Act Your Wage

Commit your work to the Lord and your plans will be established.

Proverbs 16 3. Hi, I'm Rob West. Do you have months left over at the end of your money? Are you slowly accumulating debt?

Even though you try to control your spending, maybe you need a plan, a spending plan. Call us at 800-525-7000. That's 800-525-7000. This is Faith and Finance Live, biblical wisdom for your financial decisions. Well, it's always a pleasure to have my friend Howard Dayton back on the program. Howard is the founder of Compass Finances God's Way. He's the former host of this program and somebody we just really, really love. Howard, great to have you with us.

So good to be with you, Rob. Howard, in the new video study from Compass, Navigating Your Finances God's Way, you map out four phases to help people set goals for their financial discipleship journey. And in each phase, you suggest that people should be giving as they work down debt, create emergency savings, and invest, all within the freedom of using a spending plan. Freedom and spending plan, now that's going to seem counterintuitive to some people, so maybe you should explain how that's possible.

I sure will. And, you know, maybe it is counterintuitive, but that's why I don't like to use the B word because so many people think that a budget is a restrictive loss of freedom. They also fear that a budget is going to require endless hours of monotonous detailed accounting. So I like to use the description spending plan.

It's a more accurate description, really. It tells your money where you want it to go rather than wondering where it went. It enables you to use your money to reach your goals and life purpose. It helps you control impulse spending, and I love this, it helps you get out of debt. So if you're not used to the spending plan, chances are you're flying by the seat of your financial pants. You may be like the depositor who replied in disbelief to the banker, what do you mean I'm overdrawn?

I still have six checks left in my checkbook. Talk about a reality check. Yeah, it sure is. So I love this because what you're saying is a spending plan isn't something that has to be carved in stone. You have to be able to make adjustments along the way.

Absolutely. If you're spending more than your income or if you want to accelerate your debt repayment, you got to ask yourself questions about every expense. Can I do this less expensively?

Do I really need this? And reducing spending means you've got to change your lifestyle, and this is never easy in my experience. You may have to make hard decisions if you're committed to getting out of debt. You may have to cut back on entertainment or eat out less, maybe even sell the car with a higher auto loan.

Making big cuts and small ones all really help. The good news, if you haven't made these adjustments before or not for a long time, you probably can discover you can trim hundreds of dollars from your monthly spending. Howard, that's well said. Now, are there special things couples in particular should do in setting up a spending plan?

There sure are, Rob. Husbands and wives really need to work together on developing their spending plan and engage in open, honest communication. The Lord intended the husband and wife to be unified, so be patient with each other, your different personalities and approaches to money.

Men often like to get things done quickly. Women tend to need time to process and discuss. The key is flexibility, and I think really appreciating each other, encouraging each other as you go through the process. Hard work now will pay huge dividends later. And I know, Howard, you encourage once couples have that spending plan, you got to revisit it. You call that a money date, right? I do, and it's really a good idea to have a money date at least every other week, Rob, where you sit down, again, review what income came in, what went out, and encourage one another.

It's so important not to play the blame game, but to encourage one another through this process, because it's not easy. That's exactly right. Well, that's all we have time for today, Howard, but thanks for stopping by, my friend. Oh, I enjoyed the time, Rob.

That's Howard Dayton, founder of Compass Finances God's Way. Learn more at navstudy.org. We've got to take a quick break, but much more just around the corner. If you have a question today, call right now, 800-525-7000. Stick around. 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.

Always great to have our friend Howard Dayton stop by. I hope today was an encouragement to you. You know, folks, getting yourself on a spending plan, finding a system that works for you, you know, it could be the tried and true physical envelope system. I still hear from a lot of folks who use what Larry Burkett talked about in the 80s, and if it works for you, great. Maybe it's a spreadsheet. For others, they want a smartphone approach, something a little more user-friendly that automatically downloads your transactions, gives you something to look at. If you're married, to keep you and your spouse on the same page financially, that's where the Faithfi app can come in. If you haven't checked it out, I'd encourage you if you want to get a spending plan in place once and for all as we head into a new year. We'd love for you to download it today. You can do that on our website at faithfi.com. That's faithfi.com.

Just click app or search for it in your app store. All right, we're going to dive into your questions here in just a moment. We've got lines open.

Our team is standing by. We'd love to tackle whatever you're considering today financially, helping you to make God your ultimate treasure, but also really addressing those very practical issues that you're wrestling with in your financial life. So give us a call.

Let's tackle those together. The number is 800-525-7000. That's right. It's 800-525-7000. You can call right now. All right, let's begin in Hershey, PA. Hi, Ann. Go right ahead.

Hi, thanks for taking my call. My question is about pension plans and TSAs, 403Bs. Earlier in my career, I worked for industry and I had a 401k. And when I left that job, I rolled it into an account with Edward Jones. Now my employer is a nonprofit. So when I started, they had a pension plan and a TSA. Well, a couple years into my work career, the CEO changed it all to a 403B because he said you'd have more flexibility with your investments and a better return than the pension plan. So my question is, should I roll the TSA into the 403B? I'm not sure. Is a 403B an annuity?

Yeah, it's a great question. So anything that is tax deferred would typically be able to be rolled into an IRA. So that would include 401k, 403B, a TSP, a Thrift Savings Plan, a TSA account, as well as a pension.

As long as that money is going in pre-tax, you should then be able, after you separate from any employers, whether that's because you moved to another job or you retired entirely, you should be able to combine those into a pre-tax IRA, not the Roth, but the traditional IRA through what's called a rollover. And essentially what that allows you to do in this case, Anne, would be to consolidate any of those accounts that you had. A lot of people, because they're switching jobs and moving from one employer to the other, or because as in your case, your employer made a change in the type of retirement plan that was offered, you can end up with multiple retirement accounts and putting them all together in one place offers you a few advantages. One is just that it's simpler because now you're just overseeing and receiving statements and paperwork for one account instead of multiple accounts. The other benefit is just from an investment standpoint, you can ensure that the investment strategy is aligned with your age and risk tolerance goals and objectives. A lot of times when you're trying to manage investments in multiple accounts, you may end up with over concentration in one sector, duplication of investments, those types of things. And so it just really simplifies your investment strategy. And an advisor could manage all of it in one place.

And so whether it's at Edward Jones or wherever your advisor, you know, custody is the assets, they could then give oversight to those. Is that helpful, though? Yes. The other thing, I guess I was leery of putting all my eggs in one basket.

Should I? I'm consolidating all the accounts like at Edward Jones or whichever company I decide to go with. But that is recommended to put it all in one account. It is. Yeah. And what are we talking about?

I mean, what would you say roughly you have if you combined everything? Oh, well, the two TSA and that's probably two hundred and twenty five thousand. OK. And I probably have one hundred and fifty at Edward Jones. OK. Yeah.

And when you say TSA, you mean tax sheltered annuity? Is that what you're talking about? Yes.

OK. Yeah. So that wouldn't be uncommon at all for you to consolidate that under one advisor's management. Now, obviously, that advisor, you know, you need to make sure you have a good rapport with that person.

I think it's important that he or she understands your worldview and can apply biblical wisdom to the approach that they're taking with your money management, as well as the advice that they're giving you. You want to make sure that, you know, the performance is there over time and that, you know, you're able to communicate really well with that person. And, you know, they're communicating as often as you'd like.

I mean, those kinds of things. But assuming you have a really healthy relationship and it's working, then there's no reason why having one advisor managing all of that would be a problem at all. In fact, I think it is advisable. And, you know, the advisor can make sure that you're properly diversified among the investments. So you're not putting all of your eggs in one basket, but you are, you know, kind of putting everything under the management of one advisor.

Now, typically when we're dealing with ultra high net worth, they may have multiple advisors working, but in a situation like this, I think it's very appropriate to have one advisor. Okay. All right. Well, thank you so much. All right. You're welcome. Thanks for your call today.

Quickly to Brian, Ohio. Hi, Frank. Go ahead.

Good afternoon to you. My name is Frank, and I really appreciate, you know, your commitment as far as, you know, for the people as far as, you know, helping them out. What I'm asking is I have two accounts on credit unions, and I'd like to basically look into getting out of the credit union and going to a regular bank to where I can see my money as far as going. Instead, I've been for the credit union for a long time, and it seems like I'm not getting anywhere. So I'd like to see something that will help me out as far as, you know, assure me that I'm in the right place. Sure.

What is it that you're missing, Frank, that you're looking for? You mentioned moving from a credit union to a bank. What are you hoping to get out of this move that you don't have today? As far as my money, some kind of helping out as far as, you know, I see it grow. Okay. Yeah, very good. Let's talk about that because there are banking products that would be offered at both banks and credit unions, and you can get very competitive rates in both.

Perhaps you're looking for something beyond that that would be more around the investments that are selected. We can talk about that as well. I've got to take a quick break, though. Frank, you stay right there, and we'll finish up just around the corner. Your questions with lines open 800-525-7000. Call right now.

Stick around. Great to have you with us today on Faith and Finance Live. I'm Rob West. We've got some lines open. We're ready for your phone calls today.

800-525-7000. Let's go back to the phones. Before the break, we were talking to Frank in Ohio. He's currently with a credit union looking to move to a bank to, as in his words, help his money grow better.

Frank, let's dig into this just a bit more. So what is the amount you have in the credit union that you're referring to? How much? I got $46,001, and I got another, I'm thinking about maybe $7,000 or $8,000 in this other one. All right.

Very good. And then what would you say you all spend for your bills, your lifestyle, on a monthly basis, roughly? It's mainly utilities.

Utilities and I'd say groceries. That's about it. All right. A couple of thousand a month, do you think? I'd say so, yeah.

All right. So let's say it is, and if we had six months expenses, that would be $12,000 that we would call your emergency fund. Obviously, you've got quite a bit more than that in this credit union. You put it all together, it sounds like you have about $55,000 or so.

So let's leave that there for a moment. Do you have anything else in investable assets? Do you have any retirement accounts or anything like that?

No, I don't. Okay. And what is your age, Frank? I have a pension coming in. I'm retired.

You are retired. All right. Yeah, I have a pension on one of them that's, you know, the lower one, which is like maybe $300, you know, that comes into the credit union every month.

And the other one is about $16,000 or $18,000, or $16,000 or $18,000. Okay. Got it. Yeah. So are you saying then, you know, you all are able to live within those two pension checks, you know, plus are you also earning Social Security? Well, that's including with my Social Security. Okay.

But the combination of the two checks gives you enough to pay your bills, correct? Oh, yes. Okay.

All right. Now, when you say you want to increase the growth of this money in the credit union, this roughly $55,000, what are you getting on it today? And what are you hoping to get out of it? Well, actually, I just want to advise as far as, you know, what to look for. I know there's plenty of banks, you know, but as far as, you know, asking for or going into a good bank that will basically make my money grow. Okay. Are you wanting somebody to invest it in stocks and bonds and take some risk to try to grow it? Or you want something that's guaranteed? I want something that's guaranteed. Okay.

All right. So you could use a CD, but that would be, you know, you can find as good of CDs at credit unions as you can banks. So there's nothing that a bank's going to give you that a credit union can't. The question is just what banks or credit unions are you using and what who's offering the most competitive rates of return. So it could be that you have a great option with a credit union that could offer something that's just as good as a bank.

Again, one is not necessarily going to be better than the other. If you were to go into bankrate.com, that would be where I would direct you. And let's say we were to look at today's CD rates, you know, for a one year CD right now about the best you're going to find is about five and a half percent for a five star rated bank with FDIC insurance. And then they go down from there, maybe five point three. Now, if you want to extend it out a little longer than a year, you know, you're going to you're going to give up some yield on that.

So, for instance, if we look at three years instead of five and a half, you're going to be down around four point six, four point five, four point four, something like that. So what I would recommend that you do is go to bankrate.com and you look for either the CD or the savings account that's paying the highest yield right now that's highly rated with either FDIC insurance for a bank or NCUA insurance for a credit union. But I don't I'm not going to tell you that you automatically have to switch from a credit union to a bank. You can get competitive rates in either one. The question is just who's offering the highest rates right now. Does that make sense?

Yes, it does. OK, very good. Bankrate.com will be the place to go to to do that research and you can make your decision.

Frank, thanks for your call. By the way, folks, you know, more and more people are looking for a banking partner that shares their values. They just want to know that they're working with believers and that even a portion of the money is going to Christian causes. If that's you, I would check out Christian Community Credit Union.

You can learn more and join Christian community dot com. Let's go to Benita Springs. Hi, Donna. Go ahead.

Hi, thank you for taking my call. My problem is I my husband wants to sell our house right now. They're saying we could get five seventy five. I owe thirty on it. And then he has twenty thousand in debt. We have a home, a small home that we built in the mountains of North Carolina that we own scot free.

OK, so the problem is he he says all couples live for this. You know, this is a time to sell this house. He said he'd like to put one hundred thousand in stocks that risky things that he can make money on. He said put four hundred and something safe and that we could live on the interest of that with our Social Security, which together would be two thousand three hundred and fifty. And that's just the Social Security alone is the twenty three fifty. Yes. OK. And I have thirty thousand in cash for emergency funds in a safe.

OK, got it. And what is your total bills today? Roughly on a monthly basis. Well, my mortgage is a thousand two hundred for FPL.

What would you say? All in. Roughly all in. Not much.

Fifteen hundred. OK. All right. That's helpful.

This is great background information, Donna. I really appreciate the question. We're going to take a quick break when we come back. I'll kind of give you my thoughts as we try to piece all of this together. Plus, additional questions around the corner as well.

Eight hundred five two five seven thousand. Stay with us. We'll be right back. This is Faith and Finance Live. I'm Rob West. We want to help you see God as your ultimate treasure.

Money, a tool to accomplish his purposes. Help you apply biblical wisdom to the practical decisions and choices you're making every day with God's money. You can call right now with your questions.

Eight hundred five two five seven thousand. Before the break, we were talking to Donna in Bonita Springs. She and her husband are in their mid 60s. They're looking to sell their home that they owe almost free and clear. It's worth nearly six hundred thousand. They owe about thirty thousand on it.

They do have a small home in North Carolina that's in the mountains that they own outright. And they're just wondering or she's wondering if her husband's plan to, you know, put the proceeds in something that's fairly safe, apart from about one hundred thousand that he would manage in, quote, stocks is a good plan for them to maintain their lifestyle. And Donna, we can look at the financial side of this in a second.

Let's talk about the non-financial side in a second. Just for a moment here. As you and your husband talk about this next season of life, you know, are you ready to relocate permanently to that small house in North Carolina? Have you guys prayed through what you believe God has for you in this next season?

I mean, describe what you feel like you want you want this next season to look like for the two of you. Well, I do have elderly parents that my sister and I take care of. And I feel a little guilt about that. And I feel like I don't want to be rushed because it's almost like, hey, this is our only time to take the money and run.

And why is that? Is he feeling like because of the housing market he needs to get out now or is there something else driving that? Well, I think the housing market, plus he thinks, you know, something might happen and he wants to be up in the mountains instead of in Florida.

And he's tired of the heat, which I'm tired of the heat, too, but. OK. Yeah. So something happens, maybe like some sort of major event or attack or I mean, something that would. OK, I see.

Yeah. Well, I mean, obviously that's something that you all need to pray through and discern together, whether, you know, I wouldn't operate out of fear. You know, I think we need to ultimately replace fear with faith and trust in the Lord. But that doesn't mean we shouldn't be shrewd and wise and discerning. And, you know, I think you also should take some time and really ask the Lord, Lord, what do you have for us? Because I don't think we want to take a bunker mentality. I think we should be looking to be salt and light wherever God has planted us and ultimately have our trust in him.

You know, I don't see you know, and I'm not hearing you say this, but to the extent there's an element of this there for your husband. I'm not seeing any kind of collapse of the U.S. government or the you know, the economy or the banking system, anything like that. I think the housing market is where it is in large part due to the fact that we just have a shortage of homes in this country of two to three million.

There's just simply not enough to meet the demand that exists today, which is why, you know, this is not a bubble, in my opinion. You know, we're up where we are just because there is real value there because of a supply and demand issue. So ultimately, you all are going to have to decide what is the right time to relocate and for what reasons.

And I think thinking about caring for aging parents has to be a part of that clearly. And, you know, asking yourself, Lord, what do you have for us in this next season and what decisions do we need to make? So, you know, I would challenge you to sounds like you're a little unsettled in the decision making process.

So I would just take a little bit more time, you know, be patient, make it a matter of prayer. And you and he spend some time talking it through from a purely financial standpoint. I mean, clearly with your expenses being as low as you're describing that they are around a couple of thousand a month. And by the way, as an aside, I would dig into that a little deeper and say, OK, if we were retired today, what would our budget look like? And let's put everything in there, including potentially a long term care insurance policy, which is probably the biggest risk as you head into this next season of life. But let's say it is a couple of thousand a month. I mean, obviously, with your Social Security being up at twenty three hundred and fifty dollars a month, which is what I think I heard you say, it sounds like that's enough to cover your bills. So then, you know, anything you were to pull off of that half a million dollars after that small debt is paid from the proceeds of the home, you know, it would just be what you could plow back into savings and continue to build that up. You could give it away.

Maybe you accelerate your generosity. But I think at the end of the day, you all are in good financial shape. And if you don't put that in an insurance product like an annuity and you just invest it, you know, then you'd have access to it if you needed a larger chunk of it for some sort of long term care or nursing care down the road. So I feel like you're in good shape with regard to his management of the stocks. I mean, at sixty five, I would say, you know, on a on a portfolio, you'd probably want at least 40 to 50 percent in stocks.

You know, if you want to get real conservative, thirty five to forty five percent. But he's only talking about, you know, managing it about 20 percent of it in stocks. Now, you said risky stocks. And so if he's really wanting to be very speculative with it, maybe he's in high flying tech stocks or he's looking at crypto or something like that, I would say, well, that's 20 percent a bit more than I would want him to take, you know, and put it into the highest risk category. But if he's just managing it in the stock market, he's not day trading and, you know, being overly aggressive, but he's taking a long term approach, then I would say, you know, that's not an inordinate amount of of a half a million dollar portfolio in your 60s to put into stocks.

So I don't have a problem with that at face value. So I think all that to say you all have some more work to do on kind of planning for this next season. I think the finances sound like you're in pretty good shape.

I think the last thing I would say is, you know, would behoove you to get an adviser to enter the equation who could provide some accountability, challenge you all with some questions along the way, and then help give oversight to all of the financial pieces and parts as you go. And if you don't have an adviser, you could connect with a certified kingdom adviser there in Florida on our website at faith five dot com. Does that help, though?

Yes. And what was that website again? Yeah, it's faith five dot com. It's faith five dot com right there at the top at the top of the page. It says find a C.K. that stands for certified kingdom adviser.

And you could do a zip code search in your area. Thanks for your call today to Tennessee. Hi, Laurie. Go ahead. Hi, Rob.

I really appreciate your thoughtful replies to the callers. I have a quick question about a FICO score. I got a notification from Experian via email that my rating had gone from excellent down to very good.

And the very good was at seven ninety seven. And it kind of distressed me because I haven't I don't know why it would do that. And then I looked at the other two credit bureaus and like seven eighty four and then seven sixty three. And I don't know why. So should I be concerned or, you know, I should do about that?

I don't think so. I mean, one of the challenges is when we live according to biblical principles, we get out of debt over time. And when you pay off an account, for instance, I just had an account that we just paid in full the other day. And it causes your score to drop just because it pulls one of the credit types out of the equation. It changes your credit mix. So your credit score is going to change over time.

Here's the thing. Anything over seven forty is going to qualify you for the very best rates and terms. Secondly, unless you're going out and buying a house or a car and you need to borrow some money, it doesn't really matter in this season of life what it is.

So I would just say go another layer down and figure out what is it? Because they'll tell you anytime your score changes, what's the primary issue driving it? And if it's something like you just paid off an account, don't worry about it. Now, if a late payment was reported or somebody opened an account fraudulently in your name, that's the kind of thing you want to know.

Otherwise, I wouldn't be concerned. Just pull a copy of your credit report at AnnualCreditReport.com at least four times a year and then pull those free FICO scores. Thanks for your call, Laurie. We'll be right back. Great to have you with us today on faith and finance live. I'm Rob West. Let's go right back to the phones to Westfield, Indiana. Hi, Michael.

How can I help you, sir? Quick question for you. Is there anything inherently wrong with leaving my wife's 401k with her employer that she separated with a number of years ago? She's not working, has no plans to enter the job market in a target retirement fund. And so my thought was, if we moved it to an IRA, we'd put it in the exact same bank. Yeah, yeah.

No, there isn't. And one of the benefits of leaving it there, Michael, is that you don't have to make those investment selections on your own. Now, as you said, you could pick another target date fund in the IRA. I do think, though, once you separate from employment and now we've got, you know, quite a bit of, you know, really the the full retirement portfolio you all have built together. And I realize they'll stay in each of your names, but that might be the point where you'd want to bring an advisor into the mix. But if the bulk of it is with you and you're still employed and you'd just rather leave it right where it is and it's been performing well, then I would say do that.

But at some point down the road, you're probably going to want to look at rolling it all out under the care of an advisor. All right. Sounds great. All right, Michael, thanks for your call today.

Let's go to Texas. Hi, Lewis. How can I help, sir? Hello there, Ron. How are you doing today, sir? I'm very well.

Thanks for calling. I'll tell you what this Texas weather is always changing. And right now we're starting to thaw out a lot more release. I'll tell you what it's been either too hot or too cold, too wet, too dry. It's never, it's never the same around here. I hear you. How can I help you? Well, Rob, I'm in kind of a decision dilemma right now.

I'm 77 years of age. I bought into my property here in East Texas in 1990. Basically moved over here two years thereafter and then with a mobile home to get on the place with wanted to build me a log cabin.

I'm kind of a frontiers type person. All right. Now, the purchase of the land at that time was right at $800 an acre. I bought 40 of these acres. Okay.

The acres consist of half timber, 20 acres and half pasture to raise stock on. Okay. Okay.

Yes, sir. But I made payments to the guy. It was a real estate developer. He financed it for me. I was making payments with him. Then I got the idea why not just go ahead and get it paid off as soon as possible.

So I took a truck driving job in 1995. Okay. For six and a half years, real quick, six and a half years, I paid off this land.

All right, great. It cost $800 at that time. $800 an acre. And that's worth $10,000 an acre. So I've got two people who want to buy my land, either partially, six acres or the full 40. Okay.

Another individual wants to buy 10 acres from me, a friend, and move in over here. I'm going to need to get to a few more questions here, Louis. So what is the core of the question? Yeah. And so what is it?

Yeah, go ahead with the primary question you've got. Well, I'm 77 years of age right now. Right. And the weather here, I'm a native Texan.

I've been here all my life from day one. But let me ask you this, Louis. Is this about capital gains? Are you wondering how the capital gains is going to be handled on this? That's a major question. What can I expect at my age if I sell partial or all of it? Yeah. And having my financial responsibility would be in capital gains. Yeah, very good. And I don't mean to cut you short. I just want to be able to get to a few other callers here that have been holding patiently. You know, I would check with the CPA there in the area.

But let me just say this. Generally speaking, the fact that you were in a mobile home does not disqualify you for the capital gains exclusion. So, you know, mobile homes, even some boats, houseboats can potentially qualify as a principal resident as long as they have sufficient sleeping space and a bathroom and a kitchen on the premises.

But you do have to meet the requirement, which it sounds like it did, that you lived in that mobile home for two out of the last five years on the property. But if that's the case, then you would be able to exclude up to two hundred and fifty thousand in gains from the property. So it sounds like you paid around thirty two. Let's say you were to just sell it all outright and, you know, you were to get four hundred thousand for it. You know, obviously you're going to have quite a bit of gain there, you know, potentially as much as three hundred and sixty thousand or so. A quarter of a million of that could be set aside and not subject to capital gains tax purposes if you're single. If you're married filing jointly, you could get as much as a half a million dollars in profits before you'd pay any taxes.

And then you'd have the, you know, the long term capital gains on whatever is left. You know, in the the rates change each year for 2024, you know, you would either pay zero, 15 or 20 percent. And that's going to have to do with your income. And I believe it's anything over your adjusted gross income of forty thousand. Forty seven thousand would put you in the 15 percent bracket. So you probably are going to have the majority of this excluded and then for a portion of it, you would likely, if your income's over forty seven thousand, pay 15 percent on the rest. But I would go over in a situation like this all of the details with a tax professional. You don't want to get this one wrong and you want to make sure that you cover and set aside, you know, whatever tax liability is due. And that's why, you know, having somebody take a detailed look at this is going to be helpful.

So I'd connect with a certified kingdom adviser in your area, ask for a referral to a CPA if you don't have one. And then that person can look at the situation and and give you all of the specifics. Hopefully that helps you, Louis. We appreciate your calling today and thanks for your kind remarks about the program, sir. Let's go to Chicago. Hi, Linda.

How can I help? Hello. Thank you so very much for taking my call.

I'd like to know from you very much. How long do you pay life insurance? My mother is 99. She'll be 100 in October and she's still paying life insurance.

Yeah. You know, you really only need life insurance, in my view, unless you have a small burial policy because there aren't assets there to cover funeral expenses. You know, that might be an exception, but typically you'd only need life insurance as long as you have dependents that need your financial support. So think about somebody during their working years that's providing for a spouse and or kids. If their income goes away through an untimely death, it would create a hardship or a risk for those family members that were left behind that no longer have access to that income.

Your mom, in this case, probably doesn't need life insurance because there's likely nobody depending upon her for financial support. And if she has assets that could cover her burial expenses, then this is just an unnecessary expense. Is the purpose of it, Linda, because she wants to give, quote, an inheritance to the children? Or do you think there's some other reason?

I think there's some other reason. It's just what, in her day and time, that's what you did. You had that life insurance.

You just did. And if somebody offered you, you bought it for them. And she's 99, would be 100. She has no dependents.

And I just think it's so unnecessary. I would check more into her burial expenses and things like that. But if she doesn't need money for burial, then we could let go of the life insurance.

You could, in my opinion. Yeah, you'd want to understand what kind of policy it is. Do you know? I assume it's a whole life policy. And if so, do you know if it's built up any cash value, Linda?

I do not know. But I'll tell you what, I'm going to check into that. Yeah, it could be that it's built up some cash value so she could collapse the policy or cancel it and you'd get the cash value out. You could take that and stick it into an account for her that she could have access to. And then she wouldn't have to continue making those payments, which would just free up more money on a monthly basis for her care or whatever she wanted to use it for. But it sounds like it's unnecessary at this point.

And I hear you just in terms of this being, you know, something that as she was growing up, it was just what you did. Right. But, you know, any insurance is to offset a risk. I mean, the reason we have car insurance is to make sure that in the event of an accident, we can repair a car and cover any liability or any medical expenses. Well, the purpose for life insurance is to take care of loved ones in the event of our death. But that's not necessary in this season of life for her. And so we want to look for any unnecessary expenses that we can eliminate.

This sure seems like that would be one of those. Thanks for your call today, Linda. Rita, I understand you want to get out of a timeshare. Is that right?

Exactly. In 1998 bought a timeshare and it was dated to our two boys who will not want it or could manage it now that they're 20, in their 20s. So we paid $6,000 maintenance fees. And then we went to this seminar where it was to exit out of timeshare. So now we sunk another, we got rid of our points, transferred them to Choice Hotels, which you could do with the points for the timeshare. But then we gave this outfit $10,500 to get out of it.

And that was on November 14th. And we're still waiting for them to get us out of it. Wow. And yeah, you gave them a lot of money. Unfortunately, and I hate to tell you, this was just a lot of fraud and unmet promises in that space. That's why we don't recommend any of those exit companies.

I'd probably get some legal counsel to investigate the contract that you signed with this company and find out where that stands as my next step. Tug2.com is the timeshare users group. That might also be helpful to you. Unfortunately, I'm out of time. Thanks for your call today.

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