10 Important Financial Moves for 2024

The following episode of Faith in Finance Live is prerecorded, so please don't call in. You may have decided on your New Year's resolutions by now, but have you figured out what financial moves you need to make in 2024? Hi, I'm Rob West.

Only God knows what the future holds, but that doesn't mean we can't prepare for whatever may come. Mark Biller joins us today with some great suggestions to shore up your finances. Then we'll have some great calls lined up, but since we're not live today, please hold your calls until we're back in the studio.

This is Faith in Finance Live, biblical wisdom for your financial journey. Well, our friend Mark Biller is Executive Editor at Sound Mind Investing, where they've been working extra shifts to finalize their annual list of financial moves you can make in the new year, and there are a number of them. Mark, great to have you back. Thanks, Rob.

Good to be back with you. Well, we're always impressed when you roll out this list every year. It's exhaustive, and of course we can't cover the whole of it on the program, but folks can find it at soundmindinvesting.org. It's simply titled, Your 10 Most Important Financial Moves for 2024.

Yeah, thanks for that, Rob. You know, everywhere you turn right now, you're seeing advice about the new year, and the problem with that is it's usually one size fits all. What we're trying to do with our list is help people choose the best 10 ideas that specifically fit their situation. So we discuss over 60 ideas in this article, but we encourage each reader to go through and select their personal top 10 list, and we've found over the years that people who go through this process of making a personal top 10 list and then follow through on those action steps, they become better stewards and make tangible progress toward their long-term goals. Now I should also mention we've got links to additional articles and resources for all of these suggestions on the SMI website if listeners want more information or they want to dig deeper on a particular topic.

Yeah, very good. Now these suggestions are broken up into several categories. We'll go over a few in each category, so let's dive in. The first category is spiritual and financial fundamentals.

What would you point out here? Yeah, so we try to set the appropriate context before diving into the nitty-gritty financial stuff, and that really begins with understanding what God says about us and about our money in Scripture. So a few highlights from this section include resting in God's love. His love for us isn't based on our worth or merit, and if we start with an appropriate understanding of who we are in Christ, this whole exercise regarding our finances becomes so much easier and less stressful. And then along those same lines, a second very worthwhile step is to invest time studying what Scripture says about money and material possessions. You know, SMI has long said that the number one financial mistake that Christians make is ignoring biblical wisdom about financial matters and looking to secular advice instead.

And by allowing yourself to be guided by biblical teaching, you'll guard against imprudent and unwise choices that inflict financial harm. Yeah, that's helpful. Now, the next category is the world around you, and that of course covers a lot of stuff, right?

Yeah, it does. So here are some suggested moves from that section. You know, one is improve your understanding of the problems and the policies that are shaping today's economy. You know, we've written a ton about inflation and the potential for recession this past year. Having a working knowledge of these subjects is really helpful. Another big picture topic to understand relates to the rapidly expanding level of federal debt.

And Rob, honestly, I hate putting stuff like this on the list because it's, to me, the sort of background noise that you and I have been hearing and talking about our whole careers. But this year, you know, we had to look at it and say the debt situation has escalated so dramatically in these last few years that it's legitimately impacting interest rates, how markets are behaving and so on. And investors just can't afford to be ignorant of those types of factors.

Yeah, there's no question about that. Now, after you deal with that one, you need to make sure you've got your fear in check and you've placed your trust in the Lord, because as you dive into these things, it can be concerning. But it is a good reminder that despite the uncertainty and the unrest, God is on the throne and we can trust Him implicitly. Well, today we're talking with Mark Biller about your 10 financial moves in the new year.

We've got a number of options for you to build your personal 10 so you can be a better, faithful steward of God's resources. Back with Mark Biller after this break. Stick around. Great to have you with us today on Faith and Finance Live.

With me today, my good friend, Mark Biller. He's executive editor at Sound Mind Investing. We're talking about a new article at soundmindinvesting.org. It's titled Your 10 Most Important Financial Moves for 2024. Now, the key word in that is your, because we're going to help you build your 10 most important financial moves from a list of about 60 potential financial moves broken up in categories. Now, we covered the first couple of categories, spiritual and financial fundamentals, the world around you. Now, we're going to move into the next category and that is strengthening your foundation.

So, what do you have for folks here? Yeah, laying a strong financial foundation is so critical. So, a few of the items here include building an adequate emergency fund before risking money in the markets.

And we discuss how to go about doing that. Second item is invest time creating and following a budget. Now, this is probably the least popular suggestion, but in all seriousness, it's probably the most powerful single step that a lot of people can take to make real financial progress in the year ahead. You know, I just really can't put it any more bluntly than to say creating and living on a budget is often the difference between financial success versus financial failure for a lot of people. And I should put in a shameless plug here for the FaithFi app as that's one of the best tools out there to help people figure out and implement a workable budget. Another point from this section, another idea would be committing to giving generously even if you're still paying off debt. You know, getting out of consumer debt is crucial for long-term financial stability, but debt repayment shouldn't take precedence over still giving generously during that process. That can be kind of counterintuitive, but giving is a sign of trust.

It's a concrete expression that you believe God knows your needs and is going to provide for you. That's great, Mark. Now, I think we're ready for the next section, and that is developing your investing plan. So what would you share with our listeners? Yeah, so of course we've got a lot of suggestions here.

This is our bread and butter section, if you will. But one there is face your fears, overcome your inertia, and start investing in a lot of people are waiting for the perfect time to get started. But really, for most people, now is the best time to start, and making regular investments over a long period of time, ignoring what the market's doing today is going to help you to build a healthy nest egg down the road. Now, a second step here for relatively new investors is to become a dollar-cost averaging investor, and ideally automate that process so that it's out of sight and out of mind. Now, dollar-cost averaging simply means you're investing the same amount of money at regular intervals. So for example, you're investing $300 every month or $100 every pay period. And often the best way to do that is through a workplace retirement plan. But if you don't have a workplace retirement plan, you can still set up automatic monthly investments into an IRA. That's a very achievable step, and it's definitely worth the effort of setting that up.

Yeah, that's really helpful. Now, let's build on that first category on developing your investing plan. And let's move into broadening your portfolio.

Yeah, so this is kind of the next level, a little bit more advanced. And the first item here would be to become a diversified investor. And this includes starting to learn about different types of stocks, different types of bonds, how to combine them in a portfolio. As you might expect, this is the sort of thing that we spend a lot of time discussing in our SMI material. And once you've got a handle on those basics, you'll find there other ways to diversify too.

Alternatives like commodities, real estate, and gold. This is also the section where a person would start thinking more closely about retirement taxes and the best way to utilize traditional and Roth accounts. Rob, you and I just spoke recently on the program about how blending these two account types can be a good move for a lot of people. Yeah, that's right. And of course, for the gold bugs out there, we've got a separate action item about gold investing.

You know who you are. We've got lots of resources that discuss the tactical process that SMI uses for investing in gold. Yeah, that's so helpful. We're talking with Mark Biller today at Soundmind Investing. We're specifically referencing this article at soundmind investing.org. It's titled Your 10 Most Important Financial Moves for 2024.

We'd love for you to check it out today. All right, this next batch of suggestions, Mark, is around retirement. So what do you have for us here? Yeah, one big one, Rob, is to start thinking through your later life decisions, ideally, when you're in your 50s. Now, most people put this off until later.

But research really suggests that it's wise to think this through earlier. And this can include creating or updating a will or other estate planning documents could also include the possibility of hiring a financial professional to help guide you through the crucial financial decisions that come with aging and retirement. Another item in this section, you know, there are lots of tangible retirement items relating to Medicare, how to optimize Social Security benefits, those types of things. Another bigger picture item here is to seek the Lord about how he wants to use you during your retirement years. You know, you may be retiring from a specific job. But that definitely doesn't mean that the Lord is done with you. You know, he may have a new capacity, a new vocation, new ideas for you and a new season of life. And it's a good idea to spend time asking him about that.

Those are really good, Mark. Now, as we begin to wrap up today, one more category and you might call it everything else. I know it includes children, work, college technology and insurance. So share a few suggestions from this one.

Yeah. So for parents and grandparents, a good one here is be intentional about training your children to be wise and faithful stewards. You know, our consumer culture just screams at us constantly, that the key to happiness is to have more, more money, more more material goods. And Christian parents and grandparents play a key role in presenting a different narrative on the subject.

Specifically, we want to teach our kids that God owns everything and we're called to be productive with whatever he entrusts to us. Some other items in this section include insurance items. One that that stands out is making sure that you have enough liability insurance coverage. That's a big one because the default liability coverage in a lot of homeowner and auto policies is on the low side.

And you might be able to bring that up by simply adjusting the levels within the policies you already have or by adding an umbrella policy, umbrella liability policy, which picks up when those policies leave off. Disability insurance is another topic to consider here. And of course, for those with young children, the topic of saving for college is always of particular interest.

So spending some time learning about the best ways to approach that is going to be time well spent for those folks. Wow. And that's just a sampling, folks, of the many great suggestions in the SMI article, Your 10 Most Important Financial Moves for 2024. You can read it at soundmindinvesting.org and build your personal list for the new year. Mark, thanks for stopping by. Thanks, Rob. Always a pleasure. That's Mark Biller, executive editor at Sound Mind Investing.

Again, learn more at soundmindinvesting.org. Much more to come just around the corner. Stick around. So glad to have you with us today on Faith and Finance Live.

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

You can find one at faithfi.com. Let's head back to the phones. We're going to New York. Hi, Chloe. Thanks for your call. Go ahead. How are you doing, Rob? I'm doing well.

Thank you. Well, I do have an issue. I am enrolled. I have a credit card with the Pescue Credit Union, and I have not had a problem with it. But lately, since late last year, it seems that I keep changing my card because there are certain things. Like, last two weeks ago, I was just called for an unsolicited, like, if I bought something, and I don't even know about it. The bank called me, and now there are two other things.

I have been changing the card, and also I tried to change my email, so I don't know how it happens, and also what is the best thing to do in this regard. Yeah, yeah. Well, I appreciate that question, Chloe. This is unfortunately becoming more and more challenging all the time, just as these fraudsters in the age of more electronic transactions are becoming more and more savvy with regard to how they can compromise your accounts. Let's work our way through this. I guess the first question is, have you actually seen fraudulent charges show up on the account, or have you just been hearing about them through a phone call? No, no.

The one time, the biggest one was 1,700. This was the one that I told you. The bank called me, and then they sent me a letter that says that we are investigating this.

Okay. And then the statement came two days or three days ago, and I have two unrecognizable things on my statement. One was last month, $34.99, and then when I checked my online statement, the same thing is now telling me $81.99. So I'm planning to go to the bank. My plan is to close this account and get another one from another bank.

Is that something I could do, or is it that my credentials are floating all over already? Yeah, no, I wouldn't worry about that in the sense that, in theory, using a data bet or credit card anywhere could result in fraudulent activity, because all it takes is one criminal employee to sell your card number on the dark web. This is happening more and more these days, so it could be one of a number of things.

Number one, it could be just coincidence that this has happened a couple of times. In any case, I would close that account or at least have them reissue you a new card number so that that card number is no longer in use and you have a new card number. I would immediately dispute those two transactions that you don't recognize.

They're going to ask you probably for more information. You're going to want to make sure it's not something that you actually did charge and you just don't remember. It's coming up under another name that's not recognizable to you, but in all likelihood, it has been compromised, and that new card number should take care of it. Now, you are going to need to look and just make sure that the places you are using the card, that's not the problem because often, depending on where you're doing business, you just need to be careful that you're using reputable vendors, especially when you're online on the web. But I think the key is just monitor those credit card statements every month to make sure that everything is in fact accurate. To the extent the account's been compromised, you need to immediately report that to the card issuer. You need to dispute those charges.

They'll replace the card number. Then you'll need to update any accounts for any recurring charges that you have. And then I would also pull a copy of your credit report, Chloe, from each of the three credit bureaus just to make sure that all of the accounts that are listed there are actually your accounts that are in good standing and nobody's actually compromised your identity and opened an account fraudulently in your name. And the best way to grab those three credit reports is from annualcreditreport.com.

Now, going forward, I think the important thing for you to do is a couple of things. Number one is check those credit reports probably at least three times a year. Number two, every month you need to be scanning the credit card transactions to make sure there isn't anything that's suspicious or fraudulent. Don't ever share your credit card information or other personal information with anybody that contacts you by email or by phone. And also, don't use public Wi-Fi like a coffee shop or a library to log into any of your accounts or to place transactions.

Do that from the privacy of your home. But apart from that, I think just updating, you know, that closing that one card number down, issuing a new card number, whether or not you move banks or not, I don't think is the is the primary issue. And then just using these best practices that I mentioned moving forward is probably the best way to go. Does that all make sense though? Yes, yes, yes.

Thank you so very much. Although I observe all of those, it's possible that I did access my account in a public place, but I'm beginning to avoid that myself now. Well, it's a learning process here, Chloe, and I think that's the key is we just got to constantly be learning these best practices. Another thing you ought to do is regularly update your passwords and make sure that they're, you know, at least 12 to 15 characters long so they're nice and secure.

But, you know, unfortunately we just have to stay vigilant with this so we don't get ourselves into a situation that could cause any kind of harm to us financially. But I think you're doing the right things. I'm glad you're staying on top of this.

And if you have any other questions along the way, give me a call, okay? Thank you. Have a good one.

You too, Chloe. God bless you. Hey folks, we're going to pause now for a brief break, but we'll be back with much more on today's Faith and Finance Live. You're listening to Faith and Finance Live, and you can find us online at faithfi.com. However, today we are not live, so if you hear that phone number, please don't call. But do stay with us.

There's lots of good information ahead. Let's head right back to the phones. We're going to talk to Jose in Texas. Go ahead, Jose.

How can I help? My question is my dad got a letter from I think it's Fidelity to take out his money. If not, they were going to start charging him a monthly fee because he no longer works for that employer. He was laid off.

He's 60 years old, but now he works for the city of Midland. Can he roll it over without being taxed or what can he do? Because I don't know where to do anything except take it out. Yeah, you don't want to take a distribution because that would all be taxable. You want to roll that over either into a new 401k if he's continuing to work or to an IRA, an individual retirement account. The key is you don't want the check to be cut to him.

You want to do that direct rollover to the new account. So is he continuing to work? Yes, he works for the city now. Okay, and what kind of retirement does he have a 457 available at work or what does he have? I honestly don't know.

I try to help him as much as I can because he really doesn't know anything about anything. He's just been saving for a long time. Sure. How much is in that 401k for this previous employer? I think he has about 97,000.

Yeah, okay. So you've got two options. One is you could ask him to contact the planned administrator with his new employer just to ask if he would be able to roll an old 401k in. The nice thing about that would be that it's just got everything in one place so he doesn't have to kind of keep up with another account. If that's not an option then you're going to want to help him open an individual retirement account, an IRA at another institution.

You could use Fidelity or Schwab, one of the discount brokerages, or if you wanted to hire an advisor to manage this money for you I would interview and select that advisor first and then let the advisor open the IRA and do the rollover for you. The nice thing about that is that you and he would know that somebody that you all are communicating with regularly but somebody is overseeing these accounts and making the buy and sell decisions. Do you think that's what you'd be looking for or do you guys want to manage this yourself?

No I'm not too bright with all that stuff. I've read a little learner I know a little bit but not enough to you know make his money go because he's trying to retire at least until he's 65 to have Medicare and I mean he's worked hard all his life hard labor so his body just wore out and he says I'm gonna try to stick out until 65 but hopefully no longer than that. How long is that? How far off? Five years.

Okay yeah very good. So what I would do Jose is perhaps you and he could reach out to a couple of Certified Kingdom Advisors there in Texas. That's the designation we trust here at Faith and Finance.

It's the only accepted industry designation in the financial services industry for men and women who have met high standards and character and competence and experience and they've been trained to bring biblically wise financial advice. They've had pastor and client references so they've gone through a lot of hurdles but you could find a CKA there in Texas. I'd probably interview two or three and then select the one that's the best fit and then that advisor if you decided to move forward would again open the IRA in your dad's name and then could handle the rollover from the 401k. They'd you know get the paperwork ask your dad to get that and then they'd move the account in and then you'd have somebody that would be ready to you know make the buy and sell decisions on that for you. That would not be a taxable event as well and then that person could help with some of the planning just around making sure he's ready for retirement when that time comes. Have a plan for what his lifestyle is going to look like, his expenses, how his life savings plus social security you know whether that's going to be enough to cover his bills in that season of life and just kind of make sure that you all have the peace of mind to know you know what you're working towards. So that would be my best recommendation Jose I'd head to faithfi.com it's faithfi.com click find a CKA and then interview some folks in your area okay. How much would they charge him if he was to just take it out because he's my dad I mean he's old school and honestly his schooling has only been till sixth grade so he doesn't know anything to do with that.

Yeah I wouldn't again I wouldn't take a distribution because then that whole hundred thousand dollars is going to be added to his taxable income for the year as if he made a hundred thousand dollars in income so he's going to have a huge tax bill which will undoubtedly push at least a portion of that up into a higher tax bracket and then you know he'd have that that huge tax liability and if he's not yet 59 and a half which it sounds like he might be real close then he'd have a 10 penalty on top of it so if you didn't want to hire an advisor what I'd do is just roll it to an IRA he could or you could open an IRA on his behalf at Schwab or Fidelity and then roll it in there's no cost for that and then you all could buy some CDs or something like that whatever you were comfortable with but I wouldn't take a distribution if it were me. Okay all right well that'll work I'll talk to them thank you I appreciate it. All right Jose God bless you thanks for being such a great son to help your dad navigate all of this we appreciate your call. Let's go to Alabama. Hi Sarah how can I help you? Hey how are you?

I'm doing well thank you for calling. Thank you thank you so much I want to put this question as succinctly as possible I have purchased a new home not a new a home in a vacation area because my daughter lives in the vacation area and I thought it would be just simple to say look we'll you know use it as rental property and rent it to her. I've already put it in an LLC but then I realized I would not be charging her the same amount of rent that I would someone else and and you know as a Christian you want to do things right you know and do it the right way but then I read and it it fits for me and my husband is that we will be sharing it like we'll be going there and using the property at times as well so I read that there is something else called I'm not it's like I want to is it investment or there's two types rental and investment property. Well there's a rental classification then there's personal use. Yes okay so I will be using it I think there's a law or there's something that says if you have to use it at least 10% of the time that you rent it is that correct if you have it as a um a different sort of rental um do you know I'm talking about yeah that's what it is that's correct that's what I said yes yes yeah you're going to need to be careful here and I would get a CPA involved in this because here's the thing uh you know when you're renting to a family you want to rent at fair market value and if you don't and you can in some cases you know get away with that but here's the reality is number one it could be considered a gift but what's even more important than that is if you're not careful you can risk losing a portion of your rental expense deductions because it could be classified as a personal use property if you're renting it below fair market value and so you're going to want to get a CPA just to kind of weigh in on this so that you understand you know because you want this uh you know you wanted the determination on this property is that it's a rental because if it's rented out then you have the ability for you know to deduct the expenses and you're right neither the owner use of the property it's got to be for 10% of the number of days the property was rented at fair market value during the tax year and if it qualifies for a rental property then that's where you can deduct certain expenses so there's the amount of days that it's being used or rented at fair market value and then there's you know what is considered fair market value and can you defend that before the IRS so you're going to want to look at both sides of this and it does complicate it a bit when you rent it to a family member because I can totally understand you're wanting to try to help her and give her a discount on it so here's what I'm going to recommend I'd get a CPA involved in this because everything you do you want to be able to defend it before the IRS and not find out after the fact that you owe a bunch of taxes based on the way you've handled it stay on the line we'll talk a bit more off the air hey great to have you with us today on faith and finance live I'm Rob West your host our team is away from the studio today so don't call in but coming up a little later we'll have more of your questions right here on the program hey let me take a moment to mention the faith fi app we'd love for you to download it just head to your app store wherever you download apps and search for faith find that's faith fi you can manage your money you can access the best content in biblical finance podcasts articles and videos you can also participate in our faith fi community where you can post questions and get answers from others on their stewardship journey you'll find it in your app store just search for faith fire if it's easier head to our website at faithfi.com that's faithfi.com and you'll see the app right there on the home page let's head back to the phones to illinois we go luana thanks for calling how can I help hey there rod thanks for taking my call and I just wanted us to remember that the rfd purses and wallets can help with the scanning for the credit cards because especially during the season and christmas and everything from they're out there with those scanners getting our credit card numbers yeah that's a great reminder luana so what she's talking about is the rfid wallets so these tech savvy thieves can use an rfid reader to scan the information from your credit card it essentially uses radio waves to read the data so the purpose of that type of wallet is to block these radio waves it's made of a special material that can block or interrupt the weight radio waves so if you're in a kind of a congested area you know this is where folks can get right up next to you and they can use these scanners to actually grab the information right off your card if you're not careful so next time you get a wallet or maybe you want to make a special point to go out and get a an rfid wallet again it's rfid and just make sure that it is the type of wallet that blocks those waves it's a great reminder luana thanks for helping to keep us safe here as we're out and about when especially as we're in the holiday shopping season we appreciate it uh to texas we go hi james go ahead sir uh yes i'm 70 years old retired and uh i retired when i was 63 and i stopped filing income tax do i want income tax on my social security and my va disability uh you may yes and so it really just depends uh on uh you know how much you've made um and whether or not you need to file on that um when did you say it was the last time you paid yeah well i i i haven't filed since i was 63 okay all right and have you made um you know more than 25 000 let's say no okay yeah i mean i just live off my social security and disability okay got it yeah uh i mean it's never a bad idea just to visit with a cpa and goes go over it um you know you you don't stop paying taxes on your social security but uh it really comes down to your adjusted gross income and so you know what's uh you know if that exceeds 25 000 for an individual or 32 000 for a married couple a portion of your benefits is taxable um and so you have to get over that uh limit before it is uh going to be taxable to you so you probably don't need to file uh but you may want to if you think you might get a refund uh if you've had anything withheld but if you haven't you're probably in good shape but if you are just wondering never a bad idea to check with a tax professional uh james just to be sure but in all likelihood you know if you're under that threshold either 25 000 or 32 000 for a married couple you don't owe anything and therefore don't need to file okay oh okay thank you all right james god bless you my friend thanks for being on the program to north carolina we go hi ricky how can i help yes i'm at the age of retirement and i'm able to draw my social security 100 i've talked to my cpa and he's i don't know i'm not satisfied with answers so i'm not sure to go ahead and start drawing so i can utilize the money other places or the best way to go about doing it yeah it's a great question so you are you said 65 year years old right now is that right 65 and a half that is correct all right yeah i mean here's the reality ricky is for every year you wait you're going to get an additional eight percent on that check and so the question is do you want to go ahead and take it now and start collecting and then what would you do with it if you don't need the money we generally for somebody who's healthy we would say you know wait it out because the reality is if you waited all the way until age 70 you would have to live at least 12 more years uh to be able to be repaid for everything you didn't start taking at full retirement age but then you'd have a higher check to the tune of probably around 25 percent more per month for the rest of your life so if the lord tarries and you're in good health you know you should be in pretty good shape at that point uh because you'd have a higher check but yes you are giving something up and so it really comes down first to do you need the money now and will it make a material impact on your lifestyle if the answer is no because your bills are covered from other sources you really don't need it then i kind of like the idea again if you're in good health of you letting that check continue to build by eight percent a year so it you know it really comes down to how long you're going to live none of us know that right so we have to just make the best decision we can would we rather get it now and enjoy it or would we rather wait and collect more uh for the rest of your life you know down the road and that's the ultimate determination does that make sense yeah and that's basically what he had said so and i have been in good health but i did get covid and then i ended up taking the two shots and i've been having issues that you know with eyes or but either way um and i'm self-employed so i don't have a whole lot banked but i mean you know i got land and other things so um i mean definitely you could always use the money and i would put it towards paying off property that i own or something in that nature so that was you know i guess that's i know eight percent it's probably good rate considering the way everything else is it you know so it is and i think that's really the key and you know if you uh if you don't have a whole lot saved up because you have been self-employed all these years then that extra you know amount in that check could go a long way to helping you uh you know meet your obligations well into the future and so i kind of like the idea again if you're continuing to work right now and you've got your bills covered letting that check continue to grow even though you're giving up the opportunity to start collecting earlier you're going to build up that check so that it's a much higher check than it would have been for the rest of your life and assuming again you get past that 12-year mark now you're quote in the money so to speak and you enjoy you know that higher check to the tune of about 24 percent for the rest of your life right now when you say get past that 12 for 12-year mark that's so you're looking at 82 at that point right that's correct yes sir yeah and then after 82 you would have been repaid because your check has been higher for those 12 years that higher amount has repaid you for what you didn't collect at full retirement age and then from that point forward you've been made whole and now you just have that bigger check for the rest of your life right well i appreciate that thank you very much all right good i'm glad thanks for calling today uh let's head to louisiana hi steve how can i help yeah i got it i got a question for you i'm drawing social security the first year i threw it i was working and i they taxed me on the money that i worked over social security now this year i haven't worked at all and and when this year goes around all i have is my social security do i pay taxes on that uh probably not i mean the the way that it works is you take your your adjusted gross income you add your non-taxable interest uh and then you add half of your social security benefits and that's your combined income and then if you're filing jointly if your combined income is between you know 32,000 and 44,000 then you'd pay income tax on up to 50 of your benefits if you're more than 44,000 you'd pay up to 85 of your benefits may may be taxable but if you're below those thresholds with your combined income then you don't owe taxes okay thank you so much i i just heard you making something to another guy that called about paying taxes on social security but i guess he worked too so okay yes sir thank you so much all right steve god bless you thanks for calling today we appreciate it hey bless bless your ministry brother well i appreciate that i've listened to you for years and i appreciate it thank you well thank you sir that means a lot god bless you uh let's finish up today in missouri norma you'll be our final caller go ahead uh yes um i have invested some money into an investment company and uh probably over the last three years i've lost about three thousand dollars and um i was wondering if i would be better off to take that money and put it into cvs you know it's been a challenging market norma you know it really comes down to your long-term goals and objectives so is this money that really is for the long term for you to live off of in retirement um no i'm i'm 74 so i don't need the money to live off of you know i'm just living off of my monthly income which is sufficient enough for me yeah yeah the challenge is that you know with inflation where it is you're losing purchasing power every day and so the value of this money declines over time in terms of its purchasing power and that's where stocks and bonds can really help us offset that by growing that money and i realize it's been a challenging environment but if we look over the long haul and we say we don't need this money we've got you know time to let this grow then i would say you know keeping it invested in a properly diversified stock and bond portfolio makes sense even though it's been under some pressure as of late and you've got some unrealized losses but at the end of the day if you just don't have peace of mind about that and you'd rather have something more secure then cds can absolutely be a great way to go i hope that helps norma thanks for your call today that's going to do it for us today folks hey faith and finance live is a ministry of faith fi and moody radio thanks to my team today and we'll see you tomorrow come back and join us there