with something fixed. Now the only challenge is if you know given where interest rates are right now, you're going to be locking it in at these higher rates the variable rate will the only benefit to that I don't like them in a typical environment because you know, I don't want to lock in a low rate and I want to protect you against it going higher. The problem is we're at the probably the top end of the interest rates right now. So if you refinance this to a fixed rate home equity loan or second mortgage, you're locking it in at this higher rate. So as rates fall next year and the year is following you're going to be stuck at this higher rate. So one of the benefits to the variable rate now that you've already kind of you know, ridden it up is it would allow you to ride it back down. Does that make sense?

Yeah, I thought about that. But I don't know, you know, you never know when they're going to move the interest rate again. No, you're right. And we don't know that. And we'll probably, you know, we certainly will watch that. But we do know that we're probably not going much higher from here. And so even if it's not going to go down for a while, we know eventually they will come back down.

And that variable rate is going to allow you to take advantage of those lower rates automatically whenever that happens. And I agree with you, we don't know when that will be. Okay. Okay. Thanks for your advice. Okay, Margaret.

Wait, wait a little longer. Okay, that sounds like a good plan. God bless you. Thanks for being on the program today. We appreciate it very much. Well, folks, you know, we've covered a lot of ground today. We've tackled home construction and mortgages, and we've talked about investing and how you get started investing and you know, what it all comes down to is, it's actually quite simple. God owns it all, we're stewards, money is a tool to accomplish his purposes. And one of the key ways he shapes our spiritual journey is through our financial journey.

Now, why is that? Well, think about this, it's a tangible, perhaps the most tangible expression every day that you and I make or demonstrate that is evidence of what's important to us and where we place our value and our trust. And so the question we all have to ask ourselves, and this includes me, is what story does my money management, my spending say about what's truly most important to me? And maybe I need to take a step back and realize that the purpose of money is not to have more of it. The purpose of money, which is, by the way, a blessing, a gift from God, is to accomplish a set of goals, but those goals should be driven by our values. What's most important to us as believers? What does it look like to live with contentment and the joy of giving and answering the question, how much is enough, both for my lifestyle and my accumulation? What does that look like and how can I be found faithful in obedience in trusting the Lord and handling his money wisely? And if I made a mess of things in the past, that's okay, I can leave that at the foot of the cross and start from here forward to make the hard decisions to live within my means and avoid debt wherever possible and have some margin or some cushion in my financial life and set long-term goals because I know the longer term, the perspective, the better the decision I'm going to make today, and then ultimately to give generously because giving breaks the grip of money over my life. That's the goal here, folks, and that's what we want to help you do in an encouraging and hopeful way on this program. In fact, we hear from many of you with testimonies about how God is using this ministry to do just that.

Let's listen to one of those now. I just want to first share with you and your listeners that I as a single woman and then married have followed all the principles that you have taught and with Larry Perquet's teachings about God's principles on economics, and I'm just letting your listeners know you do what's been preaching the truth and God will move you mightily. There's nothing greater to be free from working in the world system and able now to serve completely with God and give his money back into his kingdom. That's the power of the Lord at work is you apply his wisdom, not mine, not anyone else's, the Lord's wisdom to your financial life, and here's my experience, folks.

When you do that, it's one of the key ways God shapes your spiritual journey in your financial journey. If you'd like to support this work, you can do that online at faithfi.com. Just click here. That's faithfi.com. Just click here.

Faith in Finance Live is a partnership between Moody Radio and FaithFi. Thanks to my team today. Couldn't do it without them. We'll see you next time. Bye-bye.