Rob West: Having an emergency fund is great, but how can you ensure it's there when you really need it? I am Rob West. It's easy to set aside money for a rainy day, but what happens when we start dipping into that fund for things that aren't truly emergencies? Today, we'll consider three questions you should ask before dipping into your emergency fund to ensure that the money's there when you need it. And then it's on to your calls at 800-525-7000. This is Faith and Finance on American Family Radio, biblical wisdom for your financial decisions.
Well, the Bible is filled with pointed messages that we should take to heart and memorize so they pop into our heads when we need them most. One such verse is Proverbs 21:20, which, as you might expect, we cite fairly often here on the program. It reads: "Precious treasure and oil are in a wise man's dwelling, but a foolish man devours them."
It's a warning against spending everything we earn, calling it foolish because it leaves us unprepared for the inevitable mishaps of life on Earth. Most of us have experienced a financial emergency at some point in our lives. They may be relatively minor—a tire goes flat—or they could be significant—a huge medical bill hits. But whether minor or major, we all run into unexpected expenditures. Whether it's our cars breaking down or a random house repair, we can avoid stressful times through some financial preparation.
An emergency fund is one of the best tools around in financial management because while it's important to have a strong offense in building wealth, you equally need a strong defense. You want an introductory emergency fund, generally between $1,000 and $1,500, that sufficiently covers most minor emergencies. However, once you've paid off all your debt—besides your mortgage—and you're receiving your company's match, if you have one, it's crucial that you increase that emergency fund to three to six months' worth of living expenses to protect yourself from a more significant financial crisis, like a job loss. This larger fund acts as a safeguard, helping you avoid unnecessary debt when major financial disruptions occur.
However, having an emergency fund is only half the battle; the other half is knowing when it's appropriate to use it. It's easy to dip into those savings for non-emergencies, but doing so can leave you financially vulnerable. So, how do you determine if an expense qualifies as an emergency? Here are three questions to ask before tapping into your emergency fund:
Question 1: Is it urgent? Does something need to be fixed or bought right now, or can we wait and save up for it? If a so-called emergency can wait, it most likely doesn't fall into the emergency category. If you're unsure whether something constitutes an emergency, try waiting 30 days before using your emergency fund. Obviously, that doesn't work if it's a car repair job and you only have one car, but if you have two cars, maybe it can wait until you've saved up something to put toward the repair.
Question number 2: Is this necessary? Sadly, our purchases and debt struggles demonstrate that many people struggle with discerning between a need and a want. For instance, buying a new car is a want, not a need. If you need transportation now, opt for a cheaper used vehicle and save up for a more reliable one over time.
Question number 3: Is this really an unexpected expense? There's a huge difference between getting fired and forgetting to save up for Christmas presents. Birthdays and Christmas happen at the same time every year, so these are not considered unexpected expenses, no matter how poorly we've prepared.
These questions will prevent you from using emergency funds on things that don't fall into that emergency category. If we can honestly answer yes to each one, then go ahead and use the fund.
But does that mean you should just wave your debit card at it and make it go away? Not at all. You still have to be careful, even when emergency fund spending is justified. Make sure you spend as little as possible. Use the car example again: you may have an accident and need major repairs that are not covered by insurance. Hopefully, you've been saving for a new car anyway; you can then use some or all of that money for repairs or replacing the vehicle, if need be. That will minimize the hit on your emergency fund.
Also, before using emergency funds, take a serious look at your budget to find any areas you can trim. Can you temporarily reduce regular spending to make your emergency money go further? That will also help you rebuild your emergency fund as quickly as possible and back up to the ideal three to six months of living expenses.
And one final and important note: you always want to have sufficient savings so that in times of scarcity, you can still give generously and save what you need to, and live with peace of mind.
I hope that's helpful. All right, your calls are next: 800-525-7000. We'll be right back.
SEGMENT 2
Rob West: Great to have you with us today on Faith and Finance here on American Family Radio. I'm Rob West. Well, we're back to regular programming. We said we would. We said just three days for our Fall Share and now here we are back to all of the programs you count on, and we're so thankful to be able in this hour to talk about managing God's money God's way. But just as Tim shared a moment ago during that break, I will add my sentiment as well: we are overwhelmed at your response. Thank you, thank you, thank you for so many of you who stepped in during our Fall Shareathon to say, "I want to be a part of this. I want to know that you're going to continue, that you're going to proclaim truth, that you're going to stand firm on God's word in the culture, that you're going to be there when I need you most."
And we've had over 16,000 gifts come in, which is just amazing. I know they're continuing and there's still an opportunity. If you want to be a part of our Fall Share and you missed it—maybe you've been traveling, you've just been busy this week, you're like, "Wait a minute. Share happened? I missed it?"—no, it's not too late. Just head over to afr.net and we would love for you to jump in even now. We'll continue to see folks jumping on board through the weekend, but just know that we are incredibly grateful. It's such a privilege to serve you and we know that you're with us and it's an enormous encouragement to watch this just massive response.
But we are back to regular programming now and we want to dive into your questions, and we're going to do that here in just a moment. So if there's something on your mind—by the way, your generosity I think is just evidence of your desire to be found faithful in managing God's money, and that's what we're all about here on this show in particular. You know, we recognize faithfulness is faithful to what God has placed in my hands, right? It's each according to his or her ability. Remember we read in God's word, it's not according to what you don't have, it's according to what you have.
And so the question is, you know, what do I do with what God has given me today? What does faithfulness look like right now? Not when the portfolio reaches a certain number, or I get the bonus, or I sell the business, or I get married, or, you know, whatever it is. What does faithfulness look like today with what has been placed in my hands right now? That's what we're trying to think through, and we've got to get all the big pieces right, right? You've got to put the big rocks in first, and then you add the small rocks and the sand and the water. You've seen the illustration.
What are those big rocks? Well, it's understanding that God owns everything, that He's the master of the universe, He's the creator of everything, and everything belongs to Him. The Earth is the Lord's and the fullness thereof, and all who dwell therein. That's us. He owns our bodies, the breath in our lungs, the resources we have, our time, our talents—it all comes from Him. He's a good Father; He bestows upon us good gifts. And so He owns it all.
So what you and I have been entrusted, however little or however much—and He gives differing amounts, and our goal is faithfulness. Remember, we can't be faithful with much unless we're faithful with a little to begin with. And so we see money then, not as a treasure—Jesus is our treasure—we see money as a tool. And it's an enormous, powerful force for good when we hold it loosely, when we live with contentment, when we don't find our identity in our money, when we use it to provide and enjoy with our families and friends, when we give it away to love our neighbor. That's God's perspective; that's the heart of God for us. It's not what He wants from us; it's what He wants for us.
And so on this program, we want to dive into those very specific questions that you're wrestling with in your financial life today. Perhaps it's debt-related, maybe it's investing, maybe it's spending—you're just trying to make that budget balance. Perhaps for you, it's giving generously; you want to know how you can do more. Maybe you're wondering, "Can I trust God to provide?" or "What is the right way for me to give? How do I maximize my giving?" Whatever you're wrestling with today, we'd love to hear about it.
800-525-7000. That's a different number than we've been giving this whole week as we've been in our Fall Share. This is the number to come in to our team to be on this program today to ask your financial question. Again, 800-525-7000. By the way, that's a really important phone number for us. It's pretty nostalgic for our team because this number, 800-525-7000, goes all the way back to the late Larry Burkett. This was his phone number back in the day on Money Matters when he started in the '70s and '80s, and we're so thrilled that we are able to use that number still today. So it means a lot.
800-525-7000. Any financial question today, go ahead and call right now. Let's dive in. We're going to begin in Texas today. Will, you'll be first up. Go ahead.
Will: Oh, thank you. First of all, I want to let you know that my wife and I have been investing in AFR for over 10 years on a monthly basis. It's been a blessing for us.
Rob West: Wow. Incredible. Well, thank you.
Will: We really believe in AFR. My question is, on TV, I see some really—what I consider—strong Christian leaders recommending investing in precious metals: gold and silver. What are your thoughts? On the other side, I do have a place where I can invest this $20,000–$30,000 and get about 6% interest. I know that's pretty solid. So I just don't—I've heard different things about investing in precious metals. What are your thoughts?
Rob West: Yes, sir. Well, first of all, thank you for your faithfulness in giving to American Family Radio. We're grateful, and you stand alongside thousands, tens of thousands of others, and this ministry would not be here without you.
My thoughts on gold: it can be a good investment for diversification, but I wouldn't recommend making it a major part of someone's portfolio. I think gold is better viewed as a way to protect and diversify wealth rather than to build wealth over the long term.
And so what does that mean? How much gold should someone own? I like to start with what I'll call a 5% "forever" allocation. That would be the allocation I would make for physical gold, if you're okay with that, where you would take possession of it, you would secure it and store it—maybe it's in a safe deposit box, maybe it's in your home in a fireproof safe—but a 5% allocation of your total investable assets that you're going to buy and hold forever, and plan to pass down.
And then if you wanted to dial it up to, let's say, 10%, I would consider—and this isn't a hard and fast rule, this is just a starting point, a suggestion—I would dial that second 5% up through what's called an Exchange Traded Fund (ETF). So like GLD; there's probably half a dozen of them that are the major ones, GLD is the biggest. It trades like a stock, but essentially you're buying the spot price of gold, and GLD is going to move in lockstep with the price of gold. There's actually real gold they have in vaults behind it, but the benefit is you don't have to take possession of it, but you still benefit from the overall rise or fall of gold as you buy that Exchange Traded Fund.
And if you put that physical allocation of 5% together with the ETF of 5%, you make a total of 10%. That's, in my mind, an appropriate allocation. But the idea that we would have a gold ETF and put 20, 30, 50, 70% of our assets in gold—I just don't like that approach. Why? There's no income. Unlike dividend-paying stocks or bonds, it doesn't generate interest or dividends. Price volatility: it can experience substantial declines and remain depressed for years; it has more volatility than stocks and bonds. You've got the storage and the insurance, the dealer markups—for those reasons, I just like the core of your portfolio being properly diversified in stocks or bonds, and using gold as a hedge and a diversification tool with that 5%, max 10% allocation.
Does that make sense?
Will: It makes a lot of sense. I sure appreciate you. Thank you.
Rob West: All right, Will. God bless you. Hey, if you would like a suggestion on somebody that could help you purchase that 5% physical allocation, hang on the line, our team would be happy to help you with that.
This is Faith and Finance on American Family Radio. I'm Rob West. We're taking your questions today: 800-525-7000. That's 800-525-7000. Call right now and we'll be right back.
SEGMENT 3
Rob West: Thanks for joining us today on Faith and Finance here on American Family Radio. I'm Rob West. We're taking your calls and questions today, 800-525-7000. Again, that number 800-525-7000. We would love to hear what's going on in your minds today, financially, help you think about it through the lens of biblical wisdom. Again, that number 800-525-7000. We do have a few lines open, so our team is standing by, we would love to take those calls right now.
Let's go to Tennessee. Hi, Karen, how can I help?
Karen: Hi, Rob. Thank you so much for taking my call, and bear with me, I'm not sure if I can phrase my question right, maybe know something more because I don't know anything about this, but wanted your opinion on some kind of investments like with insurance. I don't really understand what that's going all about, but we're supposed to be going to talk to somebody about something like that, and I thought if I could get some understanding about it before I go, it'd be better.
Rob West: Yes. So life insurance—are you talking about investing it like as in, you know, something called a viatical settlement where you have a policy and you're trying to sell it to someone, or is it just life insurance for you to offset the risk that would be created by one of you, you or your husband, passing away and that income going away? Give me a little bit more color commentary on what you think you're going to hear more about.
Karen: It's not to buy personal insurance for ourselves. It's going to be some kind of an investment, but like I said, I don't know anything about it, so I was just thinking it might be something to find out before we go in there.
Rob West: Yeah. Yeah, so you may be hearing about—and maybe you go hear it out and then call me back, and I'd love to weigh in once you have a little more information—but let me just give you some scenarios here. He may be talking about, or she, investing in what are called life settlements, which is sometimes called the secondary market life insurance investments. And here's how they work: you purchase an existing life insurance policy from someone else, the investor pays the policy's ongoing premiums—so that's you—and then when the insured person dies, the investor receives the death benefit, and the profit depends on the purchase price, the total premiums you pay, and how long the insured person lives.
The risks are, you know, you don't know when you'll receive the money, you may have to keep paying premiums for years, investments can be difficult to sell, there's fees and regulatory risk, there's even sometimes fraud. You know, so there are risks, certainly. But you also may be, in terms of pooled life settlement investments, so it may not be an individual policy—many investors will pool their money to purchase multiple policies, so it's basically like a fund. That fund purchases life insurance policies, and again, the fund pays the premiums, and then when the individual insureds pass away, the fund collects the death benefit and then distributes it.
The reason I'm not a big fan of these is they tend to be more complicated, your money could be tied up for years, the returns are very unpredictable, the ongoing premiums reduce the profits—again, depending on how long you have to pay out—and, you know, there could be poor fund management as well in there. So, generally speaking, I'm not a big fan of these. I'd probably stay away and do something that's a little more plain vanilla, if you will, and just invest in stocks and bonds and maybe some gold, maybe some real estate. But life settlements are not my favorite tool for the reasons I mentioned. But perhaps you go hear this person out, and then maybe we talk further.
Karen: Okay. All right. Well, that helps a lot to kind of have an idea of what that might look like. So, thank you for your help, and we'll see where this goes.
Rob West: All right, Karen. Thank you for calling today. If I can serve you in any way, don't hesitate to reach out.
800-525-7000's the number to call. We do have some lines open today. We're beyond Shareathon, and we're so thankful for so many of you who jumped in. Amazing to see your response. And, you know, as a listener-supported ministry, it is essential these few days in the fall and the spring that you jump in with us. We can't do this without you, but we're also glad to get back to regular programming and talk about, in this case, how we can help you manage God's money.
So whatever that question is as you give, save, or spend, we'd love to hear from you. 800-525-7000. Call right now, we've got some lines open. Let's go to Arkansas. Alan, go ahead.
Alan: Good morning, Rob. This is Alan, and I just want to thank you, first of all, for your work in the Shareathon. And then, I know we've talked before, and my wife and I are on an extremely limited income, and so when they have the add-ons, I love the add-ons. And it seems like the last three Shareathons, the only time I happen to get on the radio, they're having a Shareathon. So the first one was with you and I think Wesley, and there was a $100, so I did two $25s and got $100 added on both those. Well, then yesterday they had the one with $250 ones, and anyway, I ended up giving y'all over $1,000 for my little city, so I was thrilled to death.
Rob West: Wow! Oh, Alan, what you're describing is the joy of giving. And, you know, that's right in line with what we see in God's Word. You know, it says not reluctantly or under compulsion; God loves a cheerful giver. And I love to hear the joy of the Lord in your voice as you're describing these gifts and what it means to be able to give as unto the Lord and share with a ministry like AFR doing work in the name of Jesus. It's just happy-making.
Randy Alcorn, the author, talks about this verse that we see where Jesus says it is more blessed to give than to receive. And Randy made a point the other day when we were chatting about something, he said, "You know, Rob, that word 'blessed' in that verse, in the English language, could most closely be translated 'happy-making.'" And that's what you're talking about here. It is more happy-making to give than to receive. And you've been a recipient of that.
And we have as well. And so, Alan, just know on behalf of our entire team here, we're so thankful for you and your wife and what you've done to be a part of this. You've gone the extra mile, you've given—it sounds like even sacrificially—and that means a lot.
Alan: Well, Lord bless you. We love y'all.
Rob West: All right, we love you too, Alan. Thanks for calling today, and thanks for giving. Lord bless you, call anytime.
Well, folks, that's what it's all about. It's a big family here at AFR, and we love serving you and encouraging you. And when we come back, we'll talk more about your finances and how you can see it through the lens of your faith. Stay with us.
SEGMENT 4
Rob West: Coming up in the next segment, Jerry Boyer and Walker Wildmon will be here. Jerry is our resident economist. He always brings some insightful news and information about what's happening in the markets and our economy. And, well, the Nasdaq is rising today as tech shares are rebounding following the sell-off yesterday. We are green across the board—not much, modestly higher on the Dow Jones, the S&P 500, and the Nasdaq.
We'll get Jerry's take on what's happening right now with the markets. We'll also get both of those gentlemen who lead AFA Action's work in corporate engagement, as they're engaging with, talking to, the biggest companies in the world, advocating for religious values and equal treatment, in most cases, of Christians. Whether it's through their matching programs, or maybe where they've gotten off track and they're funding things that have nothing to do with their core business that are antithetical to Christian values—so many different conversations going on.
And in this segment, they update us on what they've been working on, which is always fascinating and incredibly encouraging. And so we'll hear from Walker and Jerry in the next segment. In the meantime, we're going to get to as many calls as we can.
If you have a question, something happening in your financial life today, we'd love to hear about it. 800-525-7000. Any financial question as you give, save, and spend: 800-525-7000. You can call right now.
Let's go out to Texas. Hi, Jill, how can I help you?
Jill: Hello. I have $5,000 just sitting in my account. I have a 401(k), I have CDs, I have money invested in the stock market, but I and—I just turned 60 yesterday. So I just have $5,000. What should I do with it? 'Cause it's not making any money in the bank.
Rob West: Mm, yeah, that's a great question, Jill. Okay, and is this the extent of what I would call your emergency fund, your emergency savings, or do you have other savings as well?
Jill: I have other savings. This is just extra money. I don't have any debt except for my house. So should I put it towards my principal on my house? Where should I put it?
Rob West: Sure. Tell me about the savings you have currently, apart from this $5,000. How much do you have in emergency savings?
Jill: About $20,000.
Rob West: Okay, excellent. Well done. And is that earning interest?
Jill: Yes.
Rob West: Okay, what do you think that's earning, do you know, roughly?
Jill: I think it's 4%.
Rob West: Okay, yeah, that's great. And what do you spend in a typical month, all in? Just a rough estimate.
Jill: Um, all in about $3,000.
Rob West: Okay, yeah. So, you know, you said you had $20,000, and $3,000 a month, you've got about a little more than six months' worth of expenses there, almost seven months' worth of expenses there. That's great. That's right where I would want you to be.
So you've got a couple of options here. You could add this $5,000 to that at 4%—that's not a bad interest rate—and get yourself up over seven months' worth of expenses. That would be one option, and just leave it there, and, you know, there's nothing wrong with having a little more liquid reserves.
A second option might be if you have a particular savings goal outside of just your emergency funds for the unexpected, you could put it toward a particular savings goal. If you knew you needed to replace a car, you know, sometime in the near future; you had some appliances that you knew, you know, were at the end of their life; or, you know, you had a roof that you knew needed to be repaired or something like that, you could stick it in savings for that.
The third option is we could pay off debt. And so did you say your only debt is a home mortgage, is that right?
Jill: Correct.
Rob West: Okay, and what is the interest rate on that mortgage, do you know?
Jill: Um, 5.75%.
Rob West: Okay. Yeah, so that's not a bad idea either. If you don't want to add it to your emergency fund, essentially the moment you pay it toward that mortgage, you're going to get the equivalent of a guaranteed return on that money equal to the interest you'd no longer be paying. And so to be able to get a guaranteed 5.75%, you're not going to find that anywhere else. So that's not a bad idea either. I love the idea that you would, you know, just go ahead and put it against the house and just move more quickly toward paying it off, and again, you know, you'd receive this 5.75% return because you'd no longer be paying 5.75% interest on that $5,000.
Do you have the funds to make, or have you already made, your Roth contribution for this year?
Jill: You know, I don't even know that.
Rob West: Okay. 'Cause that would be another option if you don't have those funds set aside, and/or you haven't already made that contribution, maybe this is the money you use to fund that Roth for this year, which is always a good idea because now we get that money into a tax-free environment. You've already paid tax on it, so it's sitting in your checking account, you put it into your Roth, and we invest it with maybe your other investments that you've already got, and now it's growing tax-free. And maybe it becomes something more significant down the road that you could tap into if you needed it, you know, in the future.
Jill: Okay.
Rob West: So I think those are really the options here. Let me just repeat them:
1. We use it to get up to seven months, almost eight months' expenses in emergency savings by adding it to the 4% savings.
2. We put it into a separate savings because we attach it to a particular goal or expense we know we have coming up in the future.
3. We put it toward the mortgage and get a guaranteed return on it at 5.75%.
4. Our fourth option is we hang on to it, or we go ahead and use it for our 2026 Roth contribution.
I think any of those could be a great choice.
Jill: Okay. Let me ask you this: so on the second one, where do you suggest placing it?
Rob West: I'm sorry, I lost you there for a second. Where do I suggest what?
Jill: The second choice, putting it in another savings, where would that be?
Rob West: Yeah, a good question. So you could just do it with the same place you're at right now that's paying 4%. You know, another option if you want to, you know, have it in multiple places: our friends at AdelFi Christian Banking is a great option. They're paying 4% right now in their money market. You could go to faithfi.com/banking. That's faithfi.com/banking.
More and more of our listeners are finding that they want to do business with companies that share their values, and AdelFi Christian Banking is the largest Christian credit union in the country, and they're just doing some amazing things. I mean, part of their profits, if you will, go to fund Christian ministries doing amazing work in the name of Jesus. And so that could be a great option. You could look locally at other options, but the simplest would be you just put it right where you already have your existing savings earning 4%, and we just add this $5,000 to it, but maybe you earmark it for something you know is coming up down the road.
Jill: I like going to FaithFi and looking.
Rob West: Okay, yeah, great. So faithfi.com/banking is how you can learn more about our friends at AdelFi Christian Banking. They're wonderful friends, they serve a lot of our listeners, and they would be delighted to assist you. Again, faithfi.com/banking or 800-634-3228.
We'll be right back with much more after this.
SEGMENT 5
Rob West: Well, as Tim just said, we are so incredibly grateful for the amazing generosity, the outpouring of support by so many of you to support the work of American Family Radio. More than 16,000 of you jumped in over the last few days. That's just overwhelming and encouraging to us, and you're making this happen. And because listener-supported AFR doesn't happen without you. And Walker, it's—it's just so fun to see people respond and know even though we're in these four walls, there's so many out there that are being impacted by this ministry, right?
Walker Wildmon: Yeah, that's right. It's very encouraging. We love getting the phone calls and seeing the thousands of people that are affected and benefit from American Family Radio, and we aren't here without our financial supporters, because we're listener-supported, and it's just so such an encouraging time of year. And so thanks to everyone who called in, who went online at afr.net and donated. We appreciate you, and as Rob and I promised, we're back to normal programming. So you don't have to hear us give out the number anymore, at least not now.
Rob West: That's exactly right. Well, Jerry Boyer and Walker Wildmon are here with me in this final segment today, and Walker, you know, one of the things we talk about during Share is all of the incredible ministries going on under the roof of American Family Association that are being funded through every gift, and one of those is this idea of corporate engagement through AFA Action, where as investors, AFA is using its influence as a shareholder to encourage companies to make better decisions, to act responsibly, to give equal treatment to Christians, and the list goes on. And the exciting thing is those companies are listening, they're taking note, and in many cases, they're making changes. And Jerry Boyer's with us as well. Jerry, tell us what you've all been working on lately.
Jerry Boyer: Well, we've shifted now to paying a lot of attention to healthcare insurance providers, because when we talk to companies last year with AFA—for example, talking to Walmart—to say, "Hey, are you paying for puberty blockers for the children of employees?" and Walmart said, "Actually, we're not. And here's our—you know, here's our documentation." We don't know when they switched. We've been talking to them for a couple of years, and we don't make the companies like admit that we caused them to change. That's—you know, we don't need the victory march; we just need the victory. And they—and Walmart, you know, moved in the right direction.
But a lot of companies said, "Well, we just do whatever Aetna or Humana or UnitedHealthcare tell us to do. They're our healthcare providers." And first of all, we say they don't tell you to do anything. They have a base package, but you're in charge of deciding what's your own healthcare package. But then we thought, "Well, maybe we need to talk to those other companies." And we did. We talked to one of them yesterday to say, "What—you know, do you cover puberty blockers or sexual reassignment treatments for children?"
And they said, "Well, you know, we—we mostly and our biggest client base is Medicare, so that's older people, so for the most part, you know, that doesn't apply." I said, "Oh, okay. Well, that—for the most part. What about for—for the less part? Are you saying there's nothing in there like that? And what about your private clients? And what about Medicare?" So we're just like digging in, and they said, "Well, we offer it where it's legally required."
And then our proponent in this case said, "Well, and when it isn't legally required, what do you do? And if—are you saying that when it's not legally required, you don't offer it? Great. Put that in writing, we'll be out of your hair."
So that's a lot of—so a lot of what we're focusing on right now is going sort of to the body of the Hydra. All these companies that do puberty blocker type treatments because it's part of the base package of the providers, to go to the providers. They're the deep pockets or likely to get sued when something goes wrong, and talking to them. So that's kind of our focus—that was our focus this week.
Rob West: Mm, yeah. Walker, it's—it's so encouraging to hear these companies taking note and actually making changes in some cases.
Walker Wildmon: Yeah, you know, part of the problem—part of the solution, rather, is just showing up. And Jerry knows this all well in that if Christians and conservatives and voices of sanity don't show up to meetings, don't show up, you know, to shareholder engagement opportunities, then it's—it's a—it's a certainty that the leadership are not going to hear what's going on. They're not going to hear our side, if you will, or in this instance, the truth.
And so what we've been doing over the last couple of years with Jerry and his team is we've just been showing up, and that's honestly half the battle. And so a lot of these corporate boardrooms, a lot of these executives and these, you know, counsel counselors, they don't hear our perspective often. They live kind of in this bubble, and they hear a lot of the leftist talking points, they have their pronouns on their email signature, and they hear us, and we're like, "Hey, you guys just need to get out of this, you know, left-wing nonsense and just focus on your business." And for a lot of them, that's a breath of fresh air.
Rob West: Yeah, no doubt about it. Jerry, I—I have to believe it's refreshing for many of these companies when you come in and they discover this is not about you getting clicks or getting them on the front page of any newspaper. This is really about you opening up a dialogue, and if they're willing to engage in that and—and make sensible change, then we move on, right?
Jerry Boyer: There's sometimes a sigh of relief where we say, "Look, none of our people need to give a speech at your annual meeting. We're all busy. We would rather you just make a change and we move on with life." And that is not typically what happens. There are a lot of people whose business model is getting on to—getting into the annual meeting, getting on the ballot, giving a speech, and then going out to their donor base to say, "Look, we gave a speech."
And I've seen this from some of them, and even some of the conservative groups, "Look, we made, you know, Apple's Tim Cook, you know, sound foolish." We're not there to—we're—we're there to get them to stop sounding foolish. You know, we're not there to trip them up. We're there to put their feet on the right path.
So we repeatedly emphasize that if the proposal goes on the ballot and somebody gives a speech, then that's an F. Something failed because we're not looking for publicity; we're looking for change. Now you say, "Well, we're talking about it on the radio." Yeah, that's a force multiplier, and we will, right? And the fact that AFA also has AFR, that helps get it done.
But again, the point is to get the change and to get the companies back to doing the things that cause better returns for the shareholders, not to essentially be a publicity machine.
Rob West: Well, talking about that force multiplier, Jerry, what would be the implications if this was normal for every major Christian university and ministry like AFA?
Jerry Boyer: We—I could take an early retirement and go on to do something else rather than correcting this, because let me tell you, our vote counts—I mean, we come in with a lot of victory stories, but our vote counts are terrible. I mean, we'll come in with something like, "Hey, we want you to look and see whether it's risky to pay for puberty blockers," or whether it's risky to have so much IP at risk in China, or whether it's risky to discriminate to have racial quotas when the Supreme Court has said you shouldn't. All these issues, whether it's risky to discriminate against Christians in ways that the head of the EEOC has said is probably illegal.
And we get 2% support, and I'll tell you why: the other side is paying attention, they know about us, they write about us, they're abuzz about us, and they vote against us. Our side isn't. The—our Christian brothers and sisters are voting against us. Now, I'm just writing an article right now in response to something that was in the Harvard Law School forum yesterday that says, "Oh, well, they get terrible vote counts." And my answer is, "Yeah, so what does it say about your side that we get terrible vote counts and the companies still change their minds?"
I think it says that our—our ideas are better. So imagine if instead of getting 2%, we get 20%. We have truth and numbers, because 20% is actually good in this world. Well, that's game over and we all get on to doing something else.
Rob West: Yeah, wow. And Walker, you know, AFA has been about cultural engagement, standing for biblical values since your grandfather founded this ministry some 40-plus years ago. This is a new approach, but it really is going after the same end game, right?
Walker Wildmon: Yeah, that's exactly right. I actually, speaking of articles, Jerry, I just finished writing an article for our magazine talking about corporate engagement, and the first paragraph I reference a 1978 meeting in Tupelo, Mississippi, small-town Mississippi, where the Sears CEO flew down and ultimately drove to Tupelo to meet with Don Wildmon, who was about a year into his ministry and organization, AFA—at that time, it was the National Federation for Decency.
And so my grandfather was meeting with a major corporate retail executive just a year after his start because they wanted to hear what he had to say, and he was pressuring them to not sponsor horrible television. So here we are nearly 50 years later, and still speaking truth into America's corporate boardrooms.
Rob West: That's encouraging, Jerry, isn't it?
Jerry Boyer: It is, but now with the legal mechanism, we don't have to try to get them to go to Don Wildmon's living room. We're able to get into their boardroom using the existing systems that's in place by learning the rules and doing the paperwork. This is—yeah, basically, this is cultural renewal through accurate, timely paperwork, because that's sometimes what it's about: it's diligence and paperwork.
Because our arguments pretty much speak for themselves, which is why even though we only get 1.5% or 2% support on our proposals, we've got a 50% roughly success rate on getting corporate change, because truth is powerful, and because the other side got way over its skis, and these corporations realize that they were had in many cases.
Rob West: Well, and the interesting thing is that that paperwork is sometimes so complex and difficult to understand, that's what they use to keep people out. But kudos to you and your team and Susan and everybody there at Boyer Research to wade through the mire of the paperwork to actually get it done, Jerry.
Jerry Boyer: And to AFA for putting its shares and lending their voice to us and putting their shares in play.
Rob West: Yeah, absolutely. Gentlemen, so thankful for you. We appreciate your time today.
Walker Wildmon: Thanks, Rob.
Jerry Boyer: God bless you. Bye.
Rob West: All right, that's Jerry Boyer, Walker Wildmon. We're talking corporate engagement. By the way, folks, if you were a part of our Shareathon this week and you gave a gift of stock, well, AFA's going to look at it before it's sold and say, "Can we engage on it? Is there an issue we want to talk to this company about now that we're a shareholder?" If not, we'll sell it and use it for Kingdom advancement. If there is, we'll engage first, then sell it. What a great opportunity.
Big thanks to my team today: Rich, Michael, Devin, Patty, Pat, and everybody here at FaithFi that makes this possible. Come back and join us tomorrow. If you want to support us, go to faithfi.com/give. God bless you.
Announcer: The views and opinions expressed in this broadcast may not necessarily reflect those of the American Family Association or American Family Radio.
Rob West: Having an emergency fund is great, but how can you ensure it's there when you really need it? I am Rob West. It's easy to set aside money for a rainy day, but what happens when we start dipping into that fund for things that aren't truly emergencies? Today, we'll consider three questions you should ask before dipping into your emergency fund to ensure that the money's there when you need it. And then it's on to your calls at 800-525-7000. This is Faith and Finance on American Family Radio, biblical wisdom for your financial decisions.
Well, the Bible is filled with pointed messages that we should take to heart and memorize so they pop into our heads when we need them most. One such verse is Proverbs 21:20, which, as you might expect, we cite fairly often here on the program. It reads: "Precious treasure and oil are in a wise man's dwelling, but a foolish man devours them."
It's a warning against spending everything we earn, calling it foolish because it leaves us unprepared for the inevitable mishaps of life on Earth. Most of us have experienced a financial emergency at some point in our lives. They may be relatively minor—a tire goes flat—or they could be significant—a huge medical bill hits. But whether minor or major, we all run into unexpected expenditures. Whether it's our cars breaking down or a random house repair, we can avoid stressful times through some financial preparation.
An emergency fund is one of the best tools around in financial management because while it's important to have a strong offense in building wealth, you equally need a strong defense. You want an introductory emergency fund, generally between $1,000 and $1,500, that sufficiently covers most minor emergencies. However, once you've paid off all your debt—besides your mortgage—and you're receiving your company's match, if you have one, it's crucial that you increase that emergency fund to three to six months' worth of living expenses to protect yourself from a more significant financial crisis, like a job loss. This larger fund acts as a safeguard, helping you avoid unnecessary debt when major financial disruptions occur.
However, having an emergency fund is only half the battle; the other half is knowing when it's appropriate to use it. It's easy to dip into those savings for non-emergencies, but doing so can leave you financially vulnerable. So, how do you determine if an expense qualifies as an emergency? Here are three questions to ask before tapping into your emergency fund:
Question 1: Is it urgent? Does something need to be fixed or bought right now, or can we wait and save up for it? If a so-called emergency can wait, it most likely doesn't fall into the emergency category. If you're unsure whether something constitutes an emergency, try waiting 30 days before using your emergency fund. Obviously, that doesn't work if it's a car repair job and you only have one car, but if you have two cars, maybe it can wait until you've saved up something to put toward the repair.
Question number 2: Is this necessary? Sadly, our purchases and debt struggles demonstrate that many people struggle with discerning between a need and a want. For instance, buying a new car is a want, not a need. If you need transportation now, opt for a cheaper used vehicle and save up for a more reliable one over time.
Question number 3: Is this really an unexpected expense? There's a huge difference between getting fired and forgetting to save up for Christmas presents. Birthdays and Christmas happen at the same time every year, so these are not considered unexpected expenses, no matter how poorly we've prepared.
These questions will prevent you from using emergency funds on things that don't fall into that emergency category. If we can honestly answer yes to each one, then go ahead and use the fund.
But does that mean you should just wave your debit card at it and make it go away? Not at all. You still have to be careful, even when emergency fund spending is justified. Make sure you spend as little as possible. Use the car example again: you may have an accident and need major repairs that are not covered by insurance. Hopefully, you've been saving for a new car anyway; you can then use some or all of that money for repairs or replacing the vehicle, if need be. That will minimize the hit on your emergency fund.
Also, before using emergency funds, take a serious look at your budget to find any areas you can trim. Can you temporarily reduce regular spending to make your emergency money go further? That will also help you rebuild your emergency fund as quickly as possible and back up to the ideal three to six months of living expenses.
And one final and important note: you always want to have sufficient savings so that in times of scarcity, you can still give generously and save what you need to, and live with peace of mind.
I hope that's helpful. All right, your calls are next: 800-525-7000. We'll be right back.
SEGMENT 2
Rob West: Great to have you with us today on Faith and Finance here on American Family Radio. I'm Rob West. Well, we're back to regular programming. We said we would. We said just three days for our Fall Share and now here we are back to all of the programs you count on, and we're so thankful to be able in this hour to talk about managing God's money God's way. But just as Tim shared a moment ago during that break, I will add my sentiment as well: we are overwhelmed at your response. Thank you, thank you, thank you for so many of you who stepped in during our Fall Shareathon to say, "I want to be a part of this. I want to know that you're going to continue, that you're going to proclaim truth, that you're going to stand firm on God's word in the culture, that you're going to be there when I need you most."
And we've had over 16,000 gifts come in, which is just amazing. I know they're continuing and there's still an opportunity. If you want to be a part of our Fall Share and you missed it—maybe you've been traveling, you've just been busy this week, you're like, "Wait a minute. Share happened? I missed it?"—no, it's not too late. Just head over to afr.net and we would love for you to jump in even now. We'll continue to see folks jumping on board through the weekend, but just know that we are incredibly grateful. It's such a privilege to serve you and we know that you're with us and it's an enormous encouragement to watch this just massive response.
But we are back to regular programming now and we want to dive into your questions, and we're going to do that here in just a moment. So if there's something on your mind—by the way, your generosity I think is just evidence of your desire to be found faithful in managing God's money, and that's what we're all about here on this show in particular. You know, we recognize faithfulness is faithful to what God has placed in my hands, right? It's each according to his or her ability. Remember we read in God's word, it's not according to what you don't have, it's according to what you have.
And so the question is, you know, what do I do with what God has given me today? What does faithfulness look like right now? Not when the portfolio reaches a certain number, or I get the bonus, or I sell the business, or I get married, or, you know, whatever it is. What does faithfulness look like today with what has been placed in my hands right now? That's what we're trying to think through, and we've got to get all the big pieces right, right? You've got to put the big rocks in first, and then you add the small rocks and the sand and the water. You've seen the illustration.
What are those big rocks? Well, it's understanding that God owns everything, that He's the master of the universe, He's the creator of everything, and everything belongs to Him. The Earth is the Lord's and the fullness thereof, and all who dwell therein. That's us. He owns our bodies, the breath in our lungs, the resources we have, our time, our talents—it all comes from Him. He's a good Father; He bestows upon us good gifts. And so He owns it all.
So what you and I have been entrusted, however little or however much—and He gives differing amounts, and our goal is faithfulness. Remember, we can't be faithful with much unless we're faithful with a little to begin with. And so we see money then, not as a treasure—Jesus is our treasure—we see money as a tool. And it's an enormous, powerful force for good when we hold it loosely, when we live with contentment, when we don't find our identity in our money, when we use it to provide and enjoy with our families and friends, when we give it away to love our neighbor. That's God's perspective; that's the heart of God for us. It's not what He wants from us; it's what He wants for us.
And so on this program, we want to dive into those very specific questions that you're wrestling with in your financial life today. Perhaps it's debt-related, maybe it's investing, maybe it's spending—you're just trying to make that budget balance. Perhaps for you, it's giving generously; you want to know how you can do more. Maybe you're wondering, "Can I trust God to provide?" or "What is the right way for me to give? How do I maximize my giving?" Whatever you're wrestling with today, we'd love to hear about it.
800-525-7000. That's a different number than we've been giving this whole week as we've been in our Fall Share. This is the number to come in to our team to be on this program today to ask your financial question. Again, 800-525-7000. By the way, that's a really important phone number for us. It's pretty nostalgic for our team because this number, 800-525-7000, goes all the way back to the late Larry Burkett. This was his phone number back in the day on Money Matters when he started in the '70s and '80s, and we're so thrilled that we are able to use that number still today. So it means a lot.
800-525-7000. Any financial question today, go ahead and call right now. Let's dive in. We're going to begin in Texas today. Will, you'll be first up. Go ahead.
Will: Oh, thank you. First of all, I want to let you know that my wife and I have been investing in AFR for over 10 years on a monthly basis. It's been a blessing for us.
Rob West: Wow. Incredible. Well, thank you.
Will: We really believe in AFR. My question is, on TV, I see some really—what I consider—strong Christian leaders recommending investing in precious metals: gold and silver. What are your thoughts? On the other side, I do have a place where I can invest this $20,000–$30,000 and get about 6% interest. I know that's pretty solid. So I just don't—I've heard different things about investing in precious metals. What are your thoughts?
Rob West: Yes, sir. Well, first of all, thank you for your faithfulness in giving to American Family Radio. We're grateful, and you stand alongside thousands, tens of thousands of others, and this ministry would not be here without you.
My thoughts on gold: it can be a good investment for diversification, but I wouldn't recommend making it a major part of someone's portfolio. I think gold is better viewed as a way to protect and diversify wealth rather than to build wealth over the long term.
And so what does that mean? How much gold should someone own? I like to start with what I'll call a 5% "forever" allocation. That would be the allocation I would make for physical gold, if you're okay with that, where you would take possession of it, you would secure it and store it—maybe it's in a safe deposit box, maybe it's in your home in a fireproof safe—but a 5% allocation of your total investable assets that you're going to buy and hold forever, and plan to pass down.
And then if you wanted to dial it up to, let's say, 10%, I would consider—and this isn't a hard and fast rule, this is just a starting point, a suggestion—I would dial that second 5% up through what's called an Exchange Traded Fund (ETF). So like GLD; there's probably half a dozen of them that are the major ones, GLD is the biggest. It trades like a stock, but essentially you're buying the spot price of gold, and GLD is going to move in lockstep with the price of gold. There's actually real gold they have in vaults behind it, but the benefit is you don't have to take possession of it, but you still benefit from the overall rise or fall of gold as you buy that Exchange Traded Fund.
And if you put that physical allocation of 5% together with the ETF of 5%, you make a total of 10%. That's, in my mind, an appropriate allocation. But the idea that we would have a gold ETF and put 20, 30, 50, 70% of our assets in gold—I just don't like that approach. Why? There's no income. Unlike dividend-paying stocks or bonds, it doesn't generate interest or dividends. Price volatility: it can experience substantial declines and remain depressed for years; it has more volatility than stocks and bonds. You've got the storage and the insurance, the dealer markups—for those reasons, I just like the core of your portfolio being properly diversified in stocks or bonds, and using gold as a hedge and a diversification tool with that 5%, max 10% allocation.
Does that make sense?
Will: It makes a lot of sense. I sure appreciate you. Thank you.
Rob West: All right, Will. God bless you. Hey, if you would like a suggestion on somebody that could help you purchase that 5% physical allocation, hang on the line, our team would be happy to help you with that.
This is Faith and Finance on American Family Radio. I'm Rob West. We're taking your questions today: 800-525-7000. That's 800-525-7000. Call right now and we'll be right back.
SEGMENT 3
Rob West: Thanks for joining us today on Faith and Finance here on American Family Radio. I'm Rob West. We're taking your calls and questions today, 800-525-7000. Again, that number 800-525-7000. We would love to hear what's going on in your minds today, financially, help you think about it through the lens of biblical wisdom. Again, that number 800-525-7000. We do have a few lines open, so our team is standing by, we would love to take those calls right now.
Let's go to Tennessee. Hi, Karen, how can I help?
Karen: Hi, Rob. Thank you so much for taking my call, and bear with me, I'm not sure if I can phrase my question right, maybe know something more because I don't know anything about this, but wanted your opinion on some kind of investments like with insurance. I don't really understand what that's going all about, but we're supposed to be going to talk to somebody about something like that, and I thought if I could get some understanding about it before I go, it'd be better.
Rob West: Yes. So life insurance—are you talking about investing it like as in, you know, something called a viatical settlement where you have a policy and you're trying to sell it to someone, or is it just life insurance for you to offset the risk that would be created by one of you, you or your husband, passing away and that income going away? Give me a little bit more color commentary on what you think you're going to hear more about.
Karen: It's not to buy personal insurance for ourselves. It's going to be some kind of an investment, but like I said, I don't know anything about it, so I was just thinking it might be something to find out before we go in there.
Rob West: Yeah. Yeah, so you may be hearing about—and maybe you go hear it out and then call me back, and I'd love to weigh in once you have a little more information—but let me just give you some scenarios here. He may be talking about, or she, investing in what are called life settlements, which is sometimes called the secondary market life insurance investments. And here's how they work: you purchase an existing life insurance policy from someone else, the investor pays the policy's ongoing premiums—so that's you—and then when the insured person dies, the investor receives the death benefit, and the profit depends on the purchase price, the total premiums you pay, and how long the insured person lives.
The risks are, you know, you don't know when you'll receive the money, you may have to keep paying premiums for years, investments can be difficult to sell, there's fees and regulatory risk, there's even sometimes fraud. You know, so there are risks, certainly. But you also may be, in terms of pooled life settlement investments, so it may not be an individual policy—many investors will pool their money to purchase multiple policies, so it's basically like a fund. That fund purchases life insurance policies, and again, the fund pays the premiums, and then when the individual insureds pass away, the fund collects the death benefit and then distributes it.
The reason I'm not a big fan of these is they tend to be more complicated, your money could be tied up for years, the returns are very unpredictable, the ongoing premiums reduce the profits—again, depending on how long you have to pay out—and, you know, there could be poor fund management as well in there. So, generally speaking, I'm not a big fan of these. I'd probably stay away and do something that's a little more plain vanilla, if you will, and just invest in stocks and bonds and maybe some gold, maybe some real estate. But life settlements are not my favorite tool for the reasons I mentioned. But perhaps you go hear this person out, and then maybe we talk further.
Karen: Okay. All right. Well, that helps a lot to kind of have an idea of what that might look like. So, thank you for your help, and we'll see where this goes.
Rob West: All right, Karen. Thank you for calling today. If I can serve you in any way, don't hesitate to reach out.
800-525-7000's the number to call. We do have some lines open today. We're beyond Shareathon, and we're so thankful for so many of you who jumped in. Amazing to see your response. And, you know, as a listener-supported ministry, it is essential these few days in the fall and the spring that you jump in with us. We can't do this without you, but we're also glad to get back to regular programming and talk about, in this case, how we can help you manage God's money.
So whatever that question is as you give, save, or spend, we'd love to hear from you. 800-525-7000. Call right now, we've got some lines open. Let's go to Arkansas. Alan, go ahead.
Alan: Good morning, Rob. This is Alan, and I just want to thank you, first of all, for your work in the Shareathon. And then, I know we've talked before, and my wife and I are on an extremely limited income, and so when they have the add-ons, I love the add-ons. And it seems like the last three Shareathons, the only time I happen to get on the radio, they're having a Shareathon. So the first one was with you and I think Wesley, and there was a $100, so I did two $25s and got $100 added on both those. Well, then yesterday they had the one with $250 ones, and anyway, I ended up giving y'all over $1,000 for my little city, so I was thrilled to death.
Rob West: Wow! Oh, Alan, what you're describing is the joy of giving. And, you know, that's right in line with what we see in God's Word. You know, it says not reluctantly or under compulsion; God loves a cheerful giver. And I love to hear the joy of the Lord in your voice as you're describing these gifts and what it means to be able to give as unto the Lord and share with a ministry like AFR doing work in the name of Jesus. It's just happy-making.
Randy Alcorn, the author, talks about this verse that we see where Jesus says it is more blessed to give than to receive. And Randy made a point the other day when we were chatting about something, he said, "You know, Rob, that word 'blessed' in that verse, in the English language, could most closely be translated 'happy-making.'" And that's what you're talking about here. It is more happy-making to give than to receive. And you've been a recipient of that.
And we have as well. And so, Alan, just know on behalf of our entire team here, we're so thankful for you and your wife and what you've done to be a part of this. You've gone the extra mile, you've given—it sounds like even sacrificially—and that means a lot.
Alan: Well, Lord bless you. We love y'all.
Rob West: All right, we love you too, Alan. Thanks for calling today, and thanks for giving. Lord bless you, call anytime.
Well, folks, that's what it's all about. It's a big family here at AFR, and we love serving you and encouraging you. And when we come back, we'll talk more about your finances and how you can see it through the lens of your faith. Stay with us.
SEGMENT 4
Rob West: Coming up in the next segment, Jerry Boyer and Walker Wildmon will be here. Jerry is our resident economist. He always brings some insightful news and information about what's happening in the markets and our economy. And, well, the Nasdaq is rising today as tech shares are rebounding following the sell-off yesterday. We are green across the board—not much, modestly higher on the Dow Jones, the S&P 500, and the Nasdaq.
We'll get Jerry's take on what's happening right now with the markets. We'll also get both of those gentlemen who lead AFA Action's work in corporate engagement, as they're engaging with, talking to, the biggest companies in the world, advocating for religious values and equal treatment, in most cases, of Christians. Whether it's through their matching programs, or maybe where they've gotten off track and they're funding things that have nothing to do with their core business that are antithetical to Christian values—so many different conversations going on.
And in this segment, they update us on what they've been working on, which is always fascinating and incredibly encouraging. And so we'll hear from Walker and Jerry in the next segment. In the meantime, we're going to get to as many calls as we can.
If you have a question, something happening in your financial life today, we'd love to hear about it. 800-525-7000. Any financial question as you give, save, and spend: 800-525-7000. You can call right now.
Let's go out to Texas. Hi, Jill, how can I help you?
Jill: Hello. I have $5,000 just sitting in my account. I have a 401(k), I have CDs, I have money invested in the stock market, but I and—I just turned 60 yesterday. So I just have $5,000. What should I do with it? 'Cause it's not making any money in the bank.
Rob West: Mm, yeah, that's a great question, Jill. Okay, and is this the extent of what I would call your emergency fund, your emergency savings, or do you have other savings as well?
Jill: I have other savings. This is just extra money. I don't have any debt except for my house. So should I put it towards my principal on my house? Where should I put it?
Rob West: Sure. Tell me about the savings you have currently, apart from this $5,000. How much do you have in emergency savings?
Jill: About $20,000.
Rob West: Okay, excellent. Well done. And is that earning interest?
Jill: Yes.
Rob West: Okay, what do you think that's earning, do you know, roughly?
Jill: I think it's 4%.
Rob West: Okay, yeah, that's great. And what do you spend in a typical month, all in? Just a rough estimate.
Jill: Um, all in about $3,000.
Rob West: Okay, yeah. So, you know, you said you had $20,000, and $3,000 a month, you've got about a little more than six months' worth of expenses there, almost seven months' worth of expenses there. That's great. That's right where I would want you to be.
So you've got a couple of options here. You could add this $5,000 to that at 4%—that's not a bad interest rate—and get yourself up over seven months' worth of expenses. That would be one option, and just leave it there, and, you know, there's nothing wrong with having a little more liquid reserves.
A second option might be if you have a particular savings goal outside of just your emergency funds for the unexpected, you could put it toward a particular savings goal. If you knew you needed to replace a car, you know, sometime in the near future; you had some appliances that you knew, you know, were at the end of their life; or, you know, you had a roof that you knew needed to be repaired or something like that, you could stick it in savings for that.
The third option is we could pay off debt. And so did you say your only debt is a home mortgage, is that right?
Jill: Correct.
Rob West: Okay, and what is the interest rate on that mortgage, do you know?
Jill: Um, 5.75%.
Rob West: Okay. Yeah, so that's not a bad idea either. If you don't want to add it to your emergency fund, essentially the moment you pay it toward that mortgage, you're going to get the equivalent of a guaranteed return on that money equal to the interest you'd no longer be paying. And so to be able to get a guaranteed 5.75%, you're not going to find that anywhere else. So that's not a bad idea either. I love the idea that you would, you know, just go ahead and put it against the house and just move more quickly toward paying it off, and again, you know, you'd receive this 5.75% return because you'd no longer be paying 5.75% interest on that $5,000.
Do you have the funds to make, or have you already made, your Roth contribution for this year?
Jill: You know, I don't even know that.
Rob West: Okay. 'Cause that would be another option if you don't have those funds set aside, and/or you haven't already made that contribution, maybe this is the money you use to fund that Roth for this year, which is always a good idea because now we get that money into a tax-free environment. You've already paid tax on it, so it's sitting in your checking account, you put it into your Roth, and we invest it with maybe your other investments that you've already got, and now it's growing tax-free. And maybe it becomes something more significant down the road that you could tap into if you needed it, you know, in the future.
Jill: Okay.
Rob West: So I think those are really the options here. Let me just repeat them:
1. We use it to get up to seven months, almost eight months' expenses in emergency savings by adding it to the 4% savings.
2. We put it into a separate savings because we attach it to a particular goal or expense we know we have coming up in the future.
3. We put it toward the mortgage and get a guaranteed return on it at 5.75%.
4. Our fourth option is we hang on to it, or we go ahead and use it for our 2026 Roth contribution.
I think any of those could be a great choice.
Jill: Okay. Let me ask you this: so on the second one, where do you suggest placing it?
Rob West: I'm sorry, I lost you there for a second. Where do I suggest what?
Jill: The second choice, putting it in another savings, where would that be?
Rob West: Yeah, a good question. So you could just do it with the same place you're at right now that's paying 4%. You know, another option if you want to, you know, have it in multiple places: our friends at AdelFi Christian Banking is a great option. They're paying 4% right now in their money market. You could go to faithfi.com/banking. That's faithfi.com/banking.
More and more of our listeners are finding that they want to do business with companies that share their values, and AdelFi Christian Banking is the largest Christian credit union in the country, and they're just doing some amazing things. I mean, part of their profits, if you will, go to fund Christian ministries doing amazing work in the name of Jesus. And so that could be a great option. You could look locally at other options, but the simplest would be you just put it right where you already have your existing savings earning 4%, and we just add this $5,000 to it, but maybe you earmark it for something you know is coming up down the road.
Jill: I like going to FaithFi and looking.
Rob West: Okay, yeah, great. So faithfi.com/banking is how you can learn more about our friends at AdelFi Christian Banking. They're wonderful friends, they serve a lot of our listeners, and they would be delighted to assist you. Again, faithfi.com/banking or 800-634-3228.
We'll be right back with much more after this.
SEGMENT 5
Rob West: Well, as Tim just said, we are so incredibly grateful for the amazing generosity, the outpouring of support by so many of you to support the work of American Family Radio. More than 16,000 of you jumped in over the last few days. That's just overwhelming and encouraging to us, and you're making this happen. And because listener-supported AFR doesn't happen without you. And Walker, it's—it's just so fun to see people respond and know even though we're in these four walls, there's so many out there that are being impacted by this ministry, right?
Walker Wildmon: Yeah, that's right. It's very encouraging. We love getting the phone calls and seeing the thousands of people that are affected and benefit from American Family Radio, and we aren't here without our financial supporters, because we're listener-supported, and it's just so such an encouraging time of year. And so thanks to everyone who called in, who went online at afr.net and donated. We appreciate you, and as Rob and I promised, we're back to normal programming. So you don't have to hear us give out the number anymore, at least not now.
Rob West: That's exactly right. Well, Jerry Boyer and Walker Wildmon are here with me in this final segment today, and Walker, you know, one of the things we talk about during Share is all of the incredible ministries going on under the roof of American Family Association that are being funded through every gift, and one of those is this idea of corporate engagement through AFA Action, where as investors, AFA is using its influence as a shareholder to encourage companies to make better decisions, to act responsibly, to give equal treatment to Christians, and the list goes on. And the exciting thing is those companies are listening, they're taking note, and in many cases, they're making changes. And Jerry Boyer's with us as well. Jerry, tell us what you've all been working on lately.
Jerry Boyer: Well, we've shifted now to paying a lot of attention to healthcare insurance providers, because when we talk to companies last year with AFA—for example, talking to Walmart—to say, "Hey, are you paying for puberty blockers for the children of employees?" and Walmart said, "Actually, we're not. And here's our—you know, here's our documentation." We don't know when they switched. We've been talking to them for a couple of years, and we don't make the companies like admit that we caused them to change. That's—you know, we don't need the victory march; we just need the victory. And they—and Walmart, you know, moved in the right direction.
But a lot of companies said, "Well, we just do whatever Aetna or Humana or UnitedHealthcare tell us to do. They're our healthcare providers." And first of all, we say they don't tell you to do anything. They have a base package, but you're in charge of deciding what's your own healthcare package. But then we thought, "Well, maybe we need to talk to those other companies." And we did. We talked to one of them yesterday to say, "What—you know, do you cover puberty blockers or sexual reassignment treatments for children?"
And they said, "Well, you know, we—we mostly and our biggest client base is Medicare, so that's older people, so for the most part, you know, that doesn't apply." I said, "Oh, okay. Well, that—for the most part. What about for—for the less part? Are you saying there's nothing in there like that? And what about your private clients? And what about Medicare?" So we're just like digging in, and they said, "Well, we offer it where it's legally required."
And then our proponent in this case said, "Well, and when it isn't legally required, what do you do? And if—are you saying that when it's not legally required, you don't offer it? Great. Put that in writing, we'll be out of your hair."
So that's a lot of—so a lot of what we're focusing on right now is going sort of to the body of the Hydra. All these companies that do puberty blocker type treatments because it's part of the base package of the providers, to go to the providers. They're the deep pockets or likely to get sued when something goes wrong, and talking to them. So that's kind of our focus—that was our focus this week.
Rob West: Mm, yeah. Walker, it's—it's so encouraging to hear these companies taking note and actually making changes in some cases.
Walker Wildmon: Yeah, you know, part of the problem—part of the solution, rather, is just showing up. And Jerry knows this all well in that if Christians and conservatives and voices of sanity don't show up to meetings, don't show up, you know, to shareholder engagement opportunities, then it's—it's a—it's a certainty that the leadership are not going to hear what's going on. They're not going to hear our side, if you will, or in this instance, the truth.
And so what we've been doing over the last couple of years with Jerry and his team is we've just been showing up, and that's honestly half the battle. And so a lot of these corporate boardrooms, a lot of these executives and these, you know, counsel counselors, they don't hear our perspective often. They live kind of in this bubble, and they hear a lot of the leftist talking points, they have their pronouns on their email signature, and they hear us, and we're like, "Hey, you guys just need to get out of this, you know, left-wing nonsense and just focus on your business." And for a lot of them, that's a breath of fresh air.
Rob West: Yeah, no doubt about it. Jerry, I—I have to believe it's refreshing for many of these companies when you come in and they discover this is not about you getting clicks or getting them on the front page of any newspaper. This is really about you opening up a dialogue, and if they're willing to engage in that and—and make sensible change, then we move on, right?
Jerry Boyer: There's sometimes a sigh of relief where we say, "Look, none of our people need to give a speech at your annual meeting. We're all busy. We would rather you just make a change and we move on with life." And that is not typically what happens. There are a lot of people whose business model is getting on to—getting into the annual meeting, getting on the ballot, giving a speech, and then going out to their donor base to say, "Look, we gave a speech."
And I've seen this from some of them, and even some of the conservative groups, "Look, we made, you know, Apple's Tim Cook, you know, sound foolish." We're not there to—we're—we're there to get them to stop sounding foolish. You know, we're not there to trip them up. We're there to put their feet on the right path.
So we repeatedly emphasize that if the proposal goes on the ballot and somebody gives a speech, then that's an F. Something failed because we're not looking for publicity; we're looking for change. Now you say, "Well, we're talking about it on the radio." Yeah, that's a force multiplier, and we will, right? And the fact that AFA also has AFR, that helps get it done.
But again, the point is to get the change and to get the companies back to doing the things that cause better returns for the shareholders, not to essentially be a publicity machine.
Rob West: Well, talking about that force multiplier, Jerry, what would be the implications if this was normal for every major Christian university and ministry like AFA?
Jerry Boyer: We—I could take an early retirement and go on to do something else rather than correcting this, because let me tell you, our vote counts—I mean, we come in with a lot of victory stories, but our vote counts are terrible. I mean, we'll come in with something like, "Hey, we want you to look and see whether it's risky to pay for puberty blockers," or whether it's risky to have so much IP at risk in China, or whether it's risky to discriminate to have racial quotas when the Supreme Court has said you shouldn't. All these issues, whether it's risky to discriminate against Christians in ways that the head of the EEOC has said is probably illegal.
And we get 2% support, and I'll tell you why: the other side is paying attention, they know about us, they write about us, they're abuzz about us, and they vote against us. Our side isn't. The—our Christian brothers and sisters are voting against us. Now, I'm just writing an article right now in response to something that was in the Harvard Law School forum yesterday that says, "Oh, well, they get terrible vote counts." And my answer is, "Yeah, so what does it say about your side that we get terrible vote counts and the companies still change their minds?"
I think it says that our—our ideas are better. So imagine if instead of getting 2%, we get 20%. We have truth and numbers, because 20% is actually good in this world. Well, that's game over and we all get on to doing something else.
Rob West: Yeah, wow. And Walker, you know, AFA has been about cultural engagement, standing for biblical values since your grandfather founded this ministry some 40-plus years ago. This is a new approach, but it really is going after the same end game, right?
Walker Wildmon: Yeah, that's exactly right. I actually, speaking of articles, Jerry, I just finished writing an article for our magazine talking about corporate engagement, and the first paragraph I reference a 1978 meeting in Tupelo, Mississippi, small-town Mississippi, where the Sears CEO flew down and ultimately drove to Tupelo to meet with Don Wildmon, who was about a year into his ministry and organization, AFA—at that time, it was the National Federation for Decency.
And so my grandfather was meeting with a major corporate retail executive just a year after his start because they wanted to hear what he had to say, and he was pressuring them to not sponsor horrible television. So here we are nearly 50 years later, and still speaking truth into America's corporate boardrooms.
Rob West: That's encouraging, Jerry, isn't it?
Jerry Boyer: It is, but now with the legal mechanism, we don't have to try to get them to go to Don Wildmon's living room. We're able to get into their boardroom using the existing systems that's in place by learning the rules and doing the paperwork. This is—yeah, basically, this is cultural renewal through accurate, timely paperwork, because that's sometimes what it's about: it's diligence and paperwork.
Because our arguments pretty much speak for themselves, which is why even though we only get 1.5% or 2% support on our proposals, we've got a 50% roughly success rate on getting corporate change, because truth is powerful, and because the other side got way over its skis, and these corporations realize that they were had in many cases.
Rob West: Well, and the interesting thing is that that paperwork is sometimes so complex and difficult to understand, that's what they use to keep people out. But kudos to you and your team and Susan and everybody there at Boyer Research to wade through the mire of the paperwork to actually get it done, Jerry.
Jerry Boyer: And to AFA for putting its shares and lending their voice to us and putting their shares in play.
Rob West: Yeah, absolutely. Gentlemen, so thankful for you. We appreciate your time today.
Walker Wildmon: Thanks, Rob.
Jerry Boyer: God bless you. Bye.
Rob West: All right, that's Jerry Boyer, Walker Wildmon. We're talking corporate engagement. By the way, folks, if you were a part of our Shareathon this week and you gave a gift of stock, well, AFA's going to look at it before it's sold and say, "Can we engage on it? Is there an issue we want to talk to this company about now that we're a shareholder?" If not, we'll sell it and use it for Kingdom advancement. If there is, we'll engage first, then sell it. What a great opportunity.
Big thanks to my team today: Rich, Michael, Devin, Patty, Pat, and everybody here at FaithFi that makes this possible. Come back and join us tomorrow. If you want to support us, go to faithfi.com/give. God bless you.
Announcer: The views and opinions expressed in this broadcast may not necessarily reflect those of the American Family Association or American Family Radio.
Having an emergency fund is great, but how can we ensure the money is there when we really need it? Setting aside money for a rainy day is a wise practice, but what happens when we start dipping into those means for things that aren't truly emergencies? On this Faith & Finance on AFR, Rob West considers three questions we should ask before taking money from our emergency fund. Then, it’s on to calls.
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