Leverage Your Time

Most people understand that time has value. Maybe that's why we often use the expression spending time. Hi, I'm Rob West. What a lot of folks don't realize is just how valuable time really is.

Because if they did, it just might change the way they spend money. Today, I'll help you figure out what your time is worth so you can use it more productively for yourself, your family, and God's kingdom. Then it's on to your calls at 800-525-7000.

That's 800-525-7000. This is Faith and Finance Live, biblical wisdom for your financial decisions. Well, before we dive in, I want to mention a great book on making the most of your assets. It's titled Leverage Using Temporal Wealth for Eternal Gain by Ken Boa and Russ Crossan. It's a blueprint for putting the Bible's financial principles into practice for God's kingdom.

In other words, taking something that's temporary and making it eternal. In fact, we think everyone should have this book, so we're making it available for a gift of any amount to Faithfi until December 31st. Just go to faithfi.com.

Click the Give tab and we'll get a copy of Leverage right out to you. Now then, to start, I think it's important to point out that God values our time. Like all the other resources He provides, He's given each of us only a certain amount of it. He wants us to be faithful stewards of the days and hours we have. Psalm 90 verse 12 reads, Teach us to number our days, that we may get a heart of wisdom. And James 4.14 admonishes us to make the best use of our time today. It reads, You do not know what tomorrow will bring. What is your life?

For you are a mist that appears for a little time and then vanishes. And of course, since most of us have to work to provide for ourselves and our families, it's important to understand what our time on the job is really worth, so we can be faithful stewards of it. To figure what you really earn per hour, take the total or gross amount you put down on your last tax return.

Jot that down. Then subtract anything you paid in taxes, including Social Security and Medicare taxes, plus the income tax you paid. You're left with your net earnings.

Here's an example. Let's say you earned a total of $52,000 and you paid $10,000 in Social Security, Medicare and income taxes, leaving you with $42,000. Next, you divide that $42,000 by 52 weeks and you get roughly $800. That's what you're netting in a week. Now, assuming you work a 40-hour week, divide 800 by that number, 40, and you get $20 an hour. That's your real hourly wage. Of course, if you typically work more than 40 hours a week, it means you're earning even less than $20 an hour after taxes.

Now, all this might seem a little disheartening, especially if you've always thought you earn more like $25 an hour, which of course you do, but that's before taxes. That's why it's important to understand what your time is worth in real dollars, dollars that you can actually spend, because then you begin to see how long you have to work to buy something. Let's say one night you're tired and you don't feel like cooking, so you pick up fast food for the family and that costs you $50, which is pretty easy to do, by the way.

When you realize that you had to work two and a half hours to pay for that meal, you're much more inclined to spend one hour making dinner at home and cleaning up after. When you know what things really cost, it really can change your spending habits. You'll be far less likely to give in to impulse spending. If you look at your last several months of checking account statements, you'll probably see a purchase here for $10, another one there for $20, maybe one for $50, and so on.

Did they really add value to your life, especially knowing how long you had to work for them? Probably not, because you realize that you can never get those hours back, so you probably want to make some changes. Just cutting out impulse spending is a huge step forward. As your time becomes more important to you, you'll free up money that you can spend in areas that have more value. And one of those, hopefully, will be increased giving of both your time and money to the kingdom, which has eternal value. And remember, if you want to read more about making kingdom impact, a gift of any amount to faithfi.com until December 31st, we'll get you a copy of the book we referenced, Leverage Using Temporal Wealth for Eternal Gain by Dr. Ken Boa and Russ Crossan.

And by the way, we thank you in advance. All right, it's time to take your phone calls just after this break. The number, 800-525-7000.

That's 800-525-7000. You can call right now. I'm Rob West, and this is Faith and Finance Live, biblical wisdom for your financial decisions. We'll be right back with much more. The opinions offered during this program represent the personal or professional opinions of the participants given for informational purposes only.

Any information provided is not intended to replace advice from a financial, medical, legal, or other professional who understands your specific situation. Well, it's great to have you with us today on Faith and Finance Live. I'm Rob West. It's time to take your calls and questions here in just a moment. We've got some lines open today.

Looking forward to hearing from you as we close out the week. The number to call, 800-525-7000. That's right, 800-525-7000. We'd love to help you apply God's wisdom to your financial decisions and choices here on the program today, and that requires your telephone call. We'll be headed to the phones here in just a moment. Let me also mention a big day here at Faith and Finance because it's the last day of our dollar-for-dollar match.

That's right. We had an incredible listener who stepped up and said, listen, I believe so much in this work that I want to put up $50,000 to spur others on to even greater giving. I'm going to match every dollar that comes in between the 11th of December and the 15th, which is today, Friday, and up to $50,000, every gift will be doubled. So we're about $9,000 away from that, and we believe we can close that gap yet today. $9,000 more will get us to $50,000. So a gift of any amount would go a long way to helping us reach that goal.

You can give right now at faithfi.com. Just click Give right there at the top of the page, and Chad Clark will stop by a little later with an update and some more information on that. So in the meantime, let's take your phone calls. It looks like we've got four lines open, 800-525-7000 you can call right now. Let's dive in. We're going to begin in Pennsylvania. Hi, Charlotte. How can we help?

Hi, this is Charlotte. Thanks for answering my call. I just recently got three $5,000 CDs for my grandson, and I'm wanting to know about the inheritance tax after I pay us.

Okay. Well, the good news is there is no inheritance tax, so the person receiving the money will not pay any tax. The only tax that could happen would be any taxes that would be paid by your estate. However, the good news about that is that the current limit for or the threshold where estate taxes kick in is higher than $12 million. So unless your estate has $12 million in it based on the current laws, there is no estate tax, which just simply means that if you've bought some CDs, you've named your grandchildren as the beneficiaries at your passing. That money would pass directly to your grandsons outside of probate, so it would not be included in your estate that would go through the probate court and be subject to your will.

It would go directly to your grandsons, and if your estate is less than $12 million, at least based on the way the IRS laws regulations read today, you would not pay any tax on that, and your grandsons would not pay any tax on that either. Well, that sounds wonderful, so thank you for reading my call because I sure don't have $12 million. All right, well, you and me both, Charlotte, so until we get there, we don't have to think about that. Hey, thanks for calling and being on the program today. We appreciate it. To Spokane. Hi, Bruce. Go ahead, sir.

Hey, yeah, this is Bruce from Spokane. Yeah, how can I help? Rob, so I'm looking at our retirement investments, and I'm looking for a little advice, but I've got about $400,000 in different portfolios with an investment counselor. Doesn't seem to be making any money, really, and I'm talking to another counselor about using stock options for a year just to secure the money. I am recently disabled and not working, so I don't want to put my money at risk, so I'm trying to secure it for retirement. Yeah, and are you talking about covered calls, or what specifically, what types of options are they looking at using? You know, that's part of why I'm asking.

I really don't know anything about it. Yeah, well, often what advisors will do is if you have a portfolio of holdings, they will issue what are called covered calls or buy them, and basically it's a popular option strategy that's used to generate income in the form of options premiums. And so think of it as renting out your stocks, and you get paid to be able to do that, and as long as it doesn't reach that strike price, the option expires and you keep the income or the payment for that call. Now, if, however, it reaches the strike price, then you run the risk of losing your stock, and then they would have to buy it from you at that predetermined price. And the only downside here is that that could create a taxable event, and then you're without the stock, and the stock may have actually moved higher than the strike price. So it does get somewhat complicated, but it's not very elaborate and not terribly risky. It's just a way to generate some additional income on the holding that you already have. So with that said, there are different types of options trading, and you would want to understand exactly what they're going to do and whether or not that actually adds risk or takes away some risk in the process.

So I think the first thing that I would do is if you're happy with this relationship that you have with the advisor, I'd schedule a meeting, go in and sit down and just have that advisor explain to you what it is that they're trying to do. And as long as you can understand it and it doesn't sound unnecessarily risky, then perhaps you move forward with it. I like to keep it simple and just buy and hold for a long time and not get into options doesn't mean there's not a place for it. And it doesn't mean you can't do it in a very low risk environment where you actually improve the income that's coming in. But my overall rule of thumb is if you don't understand it, you shouldn't do it. Or if you can't explain it to your mom, you shouldn't do it. So from that standpoint, I would want you to get a good bit more education from the advisor before you were to consider going ahead with this, if I were you.

Okay. Are you familiar with index funds? That's what he's telling us. It was index funds. And there's also a bonus for signing up.

So there's a pretty decent chunk of money on the front end, like about a $30,000 bonus for signing up. All right. But he's telling me it's zero risk. I like zero risk. Yeah. Well, index funds aren't a zero risk.

So again, I would want to know more there. Basically, when you talk about index funds, these are just investment funds that follow a benchmark index. And benchmark indexes can track all kinds of things. It could track the S&P 500. It could track the NASDAQ. It could track a bond index. But it doesn't mean it's risk free. So again, that's what you're describing to me doesn't really make sense.

Index funds. Sure, a lot of people use them and they can be very effective. But when you add to that the bonus and then you're adding risk free, that's where I get concerned. Perhaps it's an insurance product. I guess I would just try to drill down a bit more on what exactly he's suggesting and perhaps get a second opinion.

You could reach out to a certified kingdom advisor there in Spokane and have somebody else just look over what's being suggested. Could be that it makes a lot of sense, but somebody else might say, you know, let me give you an alternate perspective on this. So that's I think what I would do moving forward, Bruce, because there's a few things that don't quite add up just based on what I'm hearing. Thanks for your call today. We'll be right back on Faith and Finance Live.

Well, I'm so glad you're joining us today for Faith and Finance Live. We're taking your calls and questions at 800-525-7000. That's 800-525-7000. You can give us a call.

Let's go to Michigan. Hi, Bill. Thanks for calling.

How can I help? Hey, how's it going? So this is a little embarrassing, but I'm sure that there are millions of Americans in the position that I'm in. I'm 47 years old. I'm a self-employed flooring installer. And if I'm honest, I'm having some tax problems. I haven't I haven't done my taxes and I need a starting point. I mean, I mean, it weighs down on me and I just I need a starting point.

I need somewhere to start to where I can become responsible enough to think about my future. I can't even think about my future until I get present. Yeah. And that's where I'm at. But that's that's exactly where I'm at.

Yeah. Well, I could certainly appreciate that, Bill. And the good news is God is your provider. And, you know, you can trust him to provide for you.

And he's given you not only his word that's chock full of timeless advice around biblical financial money management, but also wise counselors that you can tap into as well. And the starting point is your decision that you're you've declared today. And that is that you want to be a wise and faithful steward. You want to honor your obligations that you've gotten behind on. And then you want to create a plan going forward. And you need some help to do that. And, you know, we all need help along the way and in various things.

So I'm delighted that you called today. Give me just a sense of what you're doing. Give me just a sense of what you have outstanding. That's in arrears that you're you're describing when you say you want to get current. Well, I mean, it basically comes down to, again, I'm self-employed. I'm in charge of my own taxes, as you know. And for the past 10 years, I've just kept the money.

I have gotten a few letters from the IRS about 2013, 2014, which they have already charged me for about ten thousand dollars. And I mean, I just it's so it seems so overwhelming. Yeah. That it's just so hard to start. Yeah.

No, I get that. I'm scared to call the IRS. You know, I'm afraid I'm going to go to prison or something.

I need a starting point. I need. I make about between sixty five and eighty thousand dollars a year, give or take each year. All right. You know, I have a family.

That's all I really know, man. I just want to know that's helpful to be a good steward with my money. I understand. And if you were to really buckle down on your spending plan and look to eliminate, you know, as any unnecessary spending, how much do you think you could free up to begin to pay toward this back IRS payment? Maybe 30 percent of my income I could free up. OK. Yeah.

So I mean, if you're making let's call it seventy thousand a year, you're thinking as much as, you know, maybe eighteen hundred a month, you could potentially be able to allocate here. I mean, that's the good news is it sounds like you have the ability to make meaningful progress. And I totally get it. You know, when we get behind, we get into a hole. We don't even know, you know, ultimately what we owe and what the consequences are. It's easier just to ignore it. You know, the statements come in. We just stick them in a drawer and don't even open them because we just we don't have a path forward.

And that just causes us to continue to procrastinate. What you really need is somebody who can represent you, somebody who's an enrolled agent or a CPA, who has a specialization in this area of offers and compromises and payment plans with the IRS. And basically what they'll do is work with you to establish that that place where, you know, we can begin to reconstruct, you know, when the last time you filed was and then take one year at a time, you know, begin to understand what your tax liability is. They'll then contact the IRS with your permission on your behalf and, you know, begin to work on a payment plan. And you're right.

This is not new. There are, you know, millions of Americans who are in the same situation. And despite their reputation, the IRS is actually fairly good about working with you on things like this, whether it's an offer and compromise where they actually take a much reduced payment to get you current and a lump sum or putting you on a payment plan or both. And I'll tell you, you're going to feel a huge weight lifted. You know, once you have a plan, you know the extent of the liability.

The IRS is signed off on the plan that's going to get you current, even if it's going to take some years to do it. And you start making that monthly payment. All of a sudden you're going to feel that weight come off you because now there's no more uncertainty. We know where we're headed. We know what you've got to do to get there. And now all of a sudden you're back in compliance with the IRS because they've agreed to the payment plan, you know, that you're making good on.

But the starting point is to have somebody that can come in and help you sort it all out and then be the one to represent you before the IRS. Does that make sense? Yes, it does.

Yes, it does. I mean, I almost feel like a criminal. Well, yeah, I mean, we need to get you in compliance.

There's no question about that. And they will be willing to work with you. But the first step is to say, I'm not going to ignore it any longer. I'm going to make some steps forward and I'm ready to do this right and honor my obligations.

Let's do this. I have a couple of folks in mind that really specialize in this that I think could be a great fit for you. So I'm going to ask you to hold the line.

I'm going to have my team get your information and we'll get some information out to you for you to consider as you think about who you might contact to get this moving in the right direction. OK? Thank you, sir. Thank you very much. All right, Bill. Yeah, hold the line.

Merry Christmas to you as well. Thanks for calling today. We appreciate it. You know, folks, that is really challenging.

And I don't care whether it's IRS debt, credit card debt, a personal loan that you made to a friend or a family member. So often when we don't we can't see the path forward, it's just easier to say, I'm going to ignore it. I'm going to pretend, try to pretend it doesn't exist and still try to sleep at night. And, you know, it's just overwhelming. I mean, this huge weight is on you. And the key is to face it, to own up to it, to say, you know what, Lord, I have made some mistakes.

Thank you for the blood of Jesus that allows me the forgiveness of sin. I can turn and 180 degrees, leave it at the foot of the cross. But with that means we have to do our part. And that's not easy. But wise counsel, I think, is often the key and a plan. You know, once we have a plan, we know where we're headed.

Boy, it makes a world of difference. Perhaps you find yourself in that position today. If we can help connect you with a CKA or a certified Christian financial counselor, reach out to us at faithfind.com. We'll be right back. Well, thanks for joining us today on Faith and Finance Live. I'm Rob West.

This is where we apply the wisdom from God's word to your financial decisions to help you see God as your true treasure and use money as a tool to accomplish his purposes. Chad Clark's going to stop by in just a moment to update us on the last day of our dollar for dollar match. That's just around the corner. But first, let's go to Florida. Hi, Deborah. Thanks for your patience. Go ahead.

Hi. I was wondering what the advantages and disadvantages are between a credit card and a debit card. Yeah, you know, the advantage really comes down to credit cards, comes down to your liability. So the difference between them is if your information is compromised, your card is used fraudulently, let's say, to make charges that you have not authorized. The primary difference is with a credit card, the card issuer has to fight to get its money back. But with a debit card, you have to fight to get your money back.

And here's why. So they access the card, they swipe it, the money comes right out of your checking account, let's say, and then you've got to wait for, you know, the bank to acknowledge the fraudulent transfer, recapture the money and refund it back to your account. In the meantime, you might be overdrawn. You may have had some, you know, automatic debits that were there that are now, you know, going out with insufficient funds. The difference is with a credit card, there's no money that's changed hands. It's an entry on your statement.

You dispute it in a timely basis, which typically is within 60 days, and you don't have to pay it. There is no liability, and the credit card company is going to deal with the rest of it, and the money's never left your account. You've never made a payment.

So that's the big difference. I mean, apart from that, I actually like debit cards because it doesn't allow you to spend money you don't have, which is what a credit card does. So an unsecured credit card, you know, they give you essentially a line of credit, what they call a limit, and you can charge up to that limit. And you can spend that money on unbudgeted items that you actually can't afford. Obviously, with a debit card, not so. You're only spending out of what's actually in your account. So there's a, you know, a governor, if you will, on what your potential spending is.

But the big difference comes down to that fraudulent transaction liability. Does that make sense? Yes, it does. Thank you very much. Okay, you're very welcome. Thank you for being on the program, Deborah. We've got lines are full. We've got some great questions coming up, and we will get there.

Tracy, Dan, Shirley, coming your way in just a moment. But first, Chad Clark, just stop by the studio. Chad is our executive director here at FaithFi and has been crunching some numbers. This is a big day, Chad.

Remind us why. Yeah, this is just an exciting season for us. And like Rob said earlier on the program, this week only, we've got a $50,000 match opportunity. And that ends today, Friday, December 15th. So if you're looking to give to the ministry, support the work that we do here, now is the time to take advantage of that because every dollar is going to be matched.

And currently, we are only $7,000 away from obtaining that full match. So we really would love your support if you're looking to give to the ministry. Today's the day to do it.

Awesome. FaithFi.com, just click give. And you know, Chad, it's really, as a listener supported ministry, talk about the heart behind what we do, what our ultimate goal is, and what we're looking to see come out of this. Yeah, I'd actually love to read a testimony from a listener named Wade from Alabama. He said, I listen to the faith and finance program when commuting home from work each day, and I've learned a ton as a result. But I guess even more than the education, I appreciate the heart behind what you all do. As an example, there was a caller that was on the program that had just lost her husband to cancer.

And she really didn't know how to move ahead. But Rob was so kind to her as he has been for so many others, showing compassion and personally volunteering to help her get set up with someone who could help. And Rob, you just did that today with our previous caller there. And so I think really, what it comes down to is just our heart here at faith and finance is that we always start with our faith. And that's what influences our financial decisions.

And so you hear that every day from Rob, just so grateful for you, for your heart, for just being a light in this world and giving people hope, even in some really, really dark places that finances can sometimes lead us. So it's really about just putting our hope and our trust in the Lord and recognizing that money is just a tool. It's a tool that we can use to glorify him and to just build his kingdom.

But at the end of the day, it's really about just understanding our relationship with him is the most important thing that we can ever do in our lives. Yeah, he is our abundance and money really is just part of his creation that we're to use to glorify him. And, you know, we realize that what's at stake here, because if something is going to compete with God for first position in our lives, the way I read scripture, it's most often going to be money and the things that money can buy. And so we believe there's a lot at stake for God's people, for the church with a capital C. And that's why we show up here every day through this broadcast, through the app, the website, our team that brings you this program every day, our counselors. I mean, it's all to the end of equipping wise and faithful stewards so you can ultimately stand before the Lord someday, give an account and hear well done.

So as a listener supported ministry, it's critical that we hear from you. And today is a phenomenal day for you to consider a gift of any amount. Fifty is one hundred. A thousand is two thousand. If you could make a five thousand dollar gift, it would become ten. And we're so thankful for so many who have given. But if you haven't, you can head to faithfi.com.

That's faithfi.com and just click on the give button at the top of the page. And as Chad said, we're just seven thousand dollars away. Now, this is one piece of our ultimate year end goal of two hundred and fifty thousand dollars.

So if somebody can't get it on us today, maybe they're busy, they're out Christmas shopping. There's still plenty of need, right? Yeah, absolutely. We've got a two hundred fifty thousand dollar end of year goal. This match obviously goes a big way towards us accomplishing that. But if you've not able to make a gift today, we ask you to prayerfully consider just supporting us by year end so that we can fully fund the ministry going into twenty twenty four. We just have some really exciting things planned to just continue to help everybody be a good steward of the resources God has entrusted to them.

Awesome. And they can obviously give online at faithfi.com. It's quick and easy.

But what other ways can they get? Yeah, if you go to faithfi.com and click give, you'll also find our mailing address if you'd like to send a check. We'd be happy to take those as well. But again, just thankful for all of you that have supported us, who faithfully supported us for many years. And it's just so cool to see how the Lord continues to use this ministry to not only impact individual lives, but marriages and also to hear stories of people that through this program have have really surrendered their finances to the Lord and have invested back in the kingdom tenfold. And that's just so amazing to see just the life change that takes place through this program. Rob, the work that you're doing and just all the different things that we do here at FaithFi.

All right, we're about to come up to our next break and then we'll get back to calls. But Chad, give us a sneak peek of at least just one thing coming in the new year. Oh, man, we're really, really excited about a new Bible study series where we really dive into just these different topics in the Bible related to finances.

This isn't your, you know, seven steps to get out of debt, although those are great studies. This is really diving into what is God's heart and purpose for money. And so we're so excited to launch those in the new year. I can't give too much away just yet, but we're right around the corner from telling you more about what that offering is.

That's so great. Well, you'll hear about that. And it's coming in the first quarter of next year. Our new Bible study series.

All right. If you want to be a part of this dollar for dollar match, now's the time. Today's the day.

It's over after today. So just head to our Web site, faith f i dot com and click give. That's faith fi dot com and click give. Chad, thanks for being here. Thank you.

All right. We're going to take a quick break, folks. Tracy and Dan and Shirley and Sarah, you have been incredibly patient. So I'm going to do a rapid fire lightning round as soon as we get back and we're going to tackle all of these questions before we wrap the program today. So stay with us, folks. A lot more to come on Faith and Finance Live. We'll be right back.

Great to have you with us today on Faith and Finance Live. Back to the phones. Tracy in Chicago, how can I help? Hi, Tracy, are you there? Oh, yes, yes, yes, I'm here.

Sorry about that. Thank you for taking my call. Sure.

Yes. Earlier in the program, someone mentioned having a fixed index annuity and they were given a bonus up front and there was no risk involved. I was approached with the same thing. Bonus up front, no risk of loss, only benefit of gaining. And I heard you say you're not familiar with it, you know, unless it was an insurance product. I want to know because what I was offered is an insurance product.

I want to know what you feel about that. Yeah. You know, he yeah, he didn't mention annuity. You're probably right, though. In hindsight, he didn't eventually mention an index, never an annuity. But given the bonus plus the guarantees, that's probably what he was talking about. Yeah, certainly it's a it's a viable option for some folks. You know, my typical at least just my preference, especially during your working years, would be for you to have an unlimited upside, even though you're taking the downside risk with it. And I just find that, you know, if you're diligent and dollar cost averaging into the market, you buy plenty of life insurance through a term policy. And then with your investing, you invest in a company sponsored retirement plan, maybe an IRA. And, you know, you invest appropriately for your age and risk tolerance, but you get 100 percent of the upside. You know, obviously, with the downside protection on these guaranteed products through annuities, that's great, but you have to give up something to get that.

And what you're giving up is a portion of the upside. So, you know, for you, if you have greater peace of mind with that, certainly, you know, that is a viable option. I'm not one of those folks who says there's never a place for annuity. In fact, they can be very helpful when it comes to a buy sell agreement if you have a business or a special needs child or where you've exhausted all of your retirement plan opportunities or even for a charitable gift annuity.

You know, again, they have a great you know, there's a great place for them. I just think, you know, I would rather you take some of that risk and get all of the upside investing outside of an annuity. But if you have more peace of mind with it, then I would say go for it. And I certainly wouldn't have a problem with that. Okay. Okay.

Because we were told that they only there would be no risk at all. And we would only be charged a fee if we we decided we wanted to close it early. Yeah.

Like after these like before the 10 before the nine or 10 years. Yeah. And all that's true. All that's true. There is a guarantee there.

So they put a floor on it. But in order to get that, how do how do you cover the cost of that guarantee? Well, you have to give up some of your upside potential. So you don't if the index is up 10, you might get seven of that. I'm just making up a number there. But you're going to give up something on the upside in exchange for the downside. But yes, they will guarantee it. And you're right, there will be surrender charges if you take it out early. So something to think and pray about.

That's just my perspective on it. We appreciate your call, though. Tracy to P.A. Hi, Dan.

How can we help? Yeah. Yeah, well, we talked to we talked in May about my grandson at Liberty University.

Yes, sir. And he went to an office, but I don't know if it was the right office. But anyways, but correspond from visiting the office, he got a student job coach. And it wasn't too long ago on your program that you had a fellow on that talked about a student. Yeah.

Peer to peer coaching. What do you think about that? Oh, I think it's great. Yeah, I love it. So I was just at Liberty a few weeks ago and they have an incredible peer to peer coaching program where they have trained peer coaches that meet with their other peer students and work with them on debt repayments for their student loans and their spending plans. I highly recommend it.

It's incredible what they built there at Liberty through the Center for Financial Literacy there in the business school. So I'm a big fan, Dan. Hey, I appreciate you asking about it.

To Hammond, Indiana. Hi, Shirley. How can I help? I'm 83 years old. I'm a widow and I have three children. I own my own home and I want to make sure they get it when I go to heaven. And I heard there's some kind of a trust you have to put your house in in order to avoid that.

Yeah. So you've actually you've got one option there and it's it's called a revocable trust. Oftentimes you can do what's called a transfer on death deed as a second option.

I don't think the state of Indiana allows those. So basically you would go to an estate attorney, let that estate attorney know that you want to put your home. You want to create a revocable trust, put your home in it. And one of the benefits of that is that that home would pass outside of probate. So not through the probate court directly to the beneficiaries of the trust and the trustee that you name would handle the distribution of your assets and control whatever's in the trust in the event of your incapacitation or your death.

So I'd recommend you find a godly estate planning attorney there in Indiana, Shirley, and just talk to that person about establishing a revocable trust. Thanks for your call today. Well, folks, we're going to round out the program today with our good friend Jerry Boyer.

He stops by each Friday. And, Jerry, wow, a lot going on this week with the Fed. Obviously, the market liked it a lot.

The Dow Jones hitting a new high. What do you make of all of it? Well, what I make of all of it is the story that we've been seeing play out over the year, really over the past couple of years, which is that the central bank is in charge of markets. That's not what it's intended to do.

You know, it wasn't created for that purpose. It was created to be a lender of last resort in a time of crisis, which is supposed to be something that happens maybe once in a century. Just to be sure, you know, if we have a crisis, we want to have a lender. And then at some point it became sort of the chief monetary officer and then sort of the manager of the economy and now the manager of the economy and the markets. So basically anything having to do with money, the central bank and its $8 trillion gigantic pile of assets is now in charge of, which means whatever investors think the Fed is going to do determines how we react. There have been a number of signals that the Fed thinks that it's beaten inflation. I don't think it has, but inflation came in at 3% if you're looking at one measure, 4% if you're looking at another.

That's twice their target rate. But the Fed chairman made some comments that indicated that we think we're cautiously optimistic. His body language was sort of like, yeah, we're not sure, but, you know, it seems like, you know, we've made a lot of progress.

The Fed itself is predicting that it will cut rates three times next year. So it's an interesting thing that they do. Instead of saying what they're going to do, they have the members predict what they're going to do. And then we say, well, I guess they'd be in a good position to predict. To me, it's so strange to have global markets looking at one man not elected by anybody and try to read his body language. And markets move trillions of dollars in one direction or another based on his body language. Think about the concentration of power that that represents and how far that is from the vision of the founders. But that's where we are now. So since inflation is lower than it's been, although still higher than historically average and higher than their target rate, and because the labor markets are kind of weak, which they see as good, because that means we won't have bargaining power with our bosses and be able to drive up prices.

That's how they think the world works. Today, some business measurements, the PMI came in a little better than people expected. I mean, they're still not good. I think the fourth quarter is going to be a low growth quarter. But there's like a story that takes hold in any given week. And the story this week is inflation is basically beaten.

We're going to have a soft landing. And therefore, the Fed's going to start pumping money back into the system, having pumped $2 trillion out. All of a sudden, they're going to turn around and start pumping money back in. And if you're pumping money into the system, the Fed pumps money into the system through the markets, doesn't put it in my bank account, doesn't put it in your bank account. It puts it in markets, it buys bonds, and that drives up valuations.

But that's what created this problem in the first place. And so if markets are saying, all right, the Fed's not worried about inflation, so we are worried about inflation. And that's why inflation hedges have been performing well lately. So stocks are up and bonds are up, but you know what? So is Bitcoin, so is gold, so is inflation-protected securities. So I think the market knows what's really going on. The Fed thinks it's beaten inflation. The Fed's wrong.

Jerry, we have just a little bit of time left. I'm curious, though, is that signaling that they came out with this week on the three potential rate cuts next year typical? And I can't help but think that we've got a presidential election next year. Now, he was – obviously, Jerome Powell was made chairman under Trump, continued under Biden. But obviously, there's an election coming.

Does that play into any of this? Historically, there's been easy money during election years. Now, historically, it's been the Fed chairman has been appointed by the president, right? And look, I had a friend who worked for Mr. Bern, Arthur Berns, when he was the Fed chairman under Nixon. And he said he was literally in the room and the phone would ring and it would be Nixon on the other end of the line.

More money. So that's not a good Nixon image. That's a pretty good Nixon.

And he'd say, yes, sir. And they pump money into the system. It's a little more complicated because Powell was appointed by Trump and reappointed by Biden.

But in general, I think there's a lot of scrutiny during election years so that, you know, easy money I think kind of protects the reputation of the Fed chairman. Yeah. No question about it. All right, Jerry. Well, obviously, this isn't the end of the story.

We're going to continue to see this play out well into next year and beyond. But appreciate you checking in and trying to help us make some sense out of the market action this week. Always a pleasure. God bless. All right.

You too. That's Jerry Boyer. He's our resident economist. He's president of Boyer Research. He joins us each Friday with his market commentary and analysis.

That's going to do it for us. Faith and Finance Live is a partnership between Moody Radio and FaithFi. Thank you to our team today. And thank you for being here as well.

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