Preparing Your Child for College and Beyond

When your kids are little, summers seem long and you're ready for school to start again in the fall. But what if your child is finally ready for college? Well, summer doesn't seem long enough to prepare for such a major transition. I am Rob West. What's next after high school? If you've got teenagers, it's an inevitable question. We'll talk about some big transitions today and then we'll take your calls at 800-525-7000.

That's 800-525-7000. This is Faith and Finance Live, biblical wisdom for your financial journey. These days, senior year in high school seems like one long college application push, even if your child isn't really interested in a four-year degree.

So let's talk about that first. No matter what kind of pressure you're getting from the school counselor or your friends, consider what's best for your teenager and your wallet. That's right, finances should be a part of the what's next conversation right from the start. The goal should be to avoid college debt altogether. So start saving early and when your child is in high school, talk about what you can and cannot afford. Investigate scholarships and encourage your child to investigate alternatives to four-year college including tech schools, online classes, and even the military. When a student who's applying to college starts senior year in high school, their parents have to fill out the Free Application for Federal Student Aid, or FAFSA, which will determine their eligibility for student financial aid.

Even if you don't think you'll be eligible for need-based scholarships, you still have to complete the FAFSA each year if they're in college, since most schools require it regardless. Going to college is a major transition both personally and financially. If you're the parent of a college-bound student, especially a first-year student, here are a few things you need to discuss before they leave the fold. First, help your young adult to understand the cost and value of education. Emphasize the importance of working hard academically to justify the expense. Encourage your child to get a part-time job if possible to help with their expenses at school. Whether or not your child has decided on a major, talk to them about the link between academic success and career opportunities.

A strong college record can result in higher earning potential for the graduate. Find out the resources their school offers for free tutoring, career guidance, and student support. Make sure your freshman knows it's okay to seek help at school. Have a conversation about budgeting. Be clear how much spending money will your student have each month and what is it for? They do need to have discretionary money, but help them put together a plan so they don't end up spending it all on pizza. Talk to your student about credit cards. According to collegefinance.com, 65% of college students have some credit card debt with an average of over $3,000 in debt per student.

The most common credit card mistakes college students make are only paying the minimum amount and missing a payment. Talk to your student about values. College is a big step into independence and your child will have opportunities to make important choices. Share your moral and financial values with them again and ask them about theirs.

Let them know you'll pray for them and that they can depend on you to support and love them no matter what. Starting college is a major transition for students and their families. A little communication and a pre-planned budget can go a long way to prepare them for a successful first year. As your student nears the end of their college experience, another transition looms on the horizon. I'm talking about career choices and life in the real world. Whether or not your student has a job lined up after graduation, talk to them about their plans and dreams.

Your wisdom and experience can be invaluable as they make their way, but try to listen more and talk less and offer your advice only when they ask for it. Unfortunately, inflation, student loan debt, and the cost of apartment rentals and home ownership are making it difficult for many young adults to make their way. You may find yourself in a boomerang situation where your 20 or 30 something offspring returns to the nest. According to a survey by the Pew Research Center, close to 27 million young adults moved home during the pandemic and many of those are still living with their parents.

The study goes on to state that a quarter of US adults ages 25 to 34 were a part of a multi-generational family household in 2021, up from 9% in 1971. Finally, whether you're the parent of high schoolers, first year college students, or young adults just starting out, be prepared to let go. Whether they're out on their own or still under your roof for a while, they'll be okay and you'll survive.

After all, God loves them even more than you do. All right, your calls are next, 800-525-7000. That's 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. Thanks for joining us today on Faith and Finance Live. I'm Rob West. All right, it's time to take your calls and questions today on anything financial. The number to call is 800-525-7000.

That's right. You can call right now. Lynn is standing by in our phone screening room today, ready to take your call.

800-525-7000. We'd love to hear from you. Let's dive in. We're going to begin in Missouri today with Brian. Brian, you can go right ahead. Hi, Rob.

I have a question. I'm looking at buying a property for business use and I was wondering if I could use 401k funds without penalty to make that purchase. Yeah, so does your plan allow for borrowing?

It does. Okay, yeah. I mean, were you thinking about taking it out as a loan or were you thinking about just taking a straight withdrawal? I would like to do it without penalty, so I've been looking into purchasing different businesses and I've come across some literature that indicates you can potentially use 401k and roll it into a loan to yourself and then pay it back.

Yeah, yeah. So there is a way to do that. I mean, there would be certain limitations on it. I believe, you know, the max you could take out would be $50,000 or half of your vested balance. It would be limited to five years.

The interest rate would be set by the administrator, comparable probably to a five-year business loan and then you'd pay those payments to yourself. Obviously, you know, the money is no longer in there and so, you know, the downside of that is, you know, you're missing out on that compounded growth but obviously if this is for a business, I don't think it'd be the worst reason to take it. I'm just not a big fan typically of borrowing from your plan. Apart from that, you are going to have, you know, a straight withdrawal which would have that penalty if you're under $59.50 and then it would all be taxable, so I don't love that.

It's expensive money. What are you looking to do with it? What is the business use? The property is frontage property on a highly trafficked highway and it would be...

Right now there's a landscape greenhouse and I would keep it along those lines and tweak it a little bit. Okay. All right.

Very good. And do you have a business structure set up? Are you an S-Corp?

What do you have? That would all be in process. I do not have it set up yet. Right now I'm a consultant so I work under an LLC. Got it.

Okay. Yeah, so unfortunately at this point, the only options you would have just based on what you've got here would be taking a loan against the 401k and obviously the downside to that is if you were to separate from the company, you'd have the early withdrawal penalty and it would be taxable. You don't have the money in there so it's no longer growing for you.

So those would be the primary issues. If you take the withdrawal, obviously you've got the penalty plus the tax liability which could bump you up into a higher tax bracket for at least that portion of it and then your future earnings on that are going by the wayside at least while it's out of there. So I think I would look to try to save outside of that 401k even if that meant you wanted to temporarily kind of reduce what you're putting in there in terms of new contributions so you can save up in a separate account that you would earmark for this purpose. But it doesn't sound like you have a great option related to the 401k. Okay, it's actually not a current 401k.

I'm no longer with the company. Oh, I see. It's all vested and it's more like an IRA at this point. Yeah, yeah. So at that point, I mean the only other thing you could look at would be something called a self-directed IRA. Are you familiar with that term? Yes.

Okay. So a self-directed IRA can be invested in real estate and it would stay in the IRA structure. And so you'd have to use a self-directed IRA custodian. They're not all the same.

Self-directed IRA custodians are a special type of IRA custodian and then that would allow you to take that money and put it into real estate and keep it inside the tax-deferred environment. So that may be the next thing you want to explore if this is something you want to potentially do. Okay. Do you have thoughts on that?

You know, I don't have a problem with it. I think the only question would be, so tell me a little bit more about your plan. So would you be buying this, fixing it up and trying to flip it or are you going to rent it out? What are you doing with it? No, no.

It's a career path change for me. I would like to operate it. Okay.

And tell me what it is again. It's a greenhouse and landscape company. Ah, got it. Okay. And so you're purchasing the business, not just the real estate, right? I would purchase the real estate and inventory.

I see. Okay. And so they have an existing client base that you would be buying as well or would you be starting from scratch? I would be starting from scratch, but they would refer their clients to me.

I wouldn't purchase it. Okay. And they're not starting up, you know, at a different location. They're going to shut their business down?

They're retiring. I see. Okay. Yeah, very good. Yeah.

And do you have any experience in this? I do. Okay. And do you have any working capital apart from what you might use in the self-directed IRA? Yes.

I have another $200,000. Okay. All right.

Yeah. I mean, I think, you know, I don't disagree with you starting a business, especially if you have some experience. It looks like perhaps this is a great opportunity.

I think the only potential risk is just getting overextended. So, you know, clearly being able to buy the greenhouse and that existing operation, you know, would probably make sense if it's priced fairly. I think you just really need to think through your business plan. If this 401k allows you to go ahead and acquire the property and then you've got the sufficient working capital to weather, you know, let's say the first year while you're getting up and running, you know, under new management, you're starting your marketing, would you have to buy a lot of equipment as well and trucks and so forth? There's some that's available with the property.

And that's where I would start. Okay. How much is in your IRA? $360,000. All right. And what is the total purchase price of all of the assets, including the property?

It's about $475,000. Okay. So the difference would come from the $200,000 you'd saved? I'd like to do a debt-free, yes. Okay.

Yeah. I mean, so the only downside there is, I mean, that would obviously get you up and running. The problem is, you know, you'd only have, you know, when it's all said and done, let's see, if you've got $360,000, let's say you put 100% of that toward it, that would leave still $115,000 that would come out of that $200,000.

So you'd still have, you know, you'd only have $85,000 left. And I guess that's the only issue is just that so often new businesses struggle because of lack of working capital. And so the question would be kind of, do you have immediate income that would come in from the clients that would move over to you? How much cashflow support would you need? And would you burn through that $85,000 that remained before you could get it up and running and cash flowing positively? So that's my only concern. The business plan, making sure you really understand that and having enough working capital to stay the course until you get this thing up and running and cashflow positive.

Those would be the two things I would dig into a little bit deeper. Hey, Brian, we appreciate your call today. This is exciting. I don't mean to be negative on it. I'm not.

I just don't want you to go in prematurely and risk your financial future. Thanks for your call, sir. God bless you. So thankful to have you along with us today on faith and finance live here on Moody radio.

Hey, our brand new study's out. It's called rich toward God. It's a four week study on the parable of the rich fool dealing with some really important themes in scripture. You know, Jesus is approached by someone in the crowd who asks him to be an arbitrator of an inheritance dispute. And as he does so often, he kind of flips the script and gets to the heart of the issue and tells this really profound parable about this rich fool who's had an abundance in his crops and wants to tear down his barns and build bigger ones. And out of that comes all these important themes about pride and prosperity and the uncertainty of tomorrow. And then it concludes with this really powerful statement about being rich toward God. Well, what does that mean?

Well, we unpack that with the historical context and really a thoughtful look at the scriptures. It's a great study that could be used for your small group at church. And if you want to check it out, it's beautifully designed. You can order your copy today. And there are discounts available for orders of 10 copies or more. Just head to faithfi.com and click shop.

That's faithfi.com and click shop. All right. We're going to head back to the phones today. By the way, we've got some lines open here on a Friday. If you have a question, we've got an answer for you.

At least we'll try to give you an answer. The number to call is 800-525-7000. You can call right now.

We're going to go to Woodstock, Illinois. Hi, Laurie. Go right ahead. Hi, Rob.

Thank you for taking my call. I'm 66 years old. I'm retired and I've lived with my parents for about two years.

My mom died about eight months ago. So I decided it was about time to sell my place. I had a condo in Gurnee. I just sold. And so my bottom line question is I have about $150,000 to invest. I right now am with a set of brothers who have a financial investment place. And I have about $850,000 in there. I'm considering investing with Moody Bible Institute. And I've considered that for several years.

And they have a seminar in late April. Anyhow, my question right now is I feel I have this $150,000 to invest. And I feel like maybe it's time I've always listened to the no-load fund you talk about, Vanguard, Fidelity, and things like that. And I called a member of Crown and they said they recommended Soundmind Investing to maybe join for a month and get their newsletter about which funds might be good to invest. But what would be your advice for $150,000 maybe? What can I do with that? Yeah, very good.

Well, thanks for that background, Lori. What are your plans moving forward? Are you planning to stay in the home with your dad there? Or do you have plans to move out in any time in the foreseeable future? Yeah, no plans to move out.

I really don't know. He's 98, so I don't know when he'll go join my mom. But my plans, I don't have any plans to move. Okay, yeah, very good. And in terms of the $800,000, you said that's with some advisors that you know about through a relative, is that right?

Yeah, not through a relative. It's a set of brothers that, well, yeah, through my school I'm a retired educator. Okay, very good. And how is that money invested? Do you know? It's diversified. It's some IRA, some growth, some more conservative. Yeah, so a mix of stocks and bonds that is fairly conservative with a growth component.

Okay, yeah. And so you're planning to leave that there. And so now you've got this $150,000. Do you have, Lori, apart from the $150,000 and apart from the amount that's being managed, the $850,000, do you have any other savings accounts? I have a savings account. I keep about $10,000 cash in.

And I have a couple stocks, like just a couple. Okay. And what would you say the total of your monthly expenses are, roughly? Oh, gosh, probably, I don't know. I'm not going to budget anything like that, but probably about $200,000 maybe.

Okay. Yeah, I mean, that's pretty low. And I understand you don't have housing expense and so forth. But let's say it was $1,000. Just, you know, we'll plus it up for the things that maybe don't come all the time.

I mean, so you're even over six months. I mean, you're up to 10 months worth of expenses in your savings. So I think it does make sense to put the $150,000 into action. Now, you mentioned something about Moody, and perhaps you're talking about a charitable gift annuity through the Moody Bible Institute. Was that what you were thinking or something else? That, but they also have advisors where I could, I was going to move my 850 that I have right now.

And I've told my advisors to Moody, I'd have to leave my Roth IRA, I think, but they have tax, they have financial investors at Moody. I see. Okay. Yeah. Yeah. That's what I was going to move it to. But I haven't really gotten any really clear direction from God.

Sure. Well, let me tell you that I would trust anything you would hear from Moody and they have a great team in their stewardship department that can advise you on charitable giving and even some of your estate planning. You're probably thinking about kingdom advisors that maybe the stewardship representative was referring to. We recommend the Certified Kingdom Advisor designation and that would be where I would go next if I were you. Again, keep talking to Moody and they'll do a great job helping you carry out any charitable giving desires and if you have estate planning needs. But with regard to an advisor that could help you manage the 850, if you wanted to move it and the 150,000, a Certified Kingdom Advisor would be great. You could go to our website, faithfi.com. That's faithfi.com.

Right there at the top of the page, Lori, it'll say find a professional, choose investment, put in your zip code, you'll see a list. I'd probably interview two or three. Here's what you can be assured of. They've had extensive requirements met, experience, pastor reference, client reference, statement of faith.

They've been trained to bring a biblical worldview and they'll share your values as a believer. And so I think this would be a great place for you to go next. Again, faithfi.com. Stay on the line. I want to talk a bit more off the air and we'll be right back on Faith and Finance Live. Stay with us. I'm so glad to have you with us today on Faith and Finance Live here on Moody Radio.

I'm Rob West. Coming up in our next segment, our final segment today, Jerry Boyer will stop by. He's our resident economist. He joins us each Friday with his market commentary. Today we'll get Jerry's take on the recent Fed decision, the Federal Reserve, that is, to keep interest rates flat.

They've met for the five consecutive meetings now where they haven't moved interest rates after 11 rate increases. They did talk a little bit about what they see going forward. We'll get Jerry's take on that. Also, news out today from the Biden administration about more loan forgiveness, student loan forgiveness.

I think today's tally of additional funds being forgiven takes it up to $144 billion all in from this president during this term. We'll get Jerry's take on that as well. But in the meantime, we're taking your calls and questions today.

Eight hundred, five, two, five, seven thousand. You can call right now. Let's head to Tennessee. And Brian, go right ahead. Yes, sir.

Thanks for taking my call. Quick question about Social Security as it relates to my wife, who has not worked since we had children. Right. So that's been 30 years or so. She did have some employment prior to that. Is there any. Will she be able to collect any Social Security at 65 on her own?

Yes. So long as you are or the spouse is collecting benefits. So the way this works is Social Security spousal benefits are available to a spouse who has never worked. It's generally 50 percent of the working spouses benefit. The nonworking spouse has to be at least 62. But if they claim benefits early, like 62 and before full retirement age, it would be reduced by about eight percent a year. So, for instance, if if a spouse takes it at 62 instead of sixty six and a half or whatever their full retirement age is, they'll get instead of 50 percent, they'd get more like 32 percent.

And then the other spouse does have to be collecting his or her benefits for the nonworking spouse to qualify for benefits. So you mentioned 66 and a half. So if I start collecting at 65, that's the early. Well, you can collect at 62. Right. But that kind of a sweet spot is 65.

Is that right? Or I know the sweet spot is really, you know, full retirement age. And so depending on when you were born would determine what your full retirement age is, it's 66. If you were born between 43 and 54 and then it gradually increases. If you were born between 1955 and 1960, it's goes up to 67. Oh, OK. Yeah, I was born in 66. So you can be higher than that.

Sounds like. Well, it doesn't go any higher than that. So you'd be at 67.

Yeah. OK. And so that would be currently based on the law. That's your full retirement age.

I gotcha. OK, so I didn't find anything definitive online, but I did read the 50 percent that you mentioned earlier. So, you know, we're not I'm not calculating anything into our retirement for 65. I'm planning on, you know, being able to replace 80 percent of my income with no debt. Right. So I should be on target for that. We're just curious what her contribution might help on top or a little a little extra, if you will.

Well, I like the way you're thinking, Brian, because, yeah, I mean, if you could cover your pre-retirement income with just your Social Security and then whatever retirement assets you have, whether that's a pension or 401K or both, and then, you know, hers is just kind of a bonus on top, then absolutely you're going to be well planned. Yeah. Yeah. Perfect.

Thank you for the input. All right, Brian, thanks for your call, sir. Let's head to Chicago. Hi, Nikki. Go right ahead. Hello. Hi. Thanks for taking my call today.

I had a question. I see the settlement for like under the 70 K and I was just trying to see like what's the best way like to invest or how should I go about investing? I do currently like well, I'm 49. I have a 401K with my child. I think that's probably close to a 400K and I have like a savings account, probably about 80,000. And I really don't have any debt.

I do have a car payment, but other than that, no credit card debt or anything like that. So I was just trying to see like what would be the best way to. Yeah. Well, it sounds like you're doing great to me here, Nikki. Do you have you ever done any retirement planning to determine kind of what your ultimate savings goal is?

I have not. Okay. What if you don't mind sharing what's your income annually roughly?

Probably about 100K. Okay. All right. And are you single? I'm not single.

I'm married. Okay. And then what does your husband earn? He probably earns about, how do you, maybe I'll say like maybe 80 or something like that. Okay.

Yeah. So I mean, a typical goal would be 10 to 12 times your income. And I realized this number might sound a little scary because it's a big number, but that would put it at 2 million, you know, being your ultimate goal. Now, does he, you mentioned the 400,000 and the 80,000 you have in savings. Does he have some retirement savings as well?

He does. I don't know exactly like what the exact number is like for 401k. Yeah. I mean, the good news is you guys are still, you know, quite a bit away from retirement. You're debt free. You know, you've already built up quite a bit in the way of assets. You've got plenty of liquidity and savings. And you know, if he's got some, some retirement assets as well, I mean, you guys could be, maybe you're at three quarters of a million dollars or something like that. So if you continue to sock money away, it sounds like you'll have plenty. I think the question is to your point, what to do with the roughly 170 that's coming your way.

I think the first question is always, is there anything that the Lord's laying on your heart with regard to giving? I would do that right off the top. Beyond that, if you want to put it to work, I'd try to get it inside a retirement plan if you can, if you want to make it longterm in nature. So one approach there is if you're not maxing out your employee sponsored plan at work, your 401k, what you could do, even if by maxing it out, you know, me in increasing your monthly contribution, even if that were to, you know, cut your check so much that it required you to pull some from the 170.

I do that because that would in a sense be a way that you're shifting it. Let's say you had 170,000 in savings, and you increase your 401k contribution by 10,000 a year. And so you'd pull 10,000 a year out of the 170 to supplement your income. And essentially, you're moving it from one bucket to another except when it goes into your 401k.

Now you're getting a tax break for it. And it's going to grow tax deferred. Let me ask though, do you know if you're maxing out your 401k right now?

I am. I think my job matches like 4%. I think I'm doing like 5% now. Okay, so you're probably not then because you know, you for 2024, you can put in $23,000. And that's just your portion.

That's not the employee match. And so if you're not putting in a full 23,000, that would be an opportunity for again, you to bump it up so that you're maxing it out. And then if that cuts your check down too low, where you're not able to cover your bills, then you'd pull that from the 170.

So that's one strategy. The second would be just investing it straight out right. And if you wanted to do that in just some high quality no load mutual funds, our friends at sound mind investing can help without soundmindinvesting.org. The SMI newsletter would give you some great suggestions each month on which funds to buy or sell. You could also hire an advisor to manage this portion of your investments. And for that I would head to our website at faithfi.com and click find a professional.

So hopefully that gives you a few ideas on how you can get it into the 401k, how you can invest it on your own, or how you could deploy it through a certified kingdom advisor. God bless you, Nikki. Thanks for calling. We'll be right back. Hey, great to have you with us today on faith and finance live here on Moody radio. Well here on a Friday, our good friend, Jerry Boyer stops by Jerry is president of Boyer research and he's our resident economist here. Jerry, good afternoon. Good afternoon, my friend. How are you?

I'm doing great. Uh, great to have you here and uh, let's talk federal reserve. So a meeting this week, uh, for the fifth time they met and said, we're going to do nothing. So what do you make of that?

And uh, what about the comments related to that meeting? Yeah, well I, I would like it if they had a do nothing policy every time, just in advance, we're not going to do anything. Um, of course, when they say they're doing nothing, what they really mean is they're going to keep the interest rate target where it is. Um, I like the do nothing policy where they wouldn't even be setting the interest rate target. Uh, because I think interest rates should be set by borrowers and lenders, right? If I'm lending, if I'm putting money in the bank and sending it, lending it out to someone to, you know, for a mortgage for their house, you know, if, if we're depositing more money that drives interest rates down and people are borrowing more, that drives up, it seems like we should be setting interest rates for ourselves through our financial transactions as borrowers and lenders, we work it out. Um, and that's the way it used to be, but it's at some point in that actually not that distant past, uh, the central bank said, we're going to set the interest rate. Um, and that's a, that's manipulate that the interest rate is maybe the most important price in the economy. Um, and to give them the power to set that is to basically give them the power to set the incentives for saving or the lack of incentives for saving to set the value of the dollar.

That's an enormous amount of power to give to people who, by the way, none of whom are elected. Um, I mean, that's astonishing. So what did they do this week?

I mean, that's, you know, I know I'm kind of going historical there. What they did this week is they said that we're going to stand pat and we all knew that. I mean, the, you know, the futures markets knew that.

Um, but they indicated they're probably going to cut two or three times this year. And so I think what we make of and markets responded, how markets responded by going up. And remember when you look at markets going up, you say, well, the stock market's going up.

That must must be good. And you have to look and say, well, let's look at everything that's going up. So if the stock market is going up and the bond market is going up, that means the central bank is pumping money into the system. Um, that doesn't mean that we're growing doesn't mean business is more profitable. It's the, it's the manipulation by the central bank, by the way, if the gold price goes up and the Bitcoin price goes up, which are basically bets against the dollar, then that's pretty clear that the stock market going up isn't prosperity. It's just money flooding into the system. Um, and if it's money flooding into the system, it's not sustainable for the long run. So I think that's, you know, that I think that's what we kind of learned this week.

And I really don't think it's any surprise. And I think it also indicates that, that the fed is essentially, and I think we knew in the end is they, they pushed inflation down a certain amount, but they just do not have that principle core backbone to see the fight against inflation through to the end. Hmm. Yeah. Well, we're certainly going to see if that's true, but I would tend to agree with you on that one.

Uh, Jerry, although the market sold off somewhat today with the exception of the NASDAQ, uh, you know, we're still up in the clouds at nearly 40,000 on the Dow. Uh, so what do you think about that in terms of whether that's justified with earnings and, uh, you know, the, the go forward prospect? Yeah, I think it's kind of richly priced. Um, and so, you know, I, I don't think it's entirely justified. Um, and I would just, you know, I know that not everyone listening goes to the K a conference, right.

But I was there and I heard David Bahns and then Bob doll speak. And what they said is that, you know, we really are going to have problems getting lots of really great gains out of the stock market now because we've got a lot of these gains by the central bank signaling it was going to cut. Um, but they only could feel like, um, they can do that, you know, depending on the inflation or the economic output. So if the central bank is, it feels comfortable, um, you know, not slowing down. If the central bank is slowing down the economy, well then that, you know, that that's kind of bad for the markets.

I'm not saying this very well. They have a dilemma and the dilemma is that if the economy's growing very well, well that's good for the stock market, but if the economy is growing very well, the central bank pulls money out of the system. So that means it's going to be really hard for the stock market to do very well because the healthier the economy is, the more the stock market is going to be taken off the morphine drip of central bank, easy money. And so they're really up against the dilemma. I think it's going to make it tough to get like really strong gains from here.

That doesn't mean if we get a bunch of cuts, you know, and then, you know, this year that we might not get some nice spurts upwards, but like sustainable, strong stock market, you know, bull market over the long run, that doesn't seem plausible. Yeah. All right, Jerry. No, that certainly makes sense. Uh, let's switch to, uh, the forgiveness of the student debt. Uh, obviously the Biden administration out this week and adding to, uh, what they had already quote forgiven, uh, this time it's around teachers and nurses and others that would be, uh, that would qualify for the public service loan forgiveness program.

But the total this brings it to that the executive branch has forgiven is $144 billion. So, you know, we do get questions from time to time from well-meaning believers wanting to know how they should look at this and think about even accepting that on a one-off basis in light of a biblical worldview. What do you say about that? Well, I think that, you know, if they want to forgive debts, that's a, that's a nice thing. So let's say there's somebody at church and they lent some money to a family that was having trouble and the family is still having trouble and they want to forgive that debt.

I think that's marvelous. I think that's a wonderful, um, expression of Christian love. But imagine that, so, so let's think of it another way. Let's say that you, you know, you're a church and someone borrows money from you and they don't want to pay it back. And the pastor comes along and says, your debt is forgiven.

Wait a minute, pastor. That's not your money. Um, you know, you're, you're, you're, you're forgiving somebody else's debt or somebody else's asset. That's not really Christian charity. That's not really forgiveness.

So let me kind of go theological on this, if you don't mind. It definitely been the answer that I gave before, which is as Christians, our sins are forgiven. And in the Bible, sin is often spoken of as debt.

Like for instance, um, in the Lord's prayer, forgive us our trespasses is one version of the Lord's prayer. Forgive us our debts is another. So, you know, there's a kind of a forgiving of a debt when our sins are forgiven. Right.

But that doesn't mean they're just, you know, erased. Somebody paid, right? Jesus paid, right? He's a ransom that, you know, that's, you know, that's something we don't talk about that so much as modern evangelicals, early church talked about Jesus.

The Bible does. He's a redeemer. A redeemer is a buyer or somebody out of debt.

He's a ransom. So the debt was paid by somebody. God paid our debt. And so we're released.

That's entirely different than someone else coming along and forcing. See, it's our money. We lent it essentially to these college students because we're the taxpayers.

That's where the money's coming from. So Joe Biden isn't forgiving debts that are owed to him. He's forgiving debts that are owed to us. And that violates the principle. I mean, I think the fact that God sent his son to pay our debt, unsuffered, shows how very seriously God takes the idea of debt.

So he wanted us forgiven, but he didn't just say, yep, stroke of a pen. The debt is gone. It had to be paid. And I think we need to keep that in mind that debts are always in some sense paid. So if I forgive a debt that somebody owes me, what's really happened is I've paid their debt, right? I've made that economic sacrifice for them. And I think when we do this politically the way we're doing, it violates a fundamental principle of reality, which is that if the debts aren't just forgiven, there's always a payment made. There's always a sacrifice given. Somebody has to give up something for someone's debt to be forgiven. And we're kind of doing it politically as if there's no actual cost to that debt forgiveness. Yeah.

And there are, among other things, real economic consequences to that, right? Yeah. You're bringing me back down to Earth. I was getting all theological there. No, I wanted you to.

Thank you. And the real world consequences are more debasement, more of that inflation problem, right? So I told you the central bank in the end always loses its nerve and goes inflationary.

It's just never willing to push hard enough to go through the tough times of squeezing inflation hour, almost never. Paul Volcker and Ronald Reagan did it. I'm not sure I've seen anyone else do it in American history. Oh, no, Calvin Coolidge. But we don't have a Paul Volcker and Ronald Reagan right now.

We don't have anyone like that. What that means is we're just going to run bigger deficits. Those deficits are going to be filled with more money printing. That's more debasement of the currency.

And that means more inflation sustained over a longer period of time. Yeah, no doubt about that. All right, Jerry, always appreciate you bringing us down to reality and diving deep into God's word to give us the full view of whatever we're talking about. Have a great weekend, my friend. And you, too.

All right. That's Jerry Boyer. He's our resident economist. He joins us each Friday with his market commentary quickly to Grand Rapids. Julianna, you've been waiting patiently.

I've got about a minute and a half. How can I help? OK, I have a granddaughter who is going to attend a university in Grand Rapids, a Christian university.

Oh, yeah. And her parents. Yeah, they are already applying for anything that would they could that she would be able to get from that university. However, I want to maybe heard at your program that there are so many that there are scholarships that go unused. Is there an agency? Is there a source?

Do you have an address or the name of an agency where you can apply for scholarships? Yes, let's do this. I'm going to mention a few now, but I don't want you to have to write feverishly. I'm going to have my team get your information and I'm going to send you a link to a recent episode we did on this topic.

And in the show notes and I'll tell you what that means. There'll be a list with a lot of links there. But there's places on the Web like the College Board and scholarships dot com and Peterson and one called Fast Web.

And here's the thing, Julianna. The big idea is that, you know, if your son will invest that their grandson will invest the time and just apply for scholarships, there's money out there. My son did it.

My wife did it. She got over one hundred thousand dollars in scholarships back when she was going off to college. And it's just a matter of finding his niche, his major, any other demographic related scholarships he may qualify for and applying for all of them.

And he's going to get a lot of no's, but the yeses can add up quickly. So stay on the line. We'll get your information and get that out to you. May the Lord bless you.

Folks, Faith and Finance Live is a partnership between Moody Radio and Faith Five. So thankful for my team, Lynn, Amy, Tahira and Jim. Have a great weekend. See you tomorrow.