Financial Discipleship for Families, Part 2

If you have children, you no doubt want them to become faithful followers of Christ.

So how exactly do you do that? Hi, I'm Rob West. Whenever you take on an important task, it's vital to have a plan. That's certainly true for raising faithful children. Brian Holtz is here today to help you actively disciple your children in a framework you may not have considered. Then it's on to your calls at 800-525-7000.

That's 800-525-7000. This is Faith & Finance Live, biblical wisdom for your financial journey. Well, our guest Brian Holtz joins us again today. Brian is the incoming CEO of one of our favorite ministries, Compass Finances God's Way. He's also the author of Financial Discipleship for Families, Intentionally Raising Faithful Children. Brian, great to have you back with us. Thanks, Rob.

It's great to be with you again. Brian, you were here last month to talk about this book, and we were barely able to scratch the surface, so perhaps we can pick up the discussion again. I know your goal is to help parents train their children as financial disciples, so let's define that. What is a financial disciple?

It's actually exactly what it sounds like. Financial is simply meaning that it's relating to money and possessions, and we know a disciple is a person who learns and applies the teachings of Jesus. So a financial disciple is simply someone who learns, applies, and multiplies the Bible's teachings on money and possessions. Now, you write that financial discipleship has five pillars, so why don't we walk through those today?

Sure. So the first is ownership. This is the realization that God owns it all. He doesn't just own the 10% of our modern tithe or even the 23 and a third percent of the Old Testament tithe. 1 Chronicles 29, 11 tells us that everything in the heavens and earth is his, and Psalm 24, 1 says the earth is the Lord's and all it contains. He was, he is, and he always will be the owner of all things.

Next is surrender. So if it's all God's, then what's our part in this thing? Well, we're called to be stewards or managers. 1 Corinthians 4, 2 teaches us that it's required of stewards that they be found faithful, and being faithful means using all that's been entrusted to us to achieve his goals and to grow his kingdom rather than our own. Next, we come to choice.

Choice is where the rubber meets the road. This is about following through with our commitment to handle our finances God's way. My favorite teaching on this comes from Matthew 7, 24 through 27. This is the parable of the wise and foolish builders. In this parable, Jesus confronts us with our tendency to hear what he says but not actually apply it. If we're to be wise builders, we have to actually do what he's instructed.

Next, we go to multiplication. Once we've navigated these tough decisions and chosen to follow God's instruction, we have to share it with others. The great commission in Matthew 28, 18 through 20 tells us to go and make disciples of all nations, teaching them to obey all that he's commanded. Jesus's vision for us is never to keep it to ourselves.

We have to put this lamp on a stand for the whole world to see. Finally is eternal focus, and this is a return back to why we do this in the first place. We don't do it for the here and now. Life is so short and eternity is so long, and scripture is clear that what we do here and now will impact our eternity forever. We need to stay focused on the eternal outcomes of our financial decisions here on earth. Well, those are so important, and I love that you've broken those spiritual components down to how we can really affect financial discipleship in our kids' lives. But you also write about the importance of using practical opportunities.

Share a few of those with us. Absolutely. Practical opportunities are really about giving our kids and grandkids appropriate chances to put God's financial principles into practice. So for example, work and income. Have we given our children and grandchildren appropriate responsibilities and rewarded their efforts? Have we given them opportunities to give and to spend? Do our children and grandchildren have financial responsibilities and freedom to make decisions on how to use the money? Planning and budgeting. Have we taught them to count the cost of financial decisions, helping them realize that a decision to buy something today is truly a decision to not buy something tomorrow? And accounting for their finances. Do we walk alongside them, helping them remember the financial goals they had set and offering them wise counsel?

Studies show that up to 90% of learning is done through personal experience. So we need to give our kids and grandkids practical opportunities to apply God's financial principles. Oh, this is so good. I can't wait for our listeners to get a copy of this. Now, I understand you have a great way for them to do that, right?

Absolutely. They can buy Financial Discipleship for Families on our website, compassone.org, the word compass, the number one dot org. And if you buy two or more, you get a 33% discount because we want people to read this with a friend, a coworker, anybody they can, because we're all about discipleship. That's great. Brian, thanks for stopping by. Thank you, Rob. That's Brian holes with compass finances God's way. We'll be right back with your financial questions. Stick around. Well, it's great to have you with us today on faith and finance live.

I'm Rob West. All right. Big news out today from the federal reserve.

That's right. They're going to hold interest rates steady and that's big news in and of itself, although it was expected, but what's moving the markets today are comments from Federal Reserve Chairman Powell about rate cuts coming in 2024. The headline says he's indicating at least three cuts coming in 2024. The market, of course, loving the news. The Dow Jones up 500 points to now north of 37,000, which is a new all-time high.

Really interesting. The S&P 500 up about 1.3%, the NASDAQ up the same. So the market's liking what the federal reserve is dealing out today, holding steady on rates, but it's those comments indicating those cuts coming in 2024, hopefully indicating that we're going to see a soft landing. The other news in that report was that they lowered their inflation forecast for 2024, seeing one of their core measures of inflation falling to 2.4%. So that's really interesting as well, seeing inflation coming down and he explained why they saw that. Their target, of course, 2%. A lot of folks wondering whether they were going to be able to get there next year and that was weighing on the markets that perhaps at least they were going to have to leave rates higher for longer.

Jerome Powell indicating maybe that's not going to be necessary. So all that moving the markets, your 401k will like that, that's for sure. All right, let's dive into your questions today here in just a moment. The number to call is 800-525-7000.

Again, that's 800-525-7000. We'd love to hear from you with whatever is on your mind financially speaking and so you can call right now, get in on the conversation. We started today by talking about raising money smart kids, specifically financial disciples. You know, here's the big idea.

As we prepare to launch our future adults, we need to make sure they have two critical pieces. Number one is the financial literacy, the skills they need to manage money. The other piece is that biblical worldview of money. So they need to understand that God owns it all, that they're stewards or managers of God's money, that 100% belongs to him and that we're to be found faithful. They need to know that God's word speaks extensively to money and how it can compete with our hearts for lordship, that our hearts follow our money. That's clear in God's word, that it's better to give than to receive, that we should live with contentment, not trying to get caught up in the comparison trap.

I mean, all of these themes that we see in Scripture, that life does not consist in the abundance of your possessions and that you should be rich toward God, making him your ultimate treasure. We've got to teach them that. We also have to teach them critical financial skills so they're ready to navigate the practical details of personal finance. Well, a little later in the broadcast today, I'm actually going to mention a few of those must-have financial skills.

So if you have a Gen-Zer in your life, perhaps you can encourage them in their biblical financial journey with some of these skills that I'll share with you today. And again, we're taking your questions as well. We've got lines open. We're ready for you at 800-525-7000. You can call right now. All right, let's head back to the phones, actually to our first caller. We're going to go to Missouri. Hi, Christina. How can I help?

Hi. So just my husband and I, very overwhelmed with credit card debt, about $150,000. And we are just super overwhelmed, not sure how to get out of it.

Been trying to avoid bankruptcy for 10 years. Yeah. Well, I can understand that.

I know, Christina, that's got to be weighing heavily on you guys. Let me ask you, are you able to make the minimums now? I mean, which would probably be at what, around $5,000 a month? It's close to that. And we were to a point where we're not, with food going up, and like my child needs organic food, she has histamine problems. So food is outrageous for us. So with that, we're kind of to the end where we're not going to be able to. I've negotiated like zero to 3% interest on five-year paydowns with all of them, but a few. But it's still massive.

I mean... Yeah, I can imagine. And so have you gotten behind on them or have you found a way to keep them all current? Most of them are current. I've gotten behind on one that refuses to do anything and it's 30% interest.

They won't. So that one is like three months past due. I just pay $100 a month. That's all I can. Yeah. Okay. And have you resolved what got you into this you know, massive amount of credit card debt in the first place or are you continuing to add to these?

Yes. So it was a divorce. My husband's divorced. We had to take her back to court and all that stuff.

And then I had medical debt about $50,000, the one on credit cards too. So those are resolved. It's just now digging. Yeah. Got it. All right.

Have you looked into credit counseling, what's often called debt management? Yeah. Now they said 9.9% and I negotiated like over $120,000 of it, zero to 3%. So the payment, we all would actually go up. Okay. But you don't have to put all of the cards in.

So could there be any of the cards that perhaps have been stubborn like that one at 30 that they may have a credit counseling rate that you could slide that one into at least? I could look at that. I just, I don't know how I'm going to afford it like we're getting. Yeah. Yeah. No, I get it. Well, here's the thing. I mean, obviously this is going to require somebody to get into the details with you.

At the end of the day, it is what it is. I love that you've tried to keep this out of bankruptcy and you may get forced into bankruptcy just given the size of this debt. I love that you want to try to honor this and get it paid back.

Obviously you can only do what you can do, especially with the ongoing expenses related to the unique situation you're in with the food costs, especially given the condition. So I would probably reach out to our friends at christiancreditcounselors.org. I'd also love to just provide a certified Christian financial counselor, Christina, to come alongside you and your husband just to take a look at the spending plan, you know, analyze the debt, just give you maybe a fresh set of ideas on how you might be able to navigate this. I mean, at the end of the day, this is, you know, we've got to have the income to cover this massive debt every month on top of just your basic living expenses. I expect you've covered, you've cut just about every place you can. But, you know, if we want to continue to try to avoid bankruptcy, if that's possible at all, obviously is if you let these go, you know, into collections, you know, given the size of them, you know, some of them, all of them may come after you with a judgment.

And obviously you'd love to avoid that. So I'd be happy to provide a counselor that could, you know, actually work through all this with you over a video call over several sessions just to see if if you all can come up with a plan. Would that be helpful?

Yes, thank you so much. I appreciate it. Well, I'd be happy to do that. All right, let's do this.

So you stay on the line. We'll get your information and we'll get a certified Christian financial counselor in touch with you. We'll cover the cost of it just as our gift to you. And let's see if we can't make some progress there. Keep us posted.

We'll certainly ask the Lord to intervene here, but we'd love to hear the rest of the story as this plays out. Thanks for being on the program today. We appreciate it.

Well, folks, we're going to head to our first break here in a moment. We've got two lines open at 800-525-7000. Let me mention, this is a big week for us here at Faith and Finance. We have a generous donor that has put up a $50,000 match between now and Friday the 15th. And so every gift that you make is going to be doubled between now and Friday at the end of business. So if you'd like to support our work here as we press toward our year-end goal of $250,000, this week, dollar for dollar up to $50,000 is matched. And so this would be a great time for you to come alongside us and say, I want to be there for you. I want to support Faith Phi and all the work that you do on this radio broadcast and in the app. Just head to faithphi.com and click Give.

A gift of any amount would be doubled today. We'll be right back. Hey, great to have you with us today on Faith and Finance Live.

I'm Rob West. We'd love to hear from you today. Two lines open at 800-525-7000. We're taking your calls and questions on anything financial. Let's go right back to the phones.

Gene in Florida, go right ahead. Good afternoon. Thank you for taking my call.

Sure. I just passed my retirement age and I started collecting money from social security, something like that. And I have 67 grand from a former employer. And I just received a letter from them. They want to know what I want to do if I want to collect some money every month. But someone suggest that I should, you know, roll it over or receive a lump sum money from them.

What do you suggest I should do? Yeah. So just to clarify, this is a 401k with a previous employer, correct? Yes. Yes. Okay.

Yeah. What we would generally recommend here, Gene, is that you roll it out to an IRA unless you were going to roll it into a new 401k with a new employer. Are you still working and do you have a new 401k?

Yes, I got another one. But in the former employer, I left them more than 15 years ago. And I have a new account right now with my new employer right now. I have 401k.

Right. But have you inquired about rolling that old 401k into the new one? I don't know if I have to do that. If I can do that, you know, I would do it.

Yeah. Well, you can. From a tax standpoint, the question is whether your plan administrator will allow you to.

Most of them will. So I would make that your first call. The nice thing about that, Gene, is it would keep things fairly simple. So you wouldn't have multiple accounts to keep up with. You'd have all of your retirement money in one 401k and then you could just focus on continuing to add to that and build it over time. Select the investments that are appropriate for your age and risk tolerance. If they tell you when you call your current employer's 401k plan administrator that you can't roll an old 401k in, then I would roll that out to an IRA, an individual retirement account. You would have to decide how you want to manage it, whether you want to try to find somebody to manage it for you or you want to manage it yourself.

And depending on the decision that you make there, you'd open the custodian or the account with the custodian that makes the most sense based on how it's going to be managed. So for instance, you could go to Charles Schwab or Fidelity, open an IRA account, and then you would just roll the 401k into that IRA. At that point, you could then begin investing it or somebody could invest it for you. The nice thing about that is that's not creating a taxable event. So that money would stay in a pre-tax environment and continue to grow. And then the idea is that you would tap into that in retirement when you need it. But there's no reason to pull it out now and pay taxes on it because then if you turn around and invest it, not only have you created a big tax liability, but now all the gains along the way when it's reinvested are going to be subject to capital gains tax. And you don't want that.

You want to keep this in the tax deferred environment, either in your new 401k or in that IRA. Does that make sense? Okay. It makes sense. It makes sense.

Yeah. The only challenge you're going to have is $67,000 is probably below the minimum of most registered investment advisors, money managers. So you're probably going to have trouble getting somebody to take this on for you. Although our friends at soundmindinvesting.org would probably be able to help you with this. But most typical advisors will have minimums that are more than $67,000. So check with your 401k administrator.

If that doesn't work out, you could visit soundmindinvesting.org and see if they can help you manage it inside an IRA. Okay? Okay. All right.

Good advice. Thank you. Very good. Yes, sir. Jean, thanks for calling today. Let's go to Lewiston, Idaho.

Kim, you're next on the program. Go ahead. Yeah, thank you for taking my call.

You're welcome. So our church is doing a special Advent offering. And I've been praying and reading Scripture and trying to figure out what is the right amount to give for our household for that offering.

And I'm just really struggling with what the kind of the right answer is. Yeah. Well, let me ask you, are you married? Yes. Okay. And do you and your husband normally make these giving decisions together?

We do. And, you know, as soon as the church announced that he threw out a mount and I said, I want to pray about it first. I want to make sure we're giving the right amount. Yeah.

I'm not opposed to the amount he said. Sure. But I kind of am the one that kind of monitors the finances. Yeah.

And I'm just trying to figure out that balancing of stewardship of saving for needed expenses versus trusting God and giving. Yeah. Yeah.

That's our map. Well, I think that's a great question, Kim. You know, so what I would say is if we go to Scripture, I think the passage here from the Apostle Paul, when he was writing to the church in Corinth in 2 Corinthians, he says, Each of you should give as you have decided in your heart to give, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver. Now, that still leaves you with the question, okay, so what's the amount?

And I realize there's not an answer here. And I think that's in part to drive us back to the Lord. Now, I love that you've been praying about it.

I love that your husband's thrown out a number. I think that, you know, the two of you together hopefully can pray through it and come to a decision as to how that fits into your financial plan. I think you need to follow the leading of the Lord, but I would say that your current financial condition tells a story. And so we certainly wouldn't want to go into debt, you know, to give, but there may be times where God leads us to give something that, you know, on paper doesn't necessarily make sense, and yet we trust God as our provider. If you're looking at your overall plan, I would just say if you're, you know, out of credit card debt, you've got an emergency fund, you're living within your means, and you've got the ability to do more, I would just kind of pray through what that appropriate amount is given all of your competing priorities for both having cushion in your life in terms of your spending plan, having that emergency fund to fall back on, funding the long term.

But at the end of the day, you can't out give God. And so, you know, I would just continue to ask the Lord as you review your finances and pray about it to give you a number. And then I think at that point, you and your husband come together and say, hey, let's, you know, take what we've both heard from the Lord on this on and in light of our financial position and condition, let's decide on a number.

And unfortunately, I think that's the way to arrive at it. We'll be right back. Thanks for joining us on Faith and Finance Live. We're headed toward year end, a big time for us here in these last couple of weeks of the year to hear from you, our faithful listeners and supporters as we press toward our year end goal. So grateful that one of our listeners stepped up and said, I want to fund a $50,000 match, dollar for dollar match for every gift to faith by this week only. So today, tomorrow and Friday will be the final three days of this dollar for dollar match. If you'd like to make a gift of any amount, it will be doubled. It would be an incredible blessing to us as we press toward our ultimate year end goal of $250,000. You can do so at faithfi.com slash impact. That's faithfi.com slash impact.

And thanks in advance. Let's head back to the phones today. North Georgia, Vida, thank you for calling.

How can I help? Yes, sir. Thank you for taking my call. I've got a son who just turned 13 years old and he is, he is rare. He's taken an interest in investing and he's the type of kid that saves his money. A couple of years ago, my wife and I told him that if he saved a thousand dollars, we would go ahead and match it. And so he is getting very close and now I'm kind of getting nervous about having to hand him over a thousand dollars. Uh, but he, he would be a wonderful steward of it. And lately he's been gifted with small amounts of precious metals and silver and gold, and he's taken an interest in seeing the values fluctuate.

Um, he's content with what, with what he's been given. So I guess my question for you, I heard at the beginning of the program was the, um, the making financial disciples. So I'm just curious what, um, as a parent, what could our next steps be in directing him to, uh, continuing to be, uh, smart with his money? Yeah, I love this Vida, you know, this is really exciting that he's taken an interest in it.

Obviously God's wired him, uh, to have an interest in this, and this can be something that man could really be, or will be a blessing to him, whether it's just as he manages what God entrusts to him in the days ahead or, and, or, uh, as he helps others, maybe this is, ends up being a career path, who knows. But in the meantime, I think just harness, uh, this desire to learn and, and grow and understand, uh, I love that he's been watching the fluctuations in the price of gold. That's what I would advise on any stock investing. You know, typically we would say we want to be well diversified with any investing that we do.

And so, you know, we might look at indexes, we might look at a mutual fund when we're just starting out. So rather than owning one or two or three companies, we can own hundreds of companies. The only place where I recommend deviating from that approach is in a case like this, where, you know, he may want to pick out a couple of companies that he, maybe he buys their products or he enjoys what they offer a product or a service. Um, you know, maybe he's, you know, seeing a company as he's been passing by and he's noticed that the stores are always full and, and so he wants to be an investor. And I think that could be a great way to introduce him to not only the precious metals, but being a, a partial owner of an actual company that has real sales and earnings and he can keep up with the news. And maybe he sits in on the, the virtual quarterly shareholder meetings and listens, and here's the company CEO talk about and the CFO, you know, the performance for the last quarter and where things are headed in the future. I mean, I think that could be just a great option for him, you know, as he continues to grow in this area. So I think, you know, perhaps setting up something like, you know, one of the apps that's great for this is called Stash. There's a number of them out there that just have great smartphone apps. Robinhood would be another, you know, you want one where you can buy fractional shares because he's probably going to want to buy some companies where, you know, he may not even be able to afford one share of the company.

And that's okay because he can buy through fractional shares, you know, you know, even a one, you know, less than 1% of a company or of the stock even. So I think I would head in that direction just kind of as a next step. The second thing I do is make sure you introduce him to the idea of creating a spending plan. Our FaithFi app can help with that at faithfi.com.

Click on app, it's free. If you don't connect to your institutions and so he could log, you know, the amount he's putting in each of his envelopes and keep track of what's for giving and saving and investing. So that would be another option. And then thirdly, if he's a reader, I'd love to send you the Soundmind Investing Handbook because this could really introduce him to some of the more, you know, complexities of investing, the different types of investing, but through a lens of Scripture so he understands kind of the biblical viewpoint on investing. How does that sound though?

That sounds, it sounds great, it really does. He works the summer job, we have a market garden, I'm a teacher so I've got the summer off and so he's also learning people skills, going with me to the markets and just interacting with people and making sales and giving change and I think those are all valuable skills. So I think this book would be an excellent resource for him. Excellent.

Well, we're delighted to do it. So you stay on the line, we'll get your information, we'll send that book out to you as our gift to you to be able to pass on to him. Again, it's called the Soundmind Investing Handbook and we appreciate your call today. All the best as you shepherd that young financial disciple. Thanks for calling. Let's go to Florida.

Hi, Jan. How can we help? Hi, I have a $4,000 tax liability that will be due in April for 2023. We do not have W-2 income anymore so we're not contributing to the IRA that we have. I was wondering if I could take the $4,000 out of my uninvested IRA, it's just a bank IRA and or use my savings account which draws a little interest. But yeah, the $4,000 we need to have by April 15th.

Yeah, very good. Well, yeah, you mentioned a couple of options there. Let me ask on the savings account, if you were to pull this $4,000 out, what would you have left in savings? About $100,000.

Okay. Yeah, so that makes a lot of sense because you would be paying, the IRS is charging 7% interest right now. Obviously, you want to make sure you're in compliance anyway and so you're not earning 7% on this money so it makes sense for you to go ahead and pull it out. The IRA would, if you pull the money out, it would create a taxable event. You'd at least have to add that $4,000 to your taxable income so now you know even more in the following year. And beyond that, if you're not 59 and a half, then you have a 10% penalty on top of it. So I think given the amount you have in savings, it's probably a no-brainer here just to pull that out of savings and pay that liability. Well, just the only reason I hesitate is the savings is we're buying a new house, we're leaving Florida, and the savings is accumulating so that we can pay off our home. Our mortgage is 3% and it's relatively easy and we can't contribute to the IRA any longer anyway. And we're 66 and 67.

We're past any penalty phase. Okay. Yeah, very good. The home, you said you're leaving Florida. Are you selling a Florida home? Yes. Okay. So why do you need to pay it off before you sell it?

Could you just sell it and then use the proceeds to pay off the any mortgage and then add what remains to the $100,000 to buy whatever you're going to buy out of state? That's fine, but we're being asked by the new builder to come up with money ahead of time. I see. And so how much do you need for the new home that you're building?

That's going to be $330,000. Okay. Let's do this. I want to make sure we get to the conclusion on this, but I've got to take a quick break. Jen, you stay right there and let's finish up on the other side. We'll be right back. Great to have you with us today on faith and finance live.

I'm Rob West. We're taking your calls and questions today. And just before the break, we were talking to Jen in Florida. They're moving out of Florida. She's got a hundred thousand in savings. She's trying to figure out where to tap her assets to pay what will be a $4,000 liability tax liability in April of 2024 for this year.

And she's got a hundred thousand in savings. They have a home that they're selling in Florida for, they're hoping around 400,000. They owe 122 on it and they're buying or building a home in a new neighborhood out of the state. They're needing to put some money down on deposit and they'll ultimately buy that for 38,382,000 roughly.

They've got also 30,000 in an IRA and she's kind of narrowed down the possibilities to, for paying the tax liability to either the 30,000 in the IRA, which they can no longer fund because they don't have earned income or the hundred thousand in savings. And I guess what I'm looking at here is, you know, if you were to go ahead and pull the 4,000 out of the hundred thousand and you had already told me that you need about 7,500 in the down payment or the deposits for the new house, so you put those two together, you know, that's going to leave you about 88,500 in the savings account. And if you add the, I'm calculating maybe around 250,000 that you'll get after you sell the house, pay off the mortgage and cover the realtor fees. So let's say you end up with about 340,000, Jan, and that means that you need to get a small mortgage of around 42,000, give or take, maybe call it 50.

You know, that seems manageable to me. And then you could let this 30,000 in the IRA just continue to grow and have something there that you could tap into down the road if you need it. And then you're not creating another taxable event and you can continue to invest that. How does that sound and what am I missing?

You're not missing anything. It's just we can't, you know, we can't put anything in the IRA anymore and it's just kind of sitting there. It's not invested, so it's minimal. It's just a bank IRA. Yeah, I mean, so if you're looking to kind of ultimately just draw that down, you know, you certainly could pull it from there and save your cash. I guess what I'm saying is that's $30,000.

That's a lot of money. What if we were to roll that out of the bank into Fidelity or Schwab and put it in a good balanced mutual fund with stocks and bonds and just let it grow? I mean, if the Lord tarries, you need this money to last a couple of decades. And if you needed it down the road, you'd have something you could tap into. But if you're saying, listen, it's just not significant enough in size and we can't put any more in it and so therefore we're just going to assist, you know, slowly pull the money out. Well, you certainly could do that. Create the taxable event and hang on to your cash. I guess I'm just looking to preserve that and let you continue to invest it.

Does that make sense? Yeah, we probably never will invest. We're just not invested minded.

So we're not, we're not into stocks and bonds. So, all right. Thank you for taking my call. Appreciate it. You are very welcome. And I appreciate so much you calling in today and asking us about this particular situation.

You've got a lot of moving pieces there. A Merry Christmas to you, Jen. Let's go to Orlando and welcome Barbara to the program. Hi there.

Hi. My company gave us a 401k, but they do not match it. So I was wondering, is it a good thing to join it?

Yeah, I think that's a good question. You know, one of the benefits of the 401k is the ability to put a bit more money in than you'd be able to, you know, put in, let's say with an IRA. So for instance, what is your age if you don't mind me asking? I'm 62.

Okay. So, you know, over age of 50, you could put in up to $30,000 in a 401k. Whereas, you know, an IRA contribution, you know, over the age of 50 is going to be $7,500. So how much would you have the ability to put in on a monthly basis? Roughly?

Probably about $50. Okay. Yeah. So I would say in that case, you know, then it comes down to, you know, would we, an IRA would certainly work. You wouldn't have to put it into the 401k.

It would give you more investment options. And at that point, you'd have to decide, do we want a Roth IRA or traditional? One of the benefits of the Roth is that you don't have a required minimum when you turn, you know, 73. The benefit of the 401k, the traditional IRA though, is that you'd get the tax break now. And the idea would be that while you're still working, you're in a higher tax bracket.

So you could benefit more from the tax deduction today when you make the contribution versus, you know, putting in after-tax dollars like with the Roth. So what I'd probably do, Barbara, if you can only put in $50 a month, $600 a year, is just go with an IRA, an individual retirement account. You could set that up at Fidelity or Schwab.

You could put that in some good high quality mutual funds and our friends at soundmindinvesting.org can help with that. Okay? Okay. All right. Very good. You're welcome. Thanks for your call today. Let's go to Illinois. Hi, Clayton.

How can I help? Oh, yeah. Thanks for taking my call. I just, uh, I got a question about, uh, the high yield savings accounts that you've been talking about. I had some credit cards with Capital One and I was just wondering, and they offer a savings account. I was just wondering if it's a good idea to go with the savings account where I have my credit cards from.

Uh, yeah. You know, I think, I mean, that can obviously make things a little simpler just because you have one account to log into and right there on the dashboard, you can see your credit cards and your high yield savings. I think the key is just how do the rates paid by Capital One today stack up with what you might be able to get elsewhere. So I'd probably visit bankrate.com first to see what the other banks are offering and just see which one, you know, you feel like ultimately will, uh, you know, provide, you've got to find the balance between the simplicity of having thing under everything under one roof versus what you're giving up. And what you may find is, okay, at Capital One, you know, we're going to get half a percentage point less than we could get somewhere else, but we don't have to open another account. And that's real, especially when we're talking about a savings account where that may only amount to, you know, 50 or a hundred dollars over a year. So I would just look at, compare the two, see what the different rates are, and then make the decision based on that.

At the end of the day, the convenience factor may end up pointing you toward the idea that ultimately, you know, you'd be better off just staying everything at Capital One. Does that make sense? Yeah, that does. That gives me a little more insight. And thanks for some advice. I was just looking for some type of reassurance, so I'd make the right decision. Absolutely, Clayton. We appreciate your call today. God bless you. Hey, before we round out the program today, we love it when you send us emails.

And by the way, if you don't know at moodyradio.org slash finance, uh, there is a place for you to submit electronically your questions. They come right into us. Our producer, Amy collects them. And on Wednesdays, we try to tackle at least a few of them. And Amy, I think we're gonna do that right now, aren't we?

Yes, Rob, we've got a few here. And the first one is from Mr. Smith. He says, I own some property free and clear. And if I sell it and give all the proceeds to a ministry, will I still have to pay taxes on the profit?

Ah, yes. But, uh, here, so what would happen is if you sell it and then give the proceeds to the ministry, uh, if you have a capital gain because you bought it and it's not your primary residence, you bought it, you sold it for an amount higher, you'd have to pay the capital gain. Then you'd give it away. And then you could get a deduction. If you itemize toward that gift against your income taxes, a better way is rather than sell and give, give then sell.

And here's how you do that. You'd set up a giving fund with our friends at the national Christian foundation, ncfgiving.com. Then you transfer all or a portion of that property to your donor advised fund, which sounds hard and it's really not. And then whatever portion of the property is in your donor advised fund, when it's sold, you don't pay the capital gains and then you can give all that money away. So it's a great way for you to avoid some taxes.

You still get the deduction on the amount that goes in and you can bless your favorite ministry. I'm so glad that you know those details. It does sound a little complicated, but that's a great strategy. It sounds like it really is. And I'm probably making it sound more complicated than it is.

And our friends at ncf can help make it really simple. Okay, cool. Okay, Helen next. She writes, I'm 38 years old, married and we have no kids.

Excuse me. I am worried about who will care for me when I'm not able to care for myself. Should I buy long term care insurance?

I give generously to my church and support Christian organizations. Please advise me. Yeah, I appreciate that question, Helen, you know, and really the time to buy long term care is not for a good bit down the road. Absolutely. That could be a great resource for you because that would step in and provide a daily benefit if you're not able to do a certain number of activities of daily living and then it would kick in and then that could be used to provide for, you know, nursing care or in home care, whatever you need.

But the time to buy long term care insurance is between 55 and 65. So yes, I like it. I love that you're a generous giver. I love that you're thinking ahead, but it's probably something further down the road to consider.

Okay, so one more today from Dan. I was wondering if I should start contributing to my company's Roth 401k. I am 36 and want to have less taxes when I retire. I have about $130,000 in the regular 401k. Am I able to transfer that to a Roth? Yeah, no, but I would leave that there and then do additional contributions moving forward to the Roth 401k. I like you actually having these two buckets, the tax deferred bucket, which is the traditional and the tax free bucket, which is the Roth where you've paid the tax on it now and then you let it grow tax free. The great thing is you're young. So, you know, you've got 30 years before you'd even probably think about tapping into this. And even once you reach 65, you may have another 30 years if you're in good health in the Lord Terry.

So I'd say leave the traditional right where it is. New contributions. Let's go into that Roth 401k. Amy, I always appreciate you and thanks for dipping into our mailbag today. Of course. And this is my last opportunity for this year to be on with you. So I want to say Merry Christmas, Rob, and to everybody else. Have a wonderful Christmas.

Thanks, Amy. Merry Christmas to you. And folks, Merry Christmas to you as well. What a wonderful time of year it is as we celebrate our, excuse me, I'm getting choked up, as we celebrate our Savior's birth. Don't want you to forget today, tomorrow and Friday, every gift of FaithFi matched at faithfi.com.

Faith in Finance Live is a partnership between Moody Radio and FaithFi. Thank you to Amy and Dan and Jim. Couldn't do it without him. We'll see you next time. Bye-bye.