Kingdom Impact Beyond Tithes and Offering

If there were a way to write 200 sons of birth under the government of God, we thank you for taking the time underwriter of this program. And Brandon, it's great to have you with us. Absolutely.

Thanks for having me on today. Brandon, we're talking today about seeing the world transformed through Christian investing. Why don't we start there? What does that mean to you and the team at Guidestone? Certainly, it's a concept we've thought a lot about and thinking about stewardship, right? That's a word that we talk a lot about inside this building. And as a Christian community, it's a word that comes up quite often.

Everyone at church probably hear that come up when it comes to tithes and offerings. And so when we think about stewardship within the context of investing, we also think about stewarding our investment resources overall. So it's really kind of predicated on the notion that if Christians approach investing with that same intentionality, that faith driven mindset overall, that should approach, you know, basically in touch every aspect of their life. I think we could really seek to think about world change from the way that God's kingdom can be exhibited through our finances.

It's certainly an exciting vision, Brandon. But let's talk about that kingdom change you're describing. How can investing bring about change? Yeah, let's think about that a little bit more granularly. So when we think about that, we have to think about the concept of maybe just impact investing. And that word's been tossed around in the secular world and the Christian world and how we think about investing with impact. I would say first and foremost, every type of investing is impact investing. It's just what are you impacting really? So when we think about it through our lens, we see Christians putting their investing dollars to work at companies and organizations and really trying to say, what do we stand for rather than what we stand against? What we stand against is important. But what we stand for is something that we're trying to proliferate a bit more. Specifically, we think about kind of three key areas here, the sanctity of life and spreading the gospel, human dignity and advancement, and the stewardship of God's creation. It's really through those three primary lenses that we think about that positive impact.

That's great. And how does Guidestone also then give back through its impact investments? Well, we're really excited about the uniqueness of our two impact funds and what we're doing there. So we're actually donating 20% of our revenue from our impact funds back to kingdom causes. And that's important because we state that in our official SEC filings, you know, we hold our own feet to the fire of making those philanthropic donations.

And we've done so in a variety of ways. I'd be happy to unpack a few for you if you're interested. Sure. Tell us about it.

Sure. A couple here that come to mind. First and foremost, we've donated to the Psalm 139 Project, which is a really neat organization. They furnish ultrasound equipment for pregnancy centers. And why is that important? You know, statistics show, and I think our audience here can agree that women that see their babies in the womb and can actually see that life flourishing with inside them, really can help them make that positive choice in seeking life rather than an abortion there. So Psalm 139 Project is a great organization there.

One other that comes to mind is Meno. That's a streaming platform that offers gospel-centered content for kids. There's a lot of garbage out there for kids to consume. And we like Meno because they're putting forth, you know, really kind of God-centered programming.

Think VeggieTales, for instance, but there's a lot of great stuff there. Oh, that's incredible. I mean, think investing but impact at the same time. And it's a powerful combination. Now beyond impact investing, Brandon, what other things are being done through Guidestone funds to transform the world?

Sure. So for the individual securities and bonds that we do, and we have to think about corporate engagement, that's another tool in our proxy voting power. So anytime you own a security for our listeners, you get the ability to vote and say on whatever management or shareholder proposals are coming forward. By us having that process in-house, we can very clearly delineate where we want to have our votes and how we want our voice to be heard through the ownership of those securities. So engaging with corporations, having them see the world through our lens, and then also voting our proxies in a God honoring way, two other ways for us to engage. I love it.

We've got just 30 seconds left. Sum this up for us on why believers need to be intentional about how they invest. Sure. Intentionality is everything in our world. You're intentional about everything you do when you go about your day. So as Christians, we believe that we're called to align our investing with our values overall.

So what Guidestone wants to do is we want to walk alongside them in that journey by providing these faith-based investments, by providing impact to helpfully help them seek God honoring ways to commit their finances. That's very well said, Brandon. Well, thanks for visiting with us today. We're going to have to leave it there, but I hope you'll come back real soon. Certainly.

Thanks for having me. That's Brandon Pizzaro with Guidestone Capital Management and underwriter of this program. You can find out more at Guidestonefunds.com slash faith.

That's Guidestonefunds.com slash faith. Back with your questions after this. 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. Great to have you with us today on Faith and Finance Live. I'm Rob West. This is the program where we take your questions and apply biblical wisdom to what you're facing in your financial life every day as you live, give, owe, and grow. We've got some lines open today. The calls are coming in quick. They will fill up, but in the meantime, we've got room for you at 800-525-7000.

That's 800-525-7000. Hey, before we dive in today, let me tell you about a brand new resource that we're really excited about at Faithfi. It's the first in our series of Faithfi studies. We want to take you deep into God's word to explore some of the critical themes we find in scripture around money and our hearts.

This is such a key topic. You know, if something is going to compete with God for first position in our lives, we're most often going to allow money to do that, the way I read scripture. And so we want to go after that and help God's people have a proper relationship with money. Well, our first Faithfi study is called Rich Toward God. That's right, it's a deep dive into the parable of the rich fool that you will find in Luke 12, and it will explore some really important topics and themes around greed and treasure and pride and abundance. It will ultimately help you wrestle with this question that we see right at the end of this parable.

What does it mean to live rich toward God? And perhaps either for your own study personally or with a small group at church or maybe right there in your neighborhood if you're always looking for new content that's rooted in Scripture that can help you explore some topics that will relate to your life. Perhaps this is the one that you do next. We'd be delighted if you would check it out today. Just head to our website, faithfi.com. You'll see a pop-up there on the page or just click the word shop at the top of the page and you'll see our brand new study on the parable of the rich fool called Rich Toward God. We'd love for you to check it out today. It's right there ready for you at faithfi.com.

That's faithfi.com. All right, let's take some phone calls today. 800-525-7000 is the number to call.

We're going to begin in Oregon. Hey, John, thanks for calling, sir. Go ahead.

Yeah, this is Don, and my question is, I have, I'm 68 years old, I'm still working as a per diem employee, but I'm working nearly full-time and so I don't need to get my Social Security, but crunching the numbers, the amount that I, I've already met the point of diminishing returns for Social Security, and so I want to explore investment options for how I can invest without getting a tax hit, even though I'm 68 years old and I don't know that I've only got a bit about a year and a half till I hit 70 and have to start drawing down that investment if it's an IRA or a 401k. Okay, so a couple of things here. Number one is, did you say you are or you are not currently taking Social Security? I am not.

I am going to be in the next month or so. And if you don't need the money, why are you going to begin taking it? I'm just curious. Because my wife is taking hers and the amount that I gain over time by waiting until I am 70 to get mine, I will be losing or we will be losing because it will cut down the amount that she gets in her retirement when, if I don't retire or I don't start collecting it. I see.

Okay. Yeah, as long as you've explored that and determined that that is in fact the case, that the net amount is going to be less as a result of you waiting, because obviously if it was just you and she was relying on her own work record, then you maximizing that benefit by an additional roughly 16% over the next couple of years, you know, I would think would be in your best interest. But if it's going to impact her benefit and therefore leave you all with less, then I could certainly understand why you would want to do that. So with respect to investing, so what you're saying is that you're going to have extra income and you're looking to put it to work. About how much do you anticipate that you'll have, John?

Probably as much as $2,500 to $3,000 a month. Okay, all right. And you were talking about required minimum distributions. Now, you won't have those for some time, so that's not going to be an issue, right?

Yeah, I don't know. I know I've read one thing that said that at 70 years old I have to start doing something, and so yeah. So as of 2023, that has been pushed back to age 73.

So for you, you're not going to have that for several more years, so that's not going to be an issue. So that means you can allow the money that's currently in those pre-tax environments to continue to grow and you're not going to have to take anything out. Now, once you reach age 70 and a half, you'd have the ability to do a qualified charitable distribution and you could begin drawing that money down for giving, either additional giving or giving you were already planning on doing, and that's a way to begin to pull that money out of that pre-tax environment without adding it to your taxable income. It'd be the only way to get it out without paying tax on it. Again, you won't have to because those RMDs won't kick in for a few more years beyond that, but it does give you one way to get out from under that. Now, with regard to the additional money, are you looking at putting this to work in a taxable account or, you know, if you're continuing to work and you have earned income, you could contribute to a Roth and let that grow tax-free.

Have you thought through that? That's what I would like to do, is have something that I can put in to do the tax-free thing, whatever is going to be my best financial advantage in the next few years. Yeah, well you could put in 16,000 between the two of you, 8,000 apiece, because you're over the age of 50 into the Roth IRA. Now, that's not going to quite get it done because you're talking upwards of $36,000, so the other option would be you could put it into an annuity product, an insurance product that would allow you to get some tax deferral, or you could just invest it, you know, straight out in a taxable account. You would pay capital gains along the way. In terms of the investment selections, do you have an advisor who's managing other investable assets? No, I've got a 401k through my current employer, and I've only been putting into that for about, I think, about five years.

I see, alright. Yeah, so you know, if you don't have somebody managing this, I mean I would say find a good balanced mutual fund. If you want something that's faith aligned, you could look on our website at faithfi.com, just click on the show, and you'll see a list of a lot of those faith-based investing providers. You could choose a mutual fund from there. Otherwise, if you just want to take a straight indexed approach, you could open that Roth IRA, let's say in the Schwab Intelligent Portfolios, and it would use indexes, both stock indexes and bond indexes, to build a low-cost portfolio that would automatically reinvest every time you made a deposit of that two to three thousand, up to the limit of the annual contribution limit. Then you'd have to pivot to the taxable account, but it'd be very low cost, you know, probably one quarter of one percent a year, and automatically reinvested with no transaction costs. Again, that's called the Schwab Intelligent Portfolios.

So those are a couple of options you could consider. Also, our friends at soundmindinvesting.org can help you as well, but it sounds like you have a great plan here, John. Stay on the line, we'll talk a bit more off the air. We'll be right back. Hey, great to have you with us today on Faith and Finance Live.

I'm Rob West. We're taking your calls and questions today. Hey, before we head back to the phones, let me remind you, Faith and Finance Live is listener supported. That just simply means we can only bring you this program and the FaithFi app and all the resources at faithfi.com as a result of your generous support. That's right, listener support is how we fund the work of Faith and Finance every day, and if you'd like to make a one-time gift or perhaps you want to become a monthly partner or even consider leaving FaithFi in your financial plan with regard to estate planning, any of those can be explored at faithfi.com. Just click give at the top of the page.

Again, that's faithfi.com. Just click give and we'll say thanks in advance. All right, we're gonna head back to the phones. It looks like we have three lines open at 800-525-7000. Let's go to Missouri. Hi Sally, how can I help?

Hi, thank you for taking my call. I received about $1,333 in Social Security. I'm wondering if I should tithe from that, and I also have another question.

I have $145,000 in savings that I would like to invest, but I don't have a clue as to how to begin. Okay, those are both great questions. So first of all, I love the tithing question because I think the tithe is a great guideline for our giving. Now we're under the law of Christ, not the law of Moses. We see reference to the tithe even by Jesus in the New Testament, but I think, you know, with regard to our giving, New Testament giving, if I were to kind of explore the big themes around giving in the New Testament, it's giving freely, it's giving cheerfully, I would say it's giving sacrificially, it's also giving proportionately. To whom much is given, much is required. And so this idea that we would give a systematic gift based on the tithe, I think is a great guideline for our giving, even though we're not under the Mosaic law.

And so we don't need to do that of a sense of obligation, we need to do that out of a glad heart and thanksgiving to the Lord as a demonstration of our trust in Him. And I think the tithe, as what Randy Alcorn, the author, calls the training wheels of giving, the starting point, is a great place to begin. Now if you're wanting to follow the guideline of the tithe, then you would give on the increase. And so then the question would be, well, what is my increase? Which is very clear when we're working or when we receive a gift or an inheritance, that's clearly increase. It gets a little bit more complicated when we're talking about investments, because perhaps we already tithed on that money when we received it as income and then we put it to work. And so a portion of that in that investment account represents an after-tax contribution that we made to the account.

And then a portion is the gain or the increase from the appreciation of the stocks. And then the same would be true about a pension or Social Security. So you know, you put a portion into Social Security through your FICA taxes, your employer put a portion in. If you were tithing during your working years on the gross, meaning before those deductions, then you've already tithed on at least a portion of that that was paid to you in the form of your paycheck. Not your employer portion, but your portion.

And then there's some sort of, you know, appreciation of that that's represented in that check as well. And so I think, you know, the way you could approach this is maybe the simplified approach, which is just to say, listen, everything I receive is a gracious gift from the Lord and so I'm gonna give, and I can't outgive God, and so I'm gonna give a tithe on the full check, that $1,300. I think another perfectly appropriate approach would be to say, you know, I've already tithed on a portion of this, so I want to try to determine how much of that that's coming back to me represents what I paid in versus what is being, you know, coming as the increase, you know, that is being paid to me. And the way you would probably do that is is look on your Social Security statement to see the total you paid in and then look at this benefit check through, let's say, age 95 and determine how much the government is going to send you total monthly check times 12 times the number of years between today and age 95.

And then let's compare that to what you paid in and we could probably back into a percentage that represents the portion that's coming back from what you already tithed on versus the portion that is truly the increase that came either from your employer or the growth of that money. Now I have may have totally confused you there, so give me your thoughts on that. It's my husband.

I'm sorry, I couldn't hear you for a second. Okay. I get my husband's Social Security. Okay, right. So the same thing would apply there. So again, I think you could just tithe on the whole amount or you could look at how much of this is coming back to me beyond what my husband paid in during his working years that represents, you know, and and so maybe you just kind of do it really simple and you say, listen, half of this I've already tithed on. The other half came from my husband's employer because they paid half of, unless he was self-employed, they paid half of the FICA taxes and then, you know, the rest of it is is the the increase from Social Security.

So maybe it's 50-50 and then you split the check down the middle. Ultimately it's between you and the Lord, but that's at least some some framework in terms of how you could think about it. Okay.

Yeah. In terms of the second question, you know, I think this is where, and the Bible is very clear on this, Sally, wise counsel is just really helpful. There's wisdom in the in the counsel of a multitude of counselors and so I think, you know, $145,000 is a lot of money. Now there's a portion of that that, unless you have savings separate from this, that I would call your emergency fund.

I would say three to six months expenses at a minimum that you would want to keep in a money market or a high-yield savings. But then the portion that represents just excess, as long as you don't have that earmarked for something that you're gonna spend it on in the next five years, I would say you could absolutely invest it and I think that's where having the help of a certified Kingdom advisor would be really effective. And so if that was of interest to you, I would go to our website at faithfi.com and just right there at the top of the page, click find a professional and you could find a list of certified Kingdom advisors there in Missouri, interview two or three, and find the one that's the best fit.

How does that sound? All right, thank you so much. All right, you're welcome. I appreciate your call today and your desire to be found faithful and honoring the Lord with what he's entrusted to you. We appreciate your call. Well folks, we're just getting started here. We've still got half the program left. We've got some great questions coming up.

We want to tackle those. We also want to hear from you as well. Perhaps you have a question you've been wrestling with in your financial life. The number to call is 800-525-7000.

By the way, if you need a certified Kingdom advisor, somebody who can guide you in your finances and understands the heart of God and the scriptures, just go to faithfi.com and click find a professional. We'll be right back. Great to have you with us today here on Faith in Finance Live. I'm Rob West. We're going to head back to the phones today with two lines open, 800-525-7000.

Let's go to Chicago. Hi Ruth, thanks for your patience. Go ahead. Thank you very much for taking my call.

You're welcome. And my call is that I have donated from my IRA to my church, and they send the check to the church, and I thought that I should get back something from the church that says that I had made that donation. When I asked about that, I was told that no, the insurance company gives that out. I think they mentioned something that I would need an IRP that would show that. So I am confused.

And when I called the insurance company, they said no, they don't know anything, they don't do that. Okay, so you should get a receipt from your church. So was this what's considered a qualified charitable distribution? Yes. Okay, yeah, so with a qualified... That goes directly to the church, is that correct?

Yes ma'am, you're exactly right. And so your church should have provided that receipt as well, and you'll also get what's called a 1099-R, which is the document that you'll give to your tax preparer. Do you prepare your own tax return, or do you have somebody who helps you with that?

I have someone who helps. Okay, so they'll be able to handle this for you, but you're going to need that receipt from the church for the qualified charitable distribution. These are, you know, they don't happen a ton, although it seems like more and more ministries are becoming familiar with these as folks make these gifts, just because it's such an effective way to give. So have you talked to the business office of your church about this? Yes, it's a rather small church, and we don't have too many members, but I did talk to the lady that gave me the receipt of how much I had donated throughout the year, and it did not say anything about the money or anything special about the money from the insurance company, the charitable distribution. It just had the amount and the amounts that I had given throughout in other months.

Yeah, okay, very good. So basically I would just, you know, as long as you have that, it just needs to show the amount of the gift, the date of the donation, the name of the charity, which, you know, that would obviously be there, and that's going to, you know, provide you the documentation that you need. And then you should get a 1099-R, as in Robert, and you'll give that to your CPA. That will show up on the line on the 1040 where it shows distributions, but then he or she will be able to offset that, you know, by showing the documentation or inputting the number from this particular gift. And you'll want to let your CPA know when you get that statement from your church, you'll let your CPA know which one of the entries on that statement for your giving for the entire year was the qualified charitable distribution, because your CPA will put that on line 4 of the 1040, and then it won't count toward your what's called adjusted gross income, so you won't have to pay taxes on it. So as long as you have the the giving statement from your church that includes the qualified charitable distribution, and then you give that to your CPA with the 1099-R that will come to you, and note, you know, the particular entry on the statement that represents the qualified charitable distribution among the rest of your giving, then he or she should have what they need at that point. Okay, so the church will not have to, or should they, indicate that that amount was a charitable distribution, because they have already distributed that, and it does not show on there, it just shows that it was just money. Yeah, it would be great if they did, but they don't have to.

So as long as you have the receipt showing the gift that you can match up to the distribution that came out of your annuity, the date of the donation, the name of the charity, which it's clearly on their statement, and it indicates that you didn't receive any goods or services, then your CPA has whatever he or she needs to offset that on the 1040 so you don't pay tax. Okay, great. Thank you very much. All right, thank you for your call, Ruth. We appreciate it. 800-525-7000 is the number to call. To Canton, Georgia. Hi Beth, go ahead.

Hi Juan, thanks for your time. I have a quick question. It's about I bonds. I bought $10,000 worth, the match you could get on an I bond in October and September combined in 22. So what I need to know is what is the optimal time I'd like to cash those out, reinvest in something else. So I'm a little bit confused about I bonds and exactly when they accrue the interest and that can also not be seen. Sure, yeah, so the interest is as accrues essentially, even though it doesn't, you won't physically get it until you redeem the bonds, it accrues at the end of every six month period.

So currently it's 5.27 and it's gonna be headed down because inflation's coming down and a core component of this is the inflation rate based on CPI, the consumer price index. So you have to keep it for 12 months for one year and so I think you know once that year is up you're probably you know in a situation where you're in the optimal time because you know you can move that somewhere else and get a better rate of return today like in a in a one-year CD as this rate continues to come down. You are gonna pay a three-month penalty because you're redeeming it in less than five years but that will be based on the prior three months interest. So what you may want to do is wait 90 days into the new rate that starts after April the 30th and and you know then go ahead and redeem it at which point the interest will be credited which will be taxable and then you can transfer it out electronically to your savings or checking account. Does that make sense?

Yeah it does. Now does it matter when other than as long as it's been a year, I've held it since 22, October 22, so in 23 it's been a year. So you're beyond the one-year mark so the only thing you may want to consider is you know you could calculate the difference. I mean there's going to be a lower penalty if you wait three months into you know whenever you reset. So your rate is going to reset sometime beyond May the 1st of this year and that's going to be dependent upon when your anniversary comes up. So every year or every six months from the day you started you get the new prevailing rate. So the new prevailing rate starts May the 1st of this year. It will kick in for you at some point beyond that based on your six-month anniversary. So you could wait three months beyond that. That would lower the fee slightly but we're not talking about a whole lot of money. So I would say at this point because you've held it since 2022 you could probably go ahead and cash it out. As long as you know where you're gonna put it and you're gonna do better than 5.2% you might as well pull it out.

If not you may want to wait and ride this out through your next rate change again sometime beyond May the 1st and then you know at that point go ahead and cash it out. Does that make sense? Yes it does. Thank you so much. I hear the music. All right thanks Beth.

You know the drill it sounds like. I appreciate you being on the program today. All right folks just as Beth said the music's coming which means we're headed to our our last break of the afternoon and then back with our final segment.

Stay tuned. So glad to have you with us today on Faith and Finance Live. I'm Rob West. Hey before we head back to the phones here in our final segment each Monday our good friend Bob Dahl joins us. Bob is Chief Executive Officer and Chief Investment Officer at Crossmark Global Investments. He's a Wall Street veteran.

He's a Christ follower and he shares his insightful analysis with us each Monday and Bob you know there's something about normally when you hit an all-time high on the market indexes everybody's feeling really good. It's just kind of strange that we're sitting here at these at or near all-time highs and yet it seems a little tenuous out there, huh? Yeah agreed.

I think the two reasons that might be the case is one the average stock has not participated like the Magnificent Seven that have taken us to these all-time highs and number two the economy is not uniformly viewed as good or strong and there's some chinks in that armor so you put those two together and people are kind of why is this not market at an all-time high, you know? Right, exactly. Now you're still of the opinion that soft landing that the Fed is trying to engineer is hopeful but a best-case scenario and probably not the base case, right?

Well said all the way around. There have been seven times that they've tried for a soft landing since World War Two. Two have been successful. Five have led to a recession. So the odds are not in favor of the soft landing but so far so good. It sure looks that way but we're not we're not through this one yet.

We can't wave a checkered flag. Yeah and so let's say we do get that what you're calling for a mild recession this year that recession Bob on top of higher interest rates how will that play out what kind of effect will we see? Well our guess is that would be an environment of course where interest rates fell led by the Fed but all the way out the curve.

It'd be also one where of course economic and more importantly for the markets earnings growth slowed significantly and earnings growth would turn negative and that could cleanse the system in some ways I mean you need to get rid of the excesses and a recession often does that so they're never pleasant but when you come out the other end it's typically a lot of fun both for economy and investors. Yeah Bob I'm seeing some articles over the weekend just about China potentially overtaking the US in some ways economically and yet I mean they've got major real estate problems they've got these you know ghost cities they've dependent more on real estate than we are and their demographics problems are even bigger than ours right? All well said and that's part of the Achilles heel don't count China out they are big powerful and growing but boy do they have some internal issues to wrestle to the ground and that could sideline their growth slash their competition with the US for a period of time. Of course the leaders there could resort to other things to get the Chinese people off the concerns that you've just listed and on to China is going to take this or take that or take the other thing so to be watched carefully.

Yeah no question about it. In terms of the good news back here at home and even globally you know what will add to the growth there's a lot of talk about AI artificial intelligence I mean do you feel like that's overblown and video clearly is you know part of the magnificent seven that's helping you know prop up these sky-high market indexes but how real is that and do you think it really will help us grow our way out of some of these problems? It certainly will AI is for real Rob now the degree to which Wall Street is focused on it could be a little excessive and of course it's like we discovered AI a year ago that's when we all start talking about AI has been around for a long time I remember about a year ago asking some questions to that effect and found out that there were over 100,000 AI patents in the US and then we start talking about it so it's real it will make us more productive we'll see how long that lasts. Yeah finally Bob are you encouraged on the faith-based investing front at just what you're seeing in terms of the innovation happening in that space by Crossmark and others? I am Rob it's it's a joy to be part of the I'll call it movement but we're seeing more and more individuals and institutions saying you know it's time we lined up our investments with our beliefs our faiths our values and that is creating a bit more growth for that little segment of the market I emphasize that it's still a small piece of the money management world but we're fighting our way to be recognized and more than just a little asterisk somewhere. Yeah well it seems like that growth trajectory is going to continue to steepen which is a good thing maybe we'll see more and more assets you know when we look at the amount of wealth held I don't know if you know the the number off hand but the just the sheer volume of wealth held by believers it's massive. We estimate that at least 200 times the amount of money that is in faith-based investments is owned by Christians so in other words if Christians put all their money in this little part of the investment management world would go up by 200 times so there is a lot a lot of run room. Well grateful for your work Bob thanks for leading the way and for joining us here on this broadcast.

God bless you all. Alright that's Bob Dahl he's chief executive officer at Crossmark Global Investments you can sign up for his dolls deliberations that's his weekly investment commentary it's free it's delivered to your inbox and I rely on it each week you'll find it at crossmarkglobal.com. Alright let's head back to the phones so we're gonna round out the broadcast today we've still got time for a couple more questions at least Francisco in Florida go right ahead. Thank you Rob thank you so much I have a nephew 51 years old he is gonna go grad school his tuition are in the next two years he's a two-year grad school about 150k each year federal student loans will cover that he has he had he does not know if he can apply for in private student loans for his living expenses that he estimates to be in the neighborhood of $80,000 a year so question is basically besides the federal student loans which will cover the the the university can he go on a private student loans to get his living expenses on about 80,000 a year? He can but I don't recommend it Francisco what kind of career path is he on? He's validating his dental degree that he got abroad so he needs to go to grad school to validate and he has a family of five he's very complicated and I'm also advising him not to get in too much debt but I wanted to ask if it's possible? Yeah it certainly is possible the challenge is just that is a lot of debt I mean you're talking about a half a million dollars worth of debt almost that he's going to be coming out of this program with and although he's got some earning potential there I mean I think the that particular the dental field is one where you can make a good living and and and a nice kind of lifestyle to go along with it and help a lot of people but you know that's a lot of money so I guess I would just look for is there any other way to go about that either you know working part-time I mean just because he can borrow it doesn't mean he should and so I would look for any other way either grants or scholarships especially with him being you know from from abroad there may be particular scholarships or grants that would be available to him I'd look at working part-time if he can again just trying to keep that number as low as possible so he's not presuming on the future. How does his wife feel about all this debt? Oh looks like we lost you Francisco I hope that was helpful to you I'm not trying to discourage you or him but I just want him to be thoughtful about how he goes about this thanks for being on the program today let's see Key you're gonna be our final caller in Georgia go ahead. Yes my mother passed away in October and I have become a executor of her will and she has left me everything and I live next door to her house and me and my brother discussed just making it a very sell it for a very low price to my son so that he will not have to get a home mortgage or anything the house is paid for and I've been told we can gift him the difference yeah and I just wanted to see for instance we sell it for $50,000 it's worth more than that and then me and my brother would have the $50,000 and he would have the house so I just wanted to yeah make sure. Well you're a you're a generous mom Key is your brother on board with the gift his portion of the gift? Yeah very good yeah you can absolutely do that a couple of things I would recommend number one is I would have a real estate attorney draw up the contract the purchase agreement just so it's valid and and you know you go about this the right way so that he gets the the transfer of the deed and can you know file it with the county in his name and then you'd also want to get your CPA involved you and your brother because your portion of this below probably I think the last I saw I believe is if it's more than 10% below the current market value you know meaning if you know if it's worth $60,000 and you know you sell it for something less than you know $54,000 or 10% below you know then all of a sudden they're gonna that's gonna trigger a gift and so for that portion that's below the market value if it's more than $18,000 for each of you because you can each give a gift of $18,000 and not tell the IRS then you just need to fill out the gift form 709 that's not going to trigger any taxes it will just chip away at your gift lifetime exclusion of 13 million dollars so until key you give away 13 million and one you're not gonna have any tax but this all needs to be done properly go ahead okay well I knew that see when I went to become the executor the deed office told me at the courthouse that it says writing survivorship so I can move my name on to the deed and my son okay although that makes the whole thing a gift to him and you're selling it to him for a just a reduced amount so I talked to your CPA about this I think you probably want to take possession of it because you inherited it and then you and your brother want to sell it to your son but I'd check with that real estate attorney and that CPA to figure out exactly the way you want to do this but you can do it I'm out of time thanks for your call today faith and finance live is a partnership between moody radio and faith five thank you to Amy Dan Anthony and Jim couldn't do it without him see you tomorrow