Heart for Lebanon

This Faith in Finance Live is actually pre-recorded, so please don't call in. The war in the Middle East isn't confined to Israel and Gaza. The people of Lebanon are also suffering. Hi, I'm Rob West.

Thousands in Lebanon have been displaced by the fighting between Israel and the terror group, Hezbollah. Jack Hibbard joins us today to talk about a way you can help and share the love of Christ. We'll talk about that first today, and then we have some great calls lined up, but please don't call in today, because this program is pre-recorded.

This is Faith in Finance Live, biblical wisdom for your financial decisions. Well, it's a pleasure to welcome my friend Jack Hibbard to the program today. Jack is, with Heart for Lebanon, a ministry that's giving under-resourced children and their families the essentials they need to survive in Lebanon, but more importantly, the chance to encounter God and grow spiritually, and their work is especially needed right now, and we're delighted to shine a light on it. Jack, great to have you with us. Well, it's great to be with you, Rob, and I'm really excited about this partnership between Heart for Lebanon and Faith in Finance, especially in this critical time, everything that's happening in the Middle East, and really excited about the opportunity that we have to connect listeners to where God is working.

Yeah, and that's our heart as well, and we love generosity, and so being able to connect our listeners to really meaningful work that's being done in the name of Jesus is so important. And Jack, with everything going on in Israel right now, why is it important to funnel resources to Lebanon in particular? Well, that's a logical question, especially when you look at everything that we see on the news each night. I would say because the level of despair in the country of Lebanon right now is at a historic high, and because God's working there like never before. We've got an urgent situation, honestly, Rob, two and a half million refugees in a country of only four million people. There are more refugees, more displaced people in the country of Lebanon per square mile than in any other place in the world. We don't hear a lot about that, but that's a fact. And then of course, you've got the crisis of economy there, which is almost beyond description. The World Bank has called it the worst economic collapse in the last 150 years of our existence. 85% of everybody living there right now in the country of Lebanon needs some kind of aid, and 99% of every refugee family is just looking for their next meal.

Yeah, so the need is incredible. Now, despite the despair, I know I've heard you say hope is rising. I know you've made a number of trips there personally. How have you seen God working in the hearts and lives of the people there?

Well, just in some amazing ways, really, Rob, but I will say this. I'll never forget one of the first trips I ever made to Lebanon. I met a family there in a farmer's field who shared with me the horrific story that they had endured in really their journey into the country of Lebanon as a refugee.

They were impacted by the Syrian war like so many of the people that we serve. And this man said he got a knock on the door in the middle of the night, opened that door and saw the Syrian army officer there. The guy said to him, look, you have 15 minutes. That father of that family looked at him and said, 15 minutes for what? He said, well, in 15 minutes, we're going to take this house.

This is our house in 15 minutes. That's exactly what happened, Rob. 15 minutes later, guns started firing. He grabbed his wife, his children, whatever they could carry.

And they made a five day journey into the country of Lebanon. Well, I met this family in the back of this banana field. They were living in this irrigation hut and a couple of things hit me right away. Number one, I looked at the children and I thought, man, you know, these kids have a look on their face. They've been through a lot. You could see almost the trauma on their faces, but the man who was sharing the story just had such joy.

It was incredible. And as he's sharing this really unbelievable story, he said something in the middle of that story. And I looked at the interpreter and I said, hold on just a second.

I think you got that wrong. Make him say that again. And he said, this is the best thing that has ever happened to us. Now, now Rob, I'm sitting in what they considered their living room with water, basically running through their living room.

I looked around, they had basically nothing. And he said, yes, we lived in Syria. We had heard about Jesus, but it wasn't until heart for Lebanon, met us here in this farmer's field, started providing for us just the things that we needed to get by. And then shared with us that we could know Jesus as our savior. It wasn't until then that we realized who Jesus really was. He said, I've come to know him as my personal savior. My wife has, and so has my child. And I've seen that story repeated time and time again, it's really foundational to who heart for Lebanon is.

Yes. We meet people in their need. There are so many in Lebanon right now that desperately need relief, but if you stop there, all you have is a transaction for heart for Lebanon. We knew if we were going to make an impact for Christ, we'd have to have a relationship just like we have had with that family in that banana field. Jack, it's a powerful story.

How can our listeners get involved? By going to faithfi.com slash Lebanon, where we've set up a toll free number to learn more. 888-201-5577. Jack, thanks for stopping by, my friend. Great to be with you, Rob.

faithfi.com slash Lebanon. We'll be right back. So glad to have you with us today on Faith and Finance Live.

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

You can find one at faithfi.com. Let's dive in. We'll begin in Louisiana. Hi, Mary. Go right ahead.

Hi. I have two inherited CDs from my late husband. When they reached maturity, I tried to transfer them to another bank with higher interest rates. The other banks will not take them. They said they don't do inherited CDs because of IRS problems.

That's all they could give me. Yes, ma'am. It seems clear cut when I Google this. How do I put these in my name only so that I can do with them as I see fit? It should be fairly seamless, but it does depend upon the bank's policies.

Each bank handles this a little bit differently. Let me ask you a question, Mary. How did you receive these? Were you a named beneficiary or did you own these jointly or did you receive them through probate? I don't know. I really don't know. We didn't own them jointly, I don't think.

I'm not really sure. That's probably the first thing you need to chase down because typically if these were payable on death to you as the beneficiary because you were listed as what's called a POD, payable on death beneficiary, then it would pass to you automatically. You would automatically inherit the funds and then you contact the bank or the credit union that holds the CD. You provide them with a copy of the death certificate and proof of your identity. They may ask you to come in to verify the documents in person and then what happens next is dependent upon the bank's policies.

This is where it can vary. In some cases they'll immediately terminate the CD and allow you immediate access to the funds. Other institutions may make you wait until the CD matures, but in either case, if you're the named beneficiary and you provide sufficient documentation, they will put this money in your name whether it remains in the CD or you're able to liquidate it. If you received it through probate, then you've got to wait for the probate court to do the final ruling and reach a decision and then the executor who handles the estate would provide the financial institution with the letters of administration from the probate court and close the account and then, you know, grant the inheritor access. But you likely receive these if you didn't own this jointly, you likely received it through a death payable on death beneficiary. Did you contact the bank and provide the documentation to have this moved over into your name only? They have not asked for any of that. They know me pretty well. My husband has been gone for nearly 10 years and they have it's just sitting there and I can't do anything with it.

They have not asked me for any documentation. Sure. So what I would do, is this a local branch where you could walk in the door? Yes. Okay.

So I'd schedule an appointment, Mary, go in there, take a copy of the death certificate and your information and tell them you need to move this over into your name only. Has the CD matured at this point? Yeah. Okay.

So it should be fairly simple. The CD's matured as long as it hasn't automatically rolled over into a new CD, then as long as you provide them the documentation that it sounds like they never asked for, then that could be moved over into your name only and then at that point it's not an inherited anything. It's your money and you can move it to another bank and put it into another CD or do whatever you want with it. But before we try to move it out, let's get it retitled in the proper name by you providing the necessary paperwork. Okay?

Okay. Well, they act like they don't know what to do with it. They always refer, you know, we'll research this and get back with you and then they come back with, we don't know what to do with. Well, I would just tell them you want, do you have a checking account that's in your name only? Oh yeah. Yeah. So I would just tell them, listen, I want you to move it into my checking account.

And if they said, well, wait a minute, I need some paperwork on that. Great. Tell me what you need, but I need this in my checking account.

And then from that point you could transfer it anywhere you want or write a check to another bank to deposit into a CD or, but I giving them a specific action, like move this money to my checking account is going to prompt whatever process needs to occur for them to document that this is now your money. Um, and, and it needs to go wherever you want it to go. All right. Well, it seems like it ought to be, it should be simple like that too.

So I'll keep, I'll keep trying. Yeah. And I think scheduling an appointment to sit down with somebody across the desk may make a, may make a difference.

So you're not talking to a customer service person over the phone. I'd go and visit with the branch manager or somebody that can make this happen for you. Yeah. Thank you. All right. Listen, all the best to you, Mary. If you have further questions, don't hesitate to reach back out to us. God bless you.

Let's go to Florida. Canary. Thanks for calling. Go ahead.

Yes. Thank you for taking my call. You do just an awesome job. I appreciate you.

Well, thank you very much. I was calling, um, I'm 62 years old. Uh, I'm getting ready to retire at the end of, uh, this year. And, um, I have no emergency fund. And what I was wondering is when I retire, my money's right now is in a pension and I am going to have it, uh, transfer it over to, uh, the financial investment plan. Uh, and it's $152,000 that's, uh, that I'm going to have in there.

I was wondering, um, they going to tax it. I mean, uh, 20% on that amount of money. Uh, that's going to be a lot of money coming out of there because I would like to use some of that money to do a emergency phone. And then I want to use the rest of it, um, to invest it. Is there any way that I can roll this money over into like maybe our account or a account or some other account without them taking the 20% off and maybe I can steal, um, go in and use some of the money without being penalized.

Yeah. So anytime the money comes out, you're going to have to pay tax on it. Um, so it'll be added to your taxable income. So with the, the pension, they generally will have that automatic 20% withholding, but if you roll it to an IRA, which is not a taxable event, because you see you put this money into the pension pre-tax, so you haven't paid tax on it. When you roll it to an IRA, that's also a pre-tax account. Therefore you're not creating a taxable event.

That's a non event. And then once it's in the IRA, you can take it out at any time and then it'll automatically just be added to your taxable income for that year. And then you'll have to pay tax on it.

When you file your taxes, they won't automatically withhold anything, but I wouldn't pull it out and just put it into a savings account just so you've got it there because I'd rather let it continue to grow until you actually need it. Let's do this, Frank. I want to continue to, excuse me, Canary. Let's do this. I want to talk a bit more about this, but I've got to hit this break. If you can stay right there, we'll pick this conversation up right on the other side. David, Frank, Gary coming your way as well. We'll be right back. Thanks so much for joining us today on Faith and Finance Live. I'm Rob West, your host. Hey, our team is away from the studio today. We're not here, but we've got some great questions that we lined up in advance.

I know you'll enjoy those a little later in our broadcast. Folks, have you checked out recently our website at faithfi.com? If not, I'd encourage you to do that. You'll find our community there where you can post questions and comments, hear from others that are on the stewardship journey as well. You can also access our content and check out the FaithFi app.

It's at faithfi.com. All right, back to the phones we go. Just before the break, we were talking to Canary in Florida. He's about to retire here at the end of the year. He's got about 150,000 tied up in a pension, doesn't have an emergency fund, is just thinking about how to reposition this money as he rolls it out. And Canary, what I was sharing is you're correct in that if you were to take a distribution from the account in its current form, you would probably have that automatic 20% withholding. If you roll that to an IRA, and I'd recommend given this is a sizable sum of money, that you do that with an advisor selected who can manage this for you unless you plan to do it yourself. But once it's in the IRA, then you'd be free to take money out. Anytime you do your withdrawal for the year would be added to your taxable income. So you just need to plan for that.

So that doesn't catch you by surprise when you go to file your taxes that year. Now, I understand you want an emergency fund and we're going to talk about that. I'd prefer you not take money out and go ahead and pay tax on it now just for it to sit in a savings account.

I'd love for you to give this time to recover. And remember, you can always get to that money if you were to need it for something unexpected. But taking it out without a real need for it, I would advise against. Now in terms of the emergency fund, talk to me about your expenses in retirement, how you plan to cover those? Are you going to be living on Social Security alone?

Are you going to try to draw an income out of this 150,000? What are your plans? Well, I have my Social Security and also I have my military check that I will receive monthly. Great. So I will be paying that and my wife, she is also getting ready to retire. And she also will be having her Social Security and her retirement check coming to her as well.

Excellent. And so when you total all of these up and you compare that to your known monthly expenses in the lifestyle you all plan to live in in retirement, do you feel like that's enough? And do you think you'll have anything left over?

Any cushion at the end of the month? Yeah, I think we will have we will be in a good position where we probably can still save about I would say about six to $800 a month. Okay. And so figure out how should I do this?

Yeah, that's great. So what I would do is just really focus on keeping your expenses as lean as possible. And let's just set up a separate savings account outside of that checking account that you pay your bills out of. And let's just try to automate, you know, that six to $800 a month going into your savings every month and try to build that up out of current cash flow, and just leave that pension which will become the IRA alone. Now, if you need to tap into it, you always can.

But let's not, you know, try to fund that emergency fund creating a taxable event prematurely, especially when you've got, you know, perhaps $800 a month where, you know, a few months down the road, all of a sudden, you're starting to get, you know, into several thousand dollars that you could fall back on if you need it. Okay, that sounds good, then. Okay, then. So are you saying that, um, that I could just roll the money over into the IRA, and they won't take that 20% out before they roll it over into the IRA? That's correct.

Yeah. So the only question now is do you manage that yourself? And if so, then you could just open an IRA at Schwab or Fidelity or another brokerage firm where you'd then be able to take in and invest it. Or if you're going to hire an advisor, I wouldn't open the IRA. I'd let the advisor do it wherever he or she custodies their client assets. And if you're looking for an advisor, I would interview two or three Certified Kingdom Advisors.

You can find some there in Florida. To interview on our website, faithfi.com. That's faithfi.com.

Just click Find a CKA. We appreciate your call, sir. All the best to you in this next season of life. Thanks for being on the program today.

Let's head to Arkansas. Gary has a follow-up comment on our previous caller who inherited a CD from her late husband. Gary, what are your thoughts? Well, I'm a CPA in Arkansas, and I see this happen quite a bit. And she said it's been 10 years, but he had the CD more than likely it's in his name only. Does not have a payable on death on it at all. It's just in his name.

And that you can't just take his wife just can't go down there and say, Oh, I want that money. Now the bank knows them real, real well. And they know nobody's going to complain.

They may just do it. But legally, she's probably going to have to go all probate and probably never had a probate. They never went through probate. There wasn't anything to go through.

They didn't do anything. More than likely that's what happened. But that account is sitting there in his name only and the bank just can't move it over to her more than likely they'll have to go over.

It's not a big deal, but I have to get an attorney open a small probate, go back and clear that up and get the court order to transfer it to her. Yeah. More than likely that I've seen that happen a lot. Yeah. No, that's a good word, Gary.

We covered both of those. We were operating under the assumption there was a POD on there. If not, you're exactly right. And what I had mentioned is then there would have had to have been probate. If not, then we're going to have to open that process and the court will appoint an executor. And then, you know, once that process happens, then those funds could be distributed to her.

But you're right. If it hasn't, if that's the case, there was no POD and there never was probate, then that process is going to have to be started. It won't be, you know, it'll take a little time and a little expense, but shouldn't be, shouldn't be laborious, but you're exactly right.

If that is in fact the case, and she was unsure of that, then we are going to have to go through probate. That's going to slow it down a little bit, but still worth the process to go through to get this finalized once and for all. Yeah. Very good. Absolutely, Gary. And I appreciate you weighing in, sir. If you ever have any other thoughts, we can always use the advice of a CPA, so don't hesitate to reach out.

God bless you. Hey folks, we're going to take a quick break. When we come back, we've got some great questions coming up.

We're going to talk about how you redeem a savings bond as a power of attorney for someone. We'll talk about reverse mortgages. And Mary wants to think about some ways to bring in some extra income so she can improve her financial situation. That and much more to come just around the corner.

Don't go anywhere. So thankful to have you with us today on Faith and Finance Live. Just a quick reminder, our team is away from the studio today, so don't call in, but we have some great questions that we've lined up in advance. We will get to those in just a moment, but first let's tackle a couple of emails. You send these to us regularly at moodyradio.org slash finance.

We love when we receive your questions via email. This comes from Ralston. He says we're buying a new 2022 car. I have a 20% down payment with a credit score of 775. Where can I get the best rate to finance the balance of the cost? Well, congratulations Ralston on a great credit score. You can check NerdWallet, Bankrate, LendingTree, any of those three would be a great place to begin as you look for the best rates on auto loans right now. They may come from lenders you don't recognize. Maybe they're online banks or otherwise, but your credit score should qualify you for the very best rates and terms.

This one comes from Ella. She says I would like guidance. Would it be wise to sell my house and rent a place where I would not be responsible for the upkeep? My house is worth $150,000 and it's paid for. I'm 77 years old and have no debts with about $100,000 saved.

Well, Ella, congratulations on being debt free and being in a strong financial position. You know, many senior citizens elect to do what you're suggesting because they just don't want the hassle of maintaining a property, even if that only means hiring contractors to do the work. From a financial perspective, you just need to make sure you've done your homework first. I like the idea of you pulling the equity out of your home. That's great, but just make sure before you put the house up for sale, you go out and look at other options for renting. You'll want to make sure you know for the size space you're looking for and the location what that's going to cost you. You may actually be surprised at how expensive the rent is, so I just want you to do that due diligence ahead of time. But if you do the homework and you find that you can find something that meets your budget, absolutely. And then I connect with an advisor on managing that money once you make that sale.

I hope that's helpful to you. All right, let's head back to the phones. Let's go to Kentucky and we're going to talk to Frank next. Frank, thanks for being on the program.

How can I help you, sir? I just have a question about the reverse mortgage. I owe $57,000 on my property. After they come out and see how much my property has worked, the property's value has gone up since then, so I'm concerned about owing more than I owe more than I owe more than I do now.

It's really just a question. So what is it you're looking to do? You'd like to get a reverse mortgage? Yeah, I haven't thought about it, but you know, if I want to owe more than I do now, it's kind of like making it even higher what I owe now. Well, there's no question that if you got a reverse mortgage, your balance that you owe would go up. So you need to start with at least generally 50% or more in equity, and then what would happen is if you got a reverse mortgage and you already had an existing mortgage, but you've got that at least 50% equity in the house, meaning it's worth at least double what you owe on it, then at that point the reverse mortgage would pay off the existing mortgage, and then you would have to decide, do I want to stop there, and therefore your mortgage payment would essentially go away, and that balance that you owed would then begin accruing interest and fees, but you wouldn't have a payment, or do you want to add to it because they'd either give you a lump sum on top of it or a monthly check for the rest of your life. Now, one of the benefits of a reverse mortgage is that you're not personally guaranteeing it. Essentially, with a home equity conversion mortgage, which is another name for a reverse mortgage, the FHA, the Federal Housing Administration, is guaranteeing it. So essentially the collateral for the mortgage is the home alone. You can never outlive the equity you have in your home with a home equity conversion mortgage. So the lender is basically saying, we'll pay off your mortgage and we'll give you X amount of dollars for the rest of your life, and as long as you're living, we'll send you this money, and at the point when you die or move, then we're saying that the house, the collateral for the house once it's sold, is going to be enough to cover that mortgage, whatever that balance is. Now, of course, if there's any equity remaining, then that could be at your death paid out to your heirs, but the home itself would satisfy the mortgage. Now, most folks, and I would be in this camp, like the idea of not trying to maximize and pull out as much equity as we can because that's dead. We'd rather get out of debt completely and own our homes outright, and so that would be my preferred approach is that by the time you reach retirement, you don't have any mortgage. You live in your home, you've got the equity in your house, if at any point you wanted to sell it, you could take that and invest it. It could be left to your heirs. They could keep the home, they could sell it and distribute the assets, do whatever they want, but some folks in this season of life, they perhaps haven't saved like they would have wished they did. They can't afford their mortgage payment or they just need more income and they're sitting on all this equity in the house, and that's where a reverse mortgage can be effective to allow them to maintain their lifestyle, and the nice thing is that unlike most other loans, you're not personally guaranteeing it. Essentially, the house is the only collateral for the loan regardless of what that balance ultimately grows to. Does that make sense?

Yes, it does. I didn't want to owe more than I do now. Well, you certainly would if you got a reverse mortgage because here's what's going to happen. Number one, the payments are going to stop, so right now you're paying on the mortgage and although a portion of that's going to interest, a portion is going to principal, so that balance is coming down. As soon as this loan is paid off with a reverse mortgage, you're not going to pay anything unless you wanted to, but typically folks stop making their mortgage payment, so that balance is going to start climbing.

Why? Because there's fees and an interest rate attached to that loan. They're giving you this loan because they want to earn the interest.

They're in business to make a profit, so that balance is going to start heading higher unless you pay it down. Okay, I understand what you mean. I just have some questions to ask.

Sometimes you're not sure what you're doing. Okay, yeah, so let's do this. Our friends at Movement Mortgage would be a great resource for you. They really would be happy to provide a lot of education to you on this process.

Also, keep in mind, I think you probably know this, but just make sure, reverse mortgage doesn't cover the property taxes or the property insurance, so that would all have to be covered on top of this. But I'd reach out at movement.com slash faith. That's movement.com slash faith, and they can explain exactly how it works, go over your specific situation, and run some numbers for you and give you all the details. We appreciate your call today, Frank. May the Lord bless you, sir. Thanks for being on the program.

Let's go to Tennessee. Hi, Mary. How can I help you? Yes, I was just trying to find out ways I can increase my income, my cash flow, and bring in more funds. I'm limited.

I don't have a vehicle, so that's part of this challenge as well, so I'm trying to just kind of get some input on that. I kind of tend to draw a blank on it. The folks in the audience said something about, well, what was my income needs, or what I would require, and I was looking like a department in my area.

They run around $1,000 a month, so there's an income thing there, you know, and then just basic facilities, that sort of thing. Yeah, you know, I think in this gig economy, you know, it's, you know, easier than ever to find some side work that perhaps you could do from home where you're working remotely. I think I would always start with what skills you have and what you enjoy doing and just kind of begin making a list. Maybe you get out a yellow pad or, you know, on your computer there and just start making a list of all the things that you enjoy and see which of those overlap with skills that you have.

You know, could you do some freelance work, either secretarial work or maybe for a CPA data entry, pet sitting and doggy daycare or dog walking is a great option, senior sitting and just being a companion or even babysitting and childcare or a personal assistant. I mean, there's so many options out there. I would just kind of start by making that inventory and then talking to some friends. Thanks for your call. We'll be right back. Hey, it's great to have you with us on Faith and Finance Live, but today we are prerecorded and we won't be taking your calls. However, we've lined up some calls in advance that we think you'll find helpful.

So stay tuned and enjoy the rest of the program. As we head toward the end of the year ever so quickly, it's a great opportunity for me to remind you how much we rely on your support. If you find value in this program, maybe you listen regularly or you've been able to apply one of the principles or you've taken a piece of advice that I shared with somebody that was helpful to you and you'd like to give back to help others understand God's heart as it relates to our role as stewards and our work to help equip godly stewards to manage his money wisely. We'd appreciate a gift of any amount as a listener supported ministry. We can't do this broadcast and all of the ministry offerings we bring without your support. So a gift of any amount would go along with it, especially between now and December 31st, whether it's $40, $400, or $4,000, it would help. Just head to faithfi.com, that's faithfi.com, and click the give button. That's faithfi.com, just click give and thanks in advance.

Let's go to Kentucky. David, you've been waiting very patiently, sir. How can I help? Thank you so much. Hey, I'm the POA for a fella that's in a nursing home and he's got a lot of savings bonds. I used to be able to redeem those quickly and easily at a local bank, but now the local banks say, no, we don't do that anymore.

You have to get on the internet or something like that. And I believe I'm just going to have to mail all these in and I'm real fearful that if I mail them in one or two things will happen. Either it might get lost in the mail or my POA will not be approved on some technicality and then I'll go in some vicious cycle of trying to get a POA redrafted or reconfirmed and just a lot of back and forth and it's slow trying to get in touch with anybody in the federal government on problems like this.

Do you have a suggestion how I can quickly redeem these? You know, unfortunately, there's not a quick solution and you've got to go through treasurydirect.gov. The banks are increasingly moving out of this space altogether and everything's happening electronically. The problem is treasury direct. It's a little better now than it was because when the I bonds were so hot with inflation through the roof, especially when you could get 9% plus on I bonds, there was just, they were just overwhelmed with people opening accounts and trying to purchase these I bonds. Obviously that's tapered off as that rate has come down and so there's a little less pressure on them from a customer service standpoint, but you're going to have to go to treasurydirect.gov to cash these in the attorney in fact, which is what you are as a POA in your acting in your fiduciary capacity, you're going to have to sign a form that requests payment for that savings bond, you know, in line with your capacity to do so and then send that in.

Again, it's not easy, it's not quick, but it is the way you've got to go. So I'd had to treasurydirect.gov and just kind of read up on it there. There it is a helpful website, they just redid it.

And you'll find all the FAQs there. But unfortunately, that's going to be the way that you need to redeem these. I guess they have all these bonds on file somewhere. So if they get lost in the mail, it won't be a problem. Or should I get these insured for the full value when I mail them in? Yeah, no, I as long as you have a copy of them, I think you're fine.

You know, you just want to take down the the QSIP numbers on those you could just to verify you could go to treasurydirect.gov and just type the numbers in and it'll, it'll show you the value of the bonds and all the documentation. So you should be fine there. Even if something was lost. I just make sure you have copies of both sides. Do you think I can get the POA pre approved before I send all the bonds in so it won't be a lot of back and forth rhetoric? Yeah, that's a good question. I would hate to weigh in on that one way or the other. But I think when you read up online, you'll find all the details there.

I wouldn't be able to say one way or the other for sure on that though, David. Most of the states have revised the requirements for a POA for gifting or for a lot of transactions. And I found that out not too long ago. So I don't know if mine's up to date with a new federal requirements or not. And to mail these things in. But one last thing, do you know if I need to submit everything electronically or mail them in hard copy?

Yeah, I think you're going to end up having to mail it all in hard copy. Okay, so I'd have to give them up and then hope they don't get lost. And that's right. So forth. Okay. Well, thank you for all your good help. I appreciate it. All right, David. God bless you, sir. Thanks for being on the program. Let's go to Texas. Hi, Ann.

How can I help? Hi, Rob. Thank you so much for taking my call. And I am just calling to just ask my husband had a stroke in July. And because of the circumstances around that, it does not look like he will be able to return to work. And we were kind of pretty much he was our primary breadwinner and has been for all the years of our married life. And at this point, I'm trying to decide what are some of our best options as we have not done our due diligence well, in saving for retirement. We're in our mid 60s and still have a mortgage on our home. And I just don't know whether it would be better to look at maybe selling our home at this point or possibly look into the reverse mortgage that I've listened to some of the information from you on. Yeah, I'm so sorry to hear about your husband's health situation here. Let's think through this just for a moment. What are your income sources right now?

Right now? He is 66. So we went on and did social security that started last month for him. And that's around 3600 a month.

And then he works for a large bank or did in risk management. And they are I met to have 40% of his income on short term disability on that. So that equates to about 3600 a month right now. Okay, and how long will that last?

At this point, it looks like through the end of January. So then at that point, your only source of income other than the amount that you have saved is going to be the 3600 a month. Yes, sir. Social Security. What about you? Are you collecting a spousal benefit?

Are you able to do so yet? No, I should be eligible for Social Security. We hadn't even looked at that.

Because, again, you know, we didn't obviously expect this to happen. And my husband made a very good income. So I'm 63. And I worked for about 10 years before we started having kids. But I have not even looked into the social security part of it for me yet. Okay, because once you're 62, as long as he's collecting, you could begin taking a spousal benefit, you can get up to 50%. Obviously, if you take it early before full retirement age, it's going to be reduced.

So you could get you know, maybe only around 30% of his or something like that. But if you are, you know, in a tight spot, you could get that spousal benefit as soon as you need it. You know, I think the next step here would be for you guys to visit with an advisor, just to sit down and look at everything that you've got look at the retirement savings that you have look at the social security options, think through your living situation, and whether it would be better to sell and, and move and you know, perhaps recapture some of that equity and invest it, maybe stay right there. And as you said, a reverse mortgage could be a way. Again, it's not my first choice, I'd rather us get out of debt and stay there.

But for some folks, you know, especially when an unexpected situation like you're in with his health situation, you know, it can be a way for you all to continue to maintain your quality of life, stay in your home, and at least stop that mortgage payment, which obviously will take a lot of the pressure off. So I think there's just a number of things to consider here. And because of there's so many moving pieces, I'd love for you to have an advisor just look over all of it and help you make a plan. Do you all have an advisor that you've worked with in the past? No, Rob, we don't, that would be a huge blessing to go that route.

Yeah, great. So what I would do is head to our website and faith fi.com faith fi.com. And right there at the top of the page, it says find a CCA that stands for certified kingdom advisor. And I would just do a zip code search there in Texas, probably interview two or three, and find somebody that you just feel like you have a good rapport with.

And as the experience you're looking for, these would all be folks that share your values and as believers, and could really just be that, you know, accountability and wisdom to guide you and help you navigate this next season of life and kind of put all these financial pieces in place. I think that's going to be the best next step here in Okay, so many moving parts. I know. Yes. Okay. That's right. It'll give you a lot of peace of mind to to know that you have a plan and that you know where you're headed.

So again, faith fi.com is the place to go all the best to you and we'll certainly ask our faith and finance community to be praying for your husband. Okay. Oh, thank you so very much.

I appreciate your program and all your help. Thank you. Thank you. May the Lord bless you. Bye bye. Thanks so much for that call. Well, let's head to Louisiana. Hi, Tommy.

How can I help? Hey, thank you for taking my call. I own my home outright. I inherited it four years ago. The only income I have is Social Security.

And I work as a caregiver, a hospice caregiver. Anyway, my question is my house is worth between 250 $300,000. And I have I only have $10,000 in debt, like credit card debt. Yeah, I'd like to pay everything I have off. And I'm in need of another automobile.

And I'm in need of some work done on the house. Would you advise a reverse mortgage for that type of thing? You know, I would rather you stay debt free. And if you had to take a small loan, you know, to do some of these things, you certainly could.

But for an automobile, I'd rather you not attach that to the house. And for the credit card debt, I'd rather you go through a debt management program, you've got all that equity, and I'd hate to see you, you know, start to pull it all out unless, you know, it was really necessary. Let's do this. I'm going to have one of our certified Christian financial counselors reach out to you and help you go over all of this and look and see if there's any other options before we consider the reverse mortgage.

Stay on the line, we'll get your information and get somebody in touch with you. Tommy, thanks for your call. Well, we're about out of time today. Before we go, let me remind us why we do what we do here on this program every day. We gather for Faith and Finance Live because we recognize we all have a high calling.

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