Rob West What if stewardship is bigger than simply managing the money and possessions God has placed in your hands? I am Rob West. Scripture tells us that God owns it all, and that changes not only how we view our finances, but also how we think about our role in his creation. Today, Jason Myhre joins us to explore a bigger vision of stewardship and what it means for the way we invest. And we have lots of great listener questions ahead, but we won't be taking live calls today because this program is pre-recorded. This is Faith and Finance on American Family Radio, biblical wisdom for your financial decisions.
Rob West Well, our guest today is Jason Myhre, executive director of the Eventide Center for Faith and Investing, an educational initiative of Eventide Investments. Jason, always a pleasure to have you with us.
Jason Myhre Hey, Rob, pleasure's all mine.
Rob West Jason, it's so easy to forget that we're stewards and what that actually means. So, what is your definition and why is it so difficult, do you believe, Jason, for some believers to grasp this concept?
Jason Myhre For me, in my own words, I would say that stewardship is the idea that nothing in our possession is actually ours. Instead, God is the rightful owner of all things. There's a lot of verses that put this clearly, but my favorite is Psalm 24:1, which says, "The earth is the Lord's and everything in it." And the Hebrew there for everything is everything. This makes sense because God is the creator of all things, therefore he is the rightful owner of all things. And so stewardship is a way of seeing the things that are in our possession as actually belonging to God. The things in our possession are really God's things and he has simply entrusted them to us. We are managers of God's things or stewards of God's things.
And I think the reason this is so important for us is that it can really free us from a lot of the innate selfishness and acquisitiveness that is so endemic to our lives after the fall. All of us are prone to grasp after things and to hold on to them very tightly, but with this stewardship mentality, it can help us be more content with the things that we have and even open our hands toward others in generosity to those that have needs. Stewardship can be this liberating power in our lives over money, which can be such a powerful force. When we live in that freedom, I also think that we're putting on display God's power in our lives and the reality of God and his kingdom.
Rob West I love that picture, and clearly stewardship then can transform our vision and our lives. But you make the point, Jason, that many times our vision of stewardship is perhaps too small. Explain that.
Jason Myhre In practice, we tend to see stewardship in the following way. We'll ask ourselves what has God entrusted to us—what has God entrusted to me, Jason Meyer, and what has God entrusted to you, Rob West? Then we take stock of the stuff in our lives, our money, and possessions. We say, "Oh, I've got this much money in the bank and I have a house, I have a couple of cars, I have some investments, etc." And so we tend to understand stewardship in terms of these specific things that God has placed into our hands and to our immediate possession. All of that is legitimate and valid, and God has entrusted us these things. But I would call that stewardship with a lower case s or small s—stewardship over the things in our immediate possession. Biblically, there is a much bigger sense of stewardship that I think we have to come to see and understand, and I call that stewardship with a capital S.
Rob West All right. Give us a preview. We've got just about 45 seconds until our break when we can unpack this more fully, but what is that bigger stewardship?
Jason Myhre This is what I would call the mind-expanding stewardship. It is simply that God has actually entrusted to us, to humanity, stewardship over his entire creation. We're stewards not only over these specific things that are in our lives we can place our hands on or have access to, but God has actually entrusted his entire creation to our stewardship. We can actually see this larger sense of stewardship right in the beginning of the Bible, in the first chapter of Genesis.
Rob West That's powerful. We're going to unpack that. What does Genesis actually say? What is this larger sense of stewardship and what does that actually mean for us? And how does that apply to our investing? All of that and more coming up with Jason Myhre. Jason is director of the Eventide Center for Faith and Investing and we're talking about a bigger vision of stewardship today. Much more just around the corner. Stay with us. We'll be right back.
SEGMENT 2
Rob West So glad to have you with us today on Faith and Finance on American Family Radio. I'm Rob West. Joining me today is my good friend Jason Myhre, executive director of the Eventide Center for Faith and Investing, an educational initiative of Eventide Asset Management. And today, we've been exploring what it looks like to embrace a bigger vision of stewardship. Just before the break, Jason was sharing with us that, yes, we're stewards of everything that God has created and that small s stewardship is perhaps what you might typically think about. You are a steward of your car and your house and maybe you have a 401(k), but what about a bigger vision, maybe that capital S stewardship? If God has entrusted to us stewardship of his entire creation, what does that mean for us? And Jason, you were saying we can really see this come to life in the book of Genesis. I'd love for you to unpack this idea for us.
Jason Myhre Yeah, yeah, sure. So in Genesis chapter 1, when God creates humanity in his image, he immediately commissions them to be his royal stewards and to steward everything he made. So in verse 26 of Genesis chapter 1, it says, "Let them, humanity, rule. Let them reign. Let them have dominion," and in verse 28, "and subdue the earth." This is stewardship language. And so if we go back to the stewardship question that we tend to ask ourselves, what does God put into my hands? What does God entrusted to me, Jason Myhre or to Rob West, in addition to the things in our immediate possession that we think about, you know, our bank accounts and 401(k) and whatnot, we also have under our stewardship, biblically speaking, in the language of Genesis 1, the fish in the sea, and the birds in the sky, the livestock and all the wild animals and all the creatures that move along the ground. God made all things and then made us the royal stewards over all of those things. This is stewardship in the capital S sense.
Rob West Wow, yeah, and I can see where it's easy to miss this larger sense of stewardship and actually, in some cases maybe difficult to even believe, isn't it?
Jason Myhre Yeah, it is. And I think we we probably hear that list of animals and think what kind of stewardship do I exercise here? I find a very helpful place to go to understand this is actually in the Psalms, again, and we're going to listen to King David. So King David found it hard to believe this big sense of stewardship. We're in good company, he was the manager of God's own heart and he struggled to believe it. So in Psalm 8, we read about David really trying to grasp this, to wrap his mind around this bigger vision of stewardship. So I want you to listen to what he says. He says, quote, "What is mankind that you are mindful of them, human beings that you care for them? You've made them a little lower than the heavenly court and crowned them with glory and honor." Now, listen to this. You've made them rulers over the works of your hands. So what are the works of his hands? The heavens and the earth. You put everything under their feet. This is a way of saying the earth is our footstool. God has put under our care everything that he's made. So remember what we heard about Psalm 24 earlier, the earth is the Lord and everything in it. Now, combine that with what David's saying here in Psalm 8. You've made humanity rulers over the works of your hands and you've put everything under our feet. You see, God owns it all, yes, but God also entrusted it all to us, his royal stewards. So this is stewardship in, in my opinion, is the capital S.
Rob West Yeah, that's powerful and an enormous responsibility and frankly, opportunity. So let's begin to apply this way of thinking, Jason, then to our lives and let's do that in the area of investing. How do we apply these two ways of seeing stewardship in our investing decisions?
Jason Myhre Just like we're we're kind of prone to seeing stewardship in the smaller sense, in the sense of just what's in our immediate possession, um we're also prone to seeing investing in kind of a smaller sense. And that there's actually two levels to stewardship as we've been discussing, and there are also two levels to investing. So one level of investing is about seeking a good return. And that's probably for most of us the part of investing we're used to thinking about, right? Investing to get a return. On another level, however, investing involves our supply of capital that supports a business. We're actually investing in such a way that it supports a business. Our capital enlarges the work of the businesses we invest in. We amplify their activities and what they're doing in the world. And so we can see that there are these two levels of stewardship and two levels to investing, and these correspond to one another. So let me explain. With the smaller sense of stewardship, we understand that God has put these specific dollars in our care. Yeah? Right, this is smaller stewardship, and we have to be wise. We have to seek to generate a good return on investing through prudent risk-taking. Sure. With the larger sense of stewardship, we understand that God has put the entire creation in our care, and we have to be wise, right? We have to seek to enlarge the beauty, the goodness, the provision, the flourishing of the entire creation with every decision that we make. That's what it means to have this larger sense of stewardship. And so, in addition to seeking a good financial return, we actually have to seek to generate, so to speak, a good return on God's creation, such that the world is made more abundant and even more the place of delight that he created it to be. And so we have to be attentive to the kinds of companies we're investing in, right? And the impact of those companies on the world, on creation, through everything that business does, through their products as well as their practices. And so you can see in operation these two levels of stewardship and these two sides of investing, hopefully. I have a good friend who's a kingdom advisor, I know, you know, him, Rob? So Lauren Graham out in Spokane, Washington. And he says, good stewardship in investing is a two-sided coin. So I think this is helpful. He says, on one side it's about seeking to get a good return on God's money. So that's stewardship small s. Yep. And on the other side, it's about what we're investing in and seeking to get a good return on God's good creation, stewardship in the capital S sense. We are stewards over both of these these things, right? What God has put into our hands as well as the entire creation. And, and they have to work together. We can't sacrifice the one for the other.
Rob West Mm. This is powerful, Jason, because you're calling us to a bigger vision of stewardship, almost elevating our sights into our role and opportunity to care for and really propel God's creation forward. What does this look like in terms of the day-to-day investments if folks want to lean into this?
Jason Myhre Right. I can imagine maybe some folks listening to this and thinking like, oh my word, I have been thinking about how to be wise with optimizing around the risks I'm taking in investing and, and seeking to get an attractive rate of return, I have not really thinking about stewardship capital S and how my capital when I invest it is going to support businesses and is actually reshaping God's creation for good or for ill. So how do I begin to go down that pathway? Well, the good news is you do not have to dive in and become this insane analyst, researcher of every business that's out there that you're investing in. There's a whole industry of Christian faith-based investments that has been raised up to really help the church pay attention to both kinds of stewardship, the the return side as well as, as the impact on creation side. And the term is faith-based investing. And so what I've done, if you're looking for some information on this, I've just put together a list of all of the faith-based funds that I know about. Um, we've done this at the Eventide Center for Faith and Investing and you can download it. So if you're interested in getting this as a listener, you can go to faithandinvesting.com/faithfi. That's faithfi. So faithandinvesting.com/faithfi and in exchange for email you'll get a download of, uh, just all of these different funds that are out there.
Rob West That is powerful. Jason, so appreciate you calling us to a higher vision of our stewardship. Thanks for stopping by, my friend.
Jason Myhre Always a pleasure. Thanks, Rob.
Rob West All right. That's Jason Myhre. Download this today at faithandinvesting.com/faithfi. We'll be right back.
SEGMENT 3
Rob West We're so glad you're along with us today on Faith and Finance here on American Family Radio. Our goal, our hope and prayer for you is that you would see God as your ultimate treasure as we explore God's word as it relates to money decisions. Let's head right to the phones. We'll go to Indiana. Steve, how can I help?
Steve Hi, Rob. Thanks for taking my call, sir. I have a question. I'm looking to get equity out of my home. Probably have a quarter of a million, 250,000 of equity. So I'm looking to tap into that. Don't particularly like the cash out refis because I'm at 3.85 interest on my mortgage. So I'm asking about the home equity investment programs, if you know anything about them and if they are legitimate programs, I guess that's what I'm seeking.
Rob West Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, these are also called home equity sharing agreements. They're legitimate products offered by established companies, but they're expensive and I'm not a big fan. I mean, the biggest con is you give up part of your home's appreciation. So if your home increases significantly in value, the company may receive much more than the amount they originally gave you. It can also be much more than a traditional loan. While there are no monthly interest payments, the total cost at the end of the agreement can exceed what you would have paid by far on a home equity loan or a HELOC. There's also significant upfront and closing costs. So, you know, they have origination fees, appraisal, title, other closing expenses. And you're going to have less equity later. There's also limited flexibility. So if you want to refinance or sell or buy out the agreement early, there may be some restrictions or an expensive buyout calculation. And then of course, you still are responsible for the taxes and the insurance and the maintenance. So, not all these contracts are the same. The valuation formulas or the appreciation sharing percentages, the fees can vary significantly. So you've got to read the agreement carefully. But if you expect your home to appreciate substantially or you can qualify reasonably for another option, I would certainly look at that. What is your age if you don't mind me asking, Steve?
Steve I'm 71. I'm living off Social Security. We don't particularly want to move, but we kind of need a a cash flow influx just for security purposes. So yeah. Okay.
Rob West Yeah, I mean, I I like the home equity conversion mortgage, the reverse mortgage as a better option to the HEI. You keep all of your home's appreciation. You're borrowing against your equity, but you're not selling a share of your future home value. You don't have the mortgage payment, so you've got the optional payment. So as long as you live in your home as your primary residence and you keep paying the property taxes, insurance, and maintenance, which you would have to do anyway, then you don't have to make a payment. So that could affect, you know, number one, you don't have to make a payment, but number two, you could convert it to a monthly income stream. Most commonly people take it as a line of credit. But if you are trying to solve for an income gap, you could turn it into a an income stream and um, you know, that can be really helpful. Now, they have costs as well, the interest accrues over time, the loan becomes due when you move out permanently, sell the home or pass away. Um, but compared with an HEI, you know, uh you have a growing loan balance, but you retain all future appreciation. With the HEI, you don't make loan payments, but you give away part of your home's future appreciation. So I think, you know, that home equity conversion mortgage for a borrower 62 and older is going to be my preferred option there.
Steve Gotcha. So that would be the reverse mortgage then.
Rob West Yeah, exactly right. Do you have a Do you have a product that you would recommend there?
Steve I do. Yeah. You can go to Faith... Movement Mortgage is our preferred vendor there. They're an underwriter of this program and they're run by believers and they really specialize in this area. So if you go to faithfi.com/movement, just like it sounds, faithfi.com/movement, I'll also let you hold the line and our team can connect you personally if that's helpful. But that would be my better approach and Harlan Accola, who literally wrote the book Home Equity and Reverse Mortgages, is our go-to guy, you'll hear him regularly on this broadcast. He leads with education, he leads the team at Movement. He's an expert in this area and can kind of walk you through all the mechanics of it and apply it to your specific situation. So hang on the line, Steve, and we'll get you connected. Thanks for your call today. Let's go to Florida. Beth, go ahead.
Beth Hi, Rob. I have a question about taking Social Security.
Rob West Okay.
Beth My ex-husband and I have been divorced. I have never remarried. We were married for 18 years. Um, he probably is able to take his Social Security now because he's a 64. I'll be 62 in uh this year later this year. And someone told me I could take start drawing his, but I'm concerned if I draw his and later when I actually turn like 67 or whatever, can I take mine?
Rob West Yeah, it's a great question and this is a key idea here. It really depends on whether you're taking divorced spouse benefits while your ex-husband is alive or survivor's benefits if he passes away. Sounds like he is still living, is that right?
Beth Correct.
Rob West Okay. So because you uh turned 62 this year, you would be subject to the current Social Security rules. So you can't take only your ex-husband's benefit now and switch to your own later if your benefit would be higher. When you file, Social Security treats it as filing for all retirement benefits for which you're eligible and pays you the higher of your own benefit or your divorced spouse benefit up to 50% of your ex-husband's full retirement age benefit if if you qualify. But if you claim it at 62, your benefit's permanently reduced for claiming early. And then the divorced spouse benefit is also reduced if you claim before your full retirement age. So, um, you know, that that would not be an option there. Uh, you would certainly get that permanent reduction and you wouldn't be able to switch later, which is not the case with survivor's benefits. You are able to take it early and then switch to your own higher benefit later.
Beth Thank you so much for explaining that. I really appreciate your help.
Rob West Absolutely, Beth. Thanks for your call today. Lord bless you. Well, we're going to take a quick break here. When we come back, we'll get to more of your phone calls. I also want to mention a really some incredible thoughts that John Cortines had about building your financial house on God's word in our latest issue of Faithful Steward magazine. I'll mention that, plus dive into some more questions right after this. Stay with us.
SEGMENT 4
Rob West Great to have you with us today on Faith and Finance on American Family Radio. I'm Rob West. Our team is not here today, so let me just remind you not to call in, but I will also remind you that we have some great questions that we lined up in advance. So let's go to Chicago. Bertha, how can I help you?
Bertha Thank you for taking my call. I would like to know, what is the procedure for setting up a trust for my children, and do I need a lawyer?
Rob West Yeah. Setting up a trust, Bertha, begins with identifying what the trust is intended to accomplish, and then working absolutely with a qualified estate planning attorney to draft the appropriate documents. So, typically when somebody puts a revocable trust in place—just meaning you can change it if you want to while you're alive—you would want to clarify your goals, and most people are using it to avoid probate, or they want to control when and how their heirs receive an inheritance, or provide for a child with special needs, or in the case of an irrevocable trust, protect assets from creditors. What is your primary objective in thinking about a trust?
Bertha Well, to avoid probate, and I just would like for them to be able to get it, you know, without having any problems with probate or anything like that.
Rob West Yeah, got it. That can certainly be accomplished with a trust, and keeping the assets out of the probate court. The revocable living trust is usually the primary way folks will do that. So, it's the most comprehensive option. It does require though that any assets that you want to flow through the trust be titled in the trust so that they pass to beneficiaries without probate, and the successor trustee that you name in the trust documents can manage and distribute them privately according to the trust terms. The other way to do that alongside a trust would be through a beneficiary designation. So this is typically for retirement accounts or life insurance policies or annuities where you're able to add a beneficiary to the account, and it generally will avoid probate and go straight to the named beneficiary. And then there's also something called a transfer on death or a payable on death, and that can be added, depending on your state, to real estate, bank accounts, brokerage accounts, things like that. But the revocable living trust is that legal instrument that allows you to have anything titled in the name of the trust, or where the trust is the beneficiary of it at your death, to pass to your heirs outside of probate. It's going to require an attorney to draft it for you. It's probably going to cost you $3,000 roughly and can be a very effective tool. The other added benefit of the trust is twofold: one is that if you are living, but you're incapacitated, your successor trustee can step in and manage the assets of the trust even though you're still alive—that's not the case with a will. The second thing is, a will passes everything immediately following probate; a trust is able to pass over time if you choose. So you could say, you know, pass certain assets upon the graduation of college, or, you know, pass something at 20, and then 30, and then 40. I mean, you have that kind of control with a trust that you don't have with a will.
Bertha Thank you. Thank you very much.
Rob West All right, Bertha. You are welcome. If you need to contact an estate planning attorney who is a Christian follower, you could reach out to a certified Kingdom Advisor at findcskana.com and just ask for a referral, they would all have one that they work with. Thanks for your call today. Let's go to St. Peters, Missouri. Colleen, how can I help?
Colleen Hi, Rob, and thanks for taking my call. I'm 72 years old and retired, and utilizing some of my retirement—just a little bit. And I am coming into $50,000 soon, and my financial advisor would like me—or advised me—to pay off my house. My house balance roughly is $27,000. My question is, I just, you know, I'm just fearful of just taking that hunk of the money and not only having less than half of it left for like emergencies or things like that. So I was wondering what you think about that.
Rob West Well, I think it's a great question to ask, because although I love you paying off your mortgage, and that would, you know, if you can pay it off in full—and you certainly would if you go this direction—then you recoup 100% of that mortgage payment, or at least the principal and interest, back into your budget, which is going to give you a little bit more margin and allow you to continue to build your savings. However, we don't want you to get in a position where you just don't have enough cash reserves. What is the interest rate on the mortgage?
Colleen 3%.
Rob West Okay. So it's very low, considering today's rates. What would be the emergency fund you would have left after paying it off? Just the difference between the $27,000 and the $50,000, or do you have additional funds right now?
Colleen I have like $8,000 in my savings account. I do not have a lot of reserve.
Rob West And what are you spending on a monthly basis roughly?
Colleen I'm going to say probably three grand.
Rob West Okay. So if we were to try to have, you know, 12 months' expenses, that'd be $36,000. You've got $8,000, so, you know, you wouldn't need all of this 50, but, you know, you could use it. So I think the good news is that even if you were to pay off this loan in full, you know, you would still have, after paying $27,000, you'd still have $23,000, and then, you know, at that point, you can add that $8,000 that you've got to it, and that would give you 31, and, you know, that would give you 10 months' worth of expenses, which is pretty good. And you would recoup your monthly payment. What is your principal and interest payment currently?
Colleen Okay, I have a—not a typical mortgage loan. My house payment is $489 or $490. My, um, interest, is that what you asked for?
Rob West Yeah, the payment that you send each month that usually includes principal and interest.
Colleen Okay, so that's the principal, and the interest, I save $200 a month because in December is when I pay the interest on the place, and that's about $24,000.
Rob West Hmm, okay. So do you have an amortized loan with a scheduled monthly payment that you have to make, or what kind of loan do you have?
Colleen It's—it's, I want to say it's a second, um, second—I don't know. It's not a mortgage loan, but I did get it from the bank so I could get—and I got this for 3% because I did it this way, like I don't have that thing that you have with a regular mortgage.
Rob West Yeah, the escrow maybe? Well, here's the thing. Because your rate is so low, you could take—if you'd feel better having the whole $50,000 available because it just gives you a little more cushion than expected, you could absolutely get 4%. For instance, our friends at Adelphi Christian Banking are offering 4% on up to $100,000 insured at faithfi.com/banking. So if that gives you more peace of mind, you could put it in a high-yield savings or money market, earn more than you're paying in interest, and have the full amount available to you. But if you say, "No, I want to own my home, and I'll be glad to recapture that monthly payment," I don't think you can go wrong there as well. Hang on the line, we'll talk a bit more. We'll be right back.
SEGMENT 5
Rob West I'm grateful to have you with us today on Faith and Finance here on American Family Radio. Sit back and enjoy. We're going to cover a lot of ground here in our final segment. We'll get to as many calls as we can, and let's do that right now. We're going to head to Charleston, South Carolina, beautiful city. Nat, go ahead.
Nat Oh hi! Hi Rob.
Rob West Hi.
Nat Um, thank you for calling. I am actually from your neck of the woods, from Minneapolis.
Rob West Where, where are you from?
Nat Well, Minneapolis.
Rob West Oh, I'm actually from originally South Florida, I'm currently in Atlanta is where I'm based out of, but Minneapolis is a great place.
Nat Oh, I thought you were in St. Paul for some reason.
Rob West No, no, not me.
Nat No.
Rob West Okay.
Nat It's, it's cold, where, we're used to 20 below.
Rob West Oh, yeah, yeah. I'm not sure I could do that, but I, I have great respect for people who can.
Nat Yeah, right? I never got used to it. I was there for 25 years and, um, so, my question is, they're a couple, um, I decided to make the move after the pandemic, uh, to the, to the East Coast for health reasons. I have a pacemaker, and I was very excited, and I did make the move. However, things were, my health definitely improved, I have a pacemaker, um, but my financial emergency fund was completely drained. It took a big toll on me, and so my finances went downhill pretty quickly. And I did have a job lined up, but it fell through, so I was very discouraged, and I continued to work, uh, on little side jobs, but not in my career. And then I became a missionary here and lived very minimally, but my finances kept, um, you know, going downhill, and I closed the three credit cards I had, and got behind in car payments, and you name it. It's, it's been probably the hardest I ever had, and I never been able to get that financial emergency fund again. And I been doing full-time ministry for the Lord and brought many people to him, especially the tourists. So I was focusing on tourism, um, and now I need a new transmission in my car, which it kind of crushed me. And so I am in a crossroads and with no financial cushion, you know, emergency fund, and I don't know what to do. So I wanted to call you to see if you can help me put things in perspective, especially with my health, and see if I can see a financial advisor or a Kingdom advisor.
Rob West Yes. Well, I'm so glad you called, and I'm sorry to hear about what you're going through, and I know this, you're carrying a lot here, and, um, I, I appreciate you sharing it with us and trusting us with it. And we really want to start with stability before strategy. And so, you know, we, we need to go back to the basics, and once things are stable, then we can start to rebuild, and, and I will be, um, offering to help provide a certified Christian financial counselor who could journey alongside you, and we're going to pay for it, so it won't cost you anything. But, essentially, where you want to start is you want to take inventory of where you are today. So you want to list all your income sources, list every monthly expense, list all your debts, the balances, the interest rates, the minimum payments. Then you want to create a simple, realistic budget. Now, you may have some of these things, but this is kind of the, the steps. And we need to prioritize the essentials. So we start with housing and utilities and food and transportation and insurance and medications, and then we eliminate or pause non-essential spending until you're back on a stable footing. And then we try to build a starter emergency fund. So don't feel like you need six months of expenses immediately. Let's start with $500, and then $1,000, and then we'll work toward three months living expenses over time. And then next, we'll want to develop a, a debt payoff plan. So we want to stay current on the minimum payments. Um, do you have credit card debt right now, or, uh, tell me about your debt?
Nat I do, and, um, just wanted to clarify, it's just me, I'm not married, it's just me and my service dog that moved here.
Rob West Okay.
Nat And she's doing fine, she's a great help for me, for my pacemaker. And, um, my priority is to keep this pacemaker, which is my number four. I don't want any more surgeries.
Rob West Wow.
Nat And stability comes with that, right? I had nine surgeries in the past 12 years or 10 years, and I am pretty much married to Medtronic.
Rob West Wow.
Nat Yeah, um, but yes, um, I agree with you. I have not been able to make the minimum payments in the American Express or the Visa or the money market that got closed, and basically trying to keep my roof over my head and food and gas, and honestly, I've never been like this, and, uh, and of course car payments. Um, so the car, I got it in Minneapolis, and it's, it's a great car, it's a 2019 Hyundai Santa Fe. And I paid about 25,000 already, so I have about under 6,000 to pay. So I prayed about it, and the Lord said, it's worth it to get that transmission. Um, the dealer was planning to charge me 7,000, so I moved on to a couple other, um, quotes, you know, trust transmission shops here, and I got it as low as 4,000 with a, uh, refurbished transmission with 12 months warranty from Hyundai. So, but I, I don't even have my basics, so how can I pay those 4,000? Um, but in the meantime, I'm still driving this car because it's my only way to move, and I'm terrified and praying every day that I, that it won't leave me.
Rob West Yes. Well, he won't, he will, he's promised he'll never leave us or forsake us. Philippians 4:19, and God will supply every need of yours according to his riches in glory in Christ Jesus. And so it's a reminder that God knows every need, and he is our ultimate provider. And then Jesus calls us to trust him rather than to be consumed by worry, and I realize that's easier said than done, but we go back to God's word and we're reminded that we seek first the kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be added. And we reflect on God's faithfulness. You see this repeatedly throughout scripture. King David, uh, reflects in the Psalms, um, you know, on God's faithfulness. He says, I've been young, and now I'm old, and yet I've not seen the righteous forsaken or his children begging for bread. And so we know God is faithful. He is our provider. And that every day we have a fresh opportunity to experience God's mercy and and provision. And so you need to take the next wise step, and I think that starts with evaluating where you are, creating that simple budget. Let's start putting away what we can. Let's create a debt payoff plan. It's going to take time, but that's okay. And I'm going to give you somebody to walk alongside you, um, a certified Christian financial counselor. We're going to pick up the bill for it, but it's going to be somebody that can pray with you, encourage you, help you put that plan together, look at the actual numbers, and help you decide what comes first and what comes second. And, uh, let's, um, watch as, as God provides and you get on a more solid financial footing, okay?
Nat That would be great. And, um, I actually did look into the financial advisors here in the area, and I found a nice lady who is also a survivor, and she's in Mount Pleasant, which is one of the suburbs of, uh, Charleston. So I would love to do it with her. Her name is Mary, and I have her last name, but, um,
Rob West Okay.
Nat She doesn't have to be a CKA.
Rob West Yeah, I mean the kind of situ—well, well, the only thing I would say is the situation you're in typically is not one for a Certified Kingdom Advisor. Now, some CKAs, although they're typically providing comprehensive financial planning and investments, some of them as a ministry, as a part of their practice, will do some pro bono work that's more along the lines of budgets and debt repayment, which is really what you need. We need to put the the basics in place. You're not looking for investment management or financial planning, you just need kind of a simple plan, where do I go from here, one week, one month at a time. If she's able to do that, great. But typically, that would not be a CKA. That would be what's called a certified Christian financial counselor because they're more skilled at, uh, working with budgets and debt repayment, things like that. That's what I'm happy to pay for, but if you have a relationship with a CKA who's willing to take this on, even though it's not a part of their normal scope, that's great. I would trust any Certified Kingdom Advisor that you would reach out to. So I'm going to put you on hold. The team will get your information, will get you in touch with a cert CFC, and you can choose whether to go with that CKA near you or the certified Christian financial counselor. And Nat, uh, Lord bless you. We appreciate your call today. Know the Lord is with you and we're going to be praying for you. God bless you. Bye-bye. Let's go to Norton, Ohio. Dave, how can I help?
Dave Yeah, I set up a trust for my wife, um, she was in a facility with Alzheimer's and, um, she passed a couple years ago. I just wondered how often should you review a trust, and should I redo the thing?
Rob West Yeah, good rule of thumb on this, Dave, is to review your trust every three to five years, even if nothing major happened. Now, anytime there's a significant life event, you need to review it. So, since your wife has passed, and I'm sorry to hear that, this is one of those major life events that need a review, uh, because beneficiaries may need to be updated, successor trustees need to change, assets need to be retitled in the name of the trust. I suspect that's already been done. But, um, your wishes or family circumstances may be different now, uh, and if the trust was designed as a joint revocable living trust, part of it may have become irrevocable at your wife's passing depending on how it was written. So, definitely need to have that reviewed, sir. Well, folks, that's going to do it for us today.
So thankful for my team today, Devin, Sandy and Taylor and everybody here at FaithFi that makes this possible. Hey, let me encourage you once again, we love, getting your encouraging notes. We're so thankful for so many of you that support this program on a regular basis. That's how we do what we do every day. If you would consider coming alongside us in that way, we'd certainly be grateful. We'll send you all of our resources as a thank you, a quarterly kind of insiders update from me on the ministry, and it's a huge part of helping us do what we do every day. To learn more about the FaithFi partner program, just head to faithfi.com/give. That's faithfi.com/give. Well, hope you, uh, enjoy the rest of your day. Come back and tune in tomorrow. We'll do it all over again, Lord willing. I'm Rob West, and on behalf of my team, go out and live as a faithful steward. Lord bless you. Bye-bye.
Rob West What if stewardship is bigger than simply managing the money and possessions God has placed in your hands? I am Rob West. Scripture tells us that God owns it all, and that changes not only how we view our finances, but also how we think about our role in his creation. Today, Jason Myhre joins us to explore a bigger vision of stewardship and what it means for the way we invest. And we have lots of great listener questions ahead, but we won't be taking live calls today because this program is pre-recorded. This is Faith and Finance on American Family Radio, biblical wisdom for your financial decisions.
Rob West Well, our guest today is Jason Myhre, executive director of the Eventide Center for Faith and Investing, an educational initiative of Eventide Investments. Jason, always a pleasure to have you with us.
Jason Myhre Hey, Rob, pleasure's all mine.
Rob West Jason, it's so easy to forget that we're stewards and what that actually means. So, what is your definition and why is it so difficult, do you believe, Jason, for some believers to grasp this concept?
Jason Myhre For me, in my own words, I would say that stewardship is the idea that nothing in our possession is actually ours. Instead, God is the rightful owner of all things. There's a lot of verses that put this clearly, but my favorite is Psalm 24:1, which says, "The earth is the Lord's and everything in it." And the Hebrew there for everything is everything. This makes sense because God is the creator of all things, therefore he is the rightful owner of all things. And so stewardship is a way of seeing the things that are in our possession as actually belonging to God. The things in our possession are really God's things and he has simply entrusted them to us. We are managers of God's things or stewards of God's things.
And I think the reason this is so important for us is that it can really free us from a lot of the innate selfishness and acquisitiveness that is so endemic to our lives after the fall. All of us are prone to grasp after things and to hold on to them very tightly, but with this stewardship mentality, it can help us be more content with the things that we have and even open our hands toward others in generosity to those that have needs. Stewardship can be this liberating power in our lives over money, which can be such a powerful force. When we live in that freedom, I also think that we're putting on display God's power in our lives and the reality of God and his kingdom.
Rob West I love that picture, and clearly stewardship then can transform our vision and our lives. But you make the point, Jason, that many times our vision of stewardship is perhaps too small. Explain that.
Jason Myhre In practice, we tend to see stewardship in the following way. We'll ask ourselves what has God entrusted to us—what has God entrusted to me, Jason Meyer, and what has God entrusted to you, Rob West? Then we take stock of the stuff in our lives, our money, and possessions. We say, "Oh, I've got this much money in the bank and I have a house, I have a couple of cars, I have some investments, etc." And so we tend to understand stewardship in terms of these specific things that God has placed into our hands and to our immediate possession. All of that is legitimate and valid, and God has entrusted us these things. But I would call that stewardship with a lower case s or small s—stewardship over the things in our immediate possession. Biblically, there is a much bigger sense of stewardship that I think we have to come to see and understand, and I call that stewardship with a capital S.
Rob West All right. Give us a preview. We've got just about 45 seconds until our break when we can unpack this more fully, but what is that bigger stewardship?
Jason Myhre This is what I would call the mind-expanding stewardship. It is simply that God has actually entrusted to us, to humanity, stewardship over his entire creation. We're stewards not only over these specific things that are in our lives we can place our hands on or have access to, but God has actually entrusted his entire creation to our stewardship. We can actually see this larger sense of stewardship right in the beginning of the Bible, in the first chapter of Genesis.
Rob West That's powerful. We're going to unpack that. What does Genesis actually say? What is this larger sense of stewardship and what does that actually mean for us? And how does that apply to our investing? All of that and more coming up with Jason Myhre. Jason is director of the Eventide Center for Faith and Investing and we're talking about a bigger vision of stewardship today. Much more just around the corner. Stay with us. We'll be right back.
SEGMENT 2
Rob West So glad to have you with us today on Faith and Finance on American Family Radio. I'm Rob West. Joining me today is my good friend Jason Myhre, executive director of the Eventide Center for Faith and Investing, an educational initiative of Eventide Asset Management. And today, we've been exploring what it looks like to embrace a bigger vision of stewardship. Just before the break, Jason was sharing with us that, yes, we're stewards of everything that God has created and that small s stewardship is perhaps what you might typically think about. You are a steward of your car and your house and maybe you have a 401(k), but what about a bigger vision, maybe that capital S stewardship? If God has entrusted to us stewardship of his entire creation, what does that mean for us? And Jason, you were saying we can really see this come to life in the book of Genesis. I'd love for you to unpack this idea for us.
Jason Myhre Yeah, yeah, sure. So in Genesis chapter 1, when God creates humanity in his image, he immediately commissions them to be his royal stewards and to steward everything he made. So in verse 26 of Genesis chapter 1, it says, "Let them, humanity, rule. Let them reign. Let them have dominion," and in verse 28, "and subdue the earth." This is stewardship language. And so if we go back to the stewardship question that we tend to ask ourselves, what does God put into my hands? What does God entrusted to me, Jason Myhre or to Rob West, in addition to the things in our immediate possession that we think about, you know, our bank accounts and 401(k) and whatnot, we also have under our stewardship, biblically speaking, in the language of Genesis 1, the fish in the sea, and the birds in the sky, the livestock and all the wild animals and all the creatures that move along the ground. God made all things and then made us the royal stewards over all of those things. This is stewardship in the capital S sense.
Rob West Wow, yeah, and I can see where it's easy to miss this larger sense of stewardship and actually, in some cases maybe difficult to even believe, isn't it?
Jason Myhre Yeah, it is. And I think we we probably hear that list of animals and think what kind of stewardship do I exercise here? I find a very helpful place to go to understand this is actually in the Psalms, again, and we're going to listen to King David. So King David found it hard to believe this big sense of stewardship. We're in good company, he was the manager of God's own heart and he struggled to believe it. So in Psalm 8, we read about David really trying to grasp this, to wrap his mind around this bigger vision of stewardship. So I want you to listen to what he says. He says, quote, "What is mankind that you are mindful of them, human beings that you care for them? You've made them a little lower than the heavenly court and crowned them with glory and honor." Now, listen to this. You've made them rulers over the works of your hands. So what are the works of his hands? The heavens and the earth. You put everything under their feet. This is a way of saying the earth is our footstool. God has put under our care everything that he's made. So remember what we heard about Psalm 24 earlier, the earth is the Lord and everything in it. Now, combine that with what David's saying here in Psalm 8. You've made humanity rulers over the works of your hands and you've put everything under our feet. You see, God owns it all, yes, but God also entrusted it all to us, his royal stewards. So this is stewardship in, in my opinion, is the capital S.
Rob West Yeah, that's powerful and an enormous responsibility and frankly, opportunity. So let's begin to apply this way of thinking, Jason, then to our lives and let's do that in the area of investing. How do we apply these two ways of seeing stewardship in our investing decisions?
Jason Myhre Just like we're we're kind of prone to seeing stewardship in the smaller sense, in the sense of just what's in our immediate possession, um we're also prone to seeing investing in kind of a smaller sense. And that there's actually two levels to stewardship as we've been discussing, and there are also two levels to investing. So one level of investing is about seeking a good return. And that's probably for most of us the part of investing we're used to thinking about, right? Investing to get a return. On another level, however, investing involves our supply of capital that supports a business. We're actually investing in such a way that it supports a business. Our capital enlarges the work of the businesses we invest in. We amplify their activities and what they're doing in the world. And so we can see that there are these two levels of stewardship and two levels to investing, and these correspond to one another. So let me explain. With the smaller sense of stewardship, we understand that God has put these specific dollars in our care. Yeah? Right, this is smaller stewardship, and we have to be wise. We have to seek to generate a good return on investing through prudent risk-taking. Sure. With the larger sense of stewardship, we understand that God has put the entire creation in our care, and we have to be wise, right? We have to seek to enlarge the beauty, the goodness, the provision, the flourishing of the entire creation with every decision that we make. That's what it means to have this larger sense of stewardship. And so, in addition to seeking a good financial return, we actually have to seek to generate, so to speak, a good return on God's creation, such that the world is made more abundant and even more the place of delight that he created it to be. And so we have to be attentive to the kinds of companies we're investing in, right? And the impact of those companies on the world, on creation, through everything that business does, through their products as well as their practices. And so you can see in operation these two levels of stewardship and these two sides of investing, hopefully. I have a good friend who's a kingdom advisor, I know, you know, him, Rob? So Lauren Graham out in Spokane, Washington. And he says, good stewardship in investing is a two-sided coin. So I think this is helpful. He says, on one side it's about seeking to get a good return on God's money. So that's stewardship small s. Yep. And on the other side, it's about what we're investing in and seeking to get a good return on God's good creation, stewardship in the capital S sense. We are stewards over both of these these things, right? What God has put into our hands as well as the entire creation. And, and they have to work together. We can't sacrifice the one for the other.
Rob West Mm. This is powerful, Jason, because you're calling us to a bigger vision of stewardship, almost elevating our sights into our role and opportunity to care for and really propel God's creation forward. What does this look like in terms of the day-to-day investments if folks want to lean into this?
Jason Myhre Right. I can imagine maybe some folks listening to this and thinking like, oh my word, I have been thinking about how to be wise with optimizing around the risks I'm taking in investing and, and seeking to get an attractive rate of return, I have not really thinking about stewardship capital S and how my capital when I invest it is going to support businesses and is actually reshaping God's creation for good or for ill. So how do I begin to go down that pathway? Well, the good news is you do not have to dive in and become this insane analyst, researcher of every business that's out there that you're investing in. There's a whole industry of Christian faith-based investments that has been raised up to really help the church pay attention to both kinds of stewardship, the the return side as well as, as the impact on creation side. And the term is faith-based investing. And so what I've done, if you're looking for some information on this, I've just put together a list of all of the faith-based funds that I know about. Um, we've done this at the Eventide Center for Faith and Investing and you can download it. So if you're interested in getting this as a listener, you can go to faithandinvesting.com/faithfi. That's faithfi. So faithandinvesting.com/faithfi and in exchange for email you'll get a download of, uh, just all of these different funds that are out there.
Rob West That is powerful. Jason, so appreciate you calling us to a higher vision of our stewardship. Thanks for stopping by, my friend.
Jason Myhre Always a pleasure. Thanks, Rob.
Rob West All right. That's Jason Myhre. Download this today at faithandinvesting.com/faithfi. We'll be right back.
SEGMENT 3
Rob West We're so glad you're along with us today on Faith and Finance here on American Family Radio. Our goal, our hope and prayer for you is that you would see God as your ultimate treasure as we explore God's word as it relates to money decisions. Let's head right to the phones. We'll go to Indiana. Steve, how can I help?
Steve Hi, Rob. Thanks for taking my call, sir. I have a question. I'm looking to get equity out of my home. Probably have a quarter of a million, 250,000 of equity. So I'm looking to tap into that. Don't particularly like the cash out refis because I'm at 3.85 interest on my mortgage. So I'm asking about the home equity investment programs, if you know anything about them and if they are legitimate programs, I guess that's what I'm seeking.
Rob West Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, these are also called home equity sharing agreements. They're legitimate products offered by established companies, but they're expensive and I'm not a big fan. I mean, the biggest con is you give up part of your home's appreciation. So if your home increases significantly in value, the company may receive much more than the amount they originally gave you. It can also be much more than a traditional loan. While there are no monthly interest payments, the total cost at the end of the agreement can exceed what you would have paid by far on a home equity loan or a HELOC. There's also significant upfront and closing costs. So, you know, they have origination fees, appraisal, title, other closing expenses. And you're going to have less equity later. There's also limited flexibility. So if you want to refinance or sell or buy out the agreement early, there may be some restrictions or an expensive buyout calculation. And then of course, you still are responsible for the taxes and the insurance and the maintenance. So, not all these contracts are the same. The valuation formulas or the appreciation sharing percentages, the fees can vary significantly. So you've got to read the agreement carefully. But if you expect your home to appreciate substantially or you can qualify reasonably for another option, I would certainly look at that. What is your age if you don't mind me asking, Steve?
Steve I'm 71. I'm living off Social Security. We don't particularly want to move, but we kind of need a a cash flow influx just for security purposes. So yeah. Okay.
Rob West Yeah, I mean, I I like the home equity conversion mortgage, the reverse mortgage as a better option to the HEI. You keep all of your home's appreciation. You're borrowing against your equity, but you're not selling a share of your future home value. You don't have the mortgage payment, so you've got the optional payment. So as long as you live in your home as your primary residence and you keep paying the property taxes, insurance, and maintenance, which you would have to do anyway, then you don't have to make a payment. So that could affect, you know, number one, you don't have to make a payment, but number two, you could convert it to a monthly income stream. Most commonly people take it as a line of credit. But if you are trying to solve for an income gap, you could turn it into a an income stream and um, you know, that can be really helpful. Now, they have costs as well, the interest accrues over time, the loan becomes due when you move out permanently, sell the home or pass away. Um, but compared with an HEI, you know, uh you have a growing loan balance, but you retain all future appreciation. With the HEI, you don't make loan payments, but you give away part of your home's future appreciation. So I think, you know, that home equity conversion mortgage for a borrower 62 and older is going to be my preferred option there.
Steve Gotcha. So that would be the reverse mortgage then.
Rob West Yeah, exactly right. Do you have a Do you have a product that you would recommend there?
Steve I do. Yeah. You can go to Faith... Movement Mortgage is our preferred vendor there. They're an underwriter of this program and they're run by believers and they really specialize in this area. So if you go to faithfi.com/movement, just like it sounds, faithfi.com/movement, I'll also let you hold the line and our team can connect you personally if that's helpful. But that would be my better approach and Harlan Accola, who literally wrote the book Home Equity and Reverse Mortgages, is our go-to guy, you'll hear him regularly on this broadcast. He leads with education, he leads the team at Movement. He's an expert in this area and can kind of walk you through all the mechanics of it and apply it to your specific situation. So hang on the line, Steve, and we'll get you connected. Thanks for your call today. Let's go to Florida. Beth, go ahead.
Beth Hi, Rob. I have a question about taking Social Security.
Rob West Okay.
Beth My ex-husband and I have been divorced. I have never remarried. We were married for 18 years. Um, he probably is able to take his Social Security now because he's a 64. I'll be 62 in uh this year later this year. And someone told me I could take start drawing his, but I'm concerned if I draw his and later when I actually turn like 67 or whatever, can I take mine?
Rob West Yeah, it's a great question and this is a key idea here. It really depends on whether you're taking divorced spouse benefits while your ex-husband is alive or survivor's benefits if he passes away. Sounds like he is still living, is that right?
Beth Correct.
Rob West Okay. So because you uh turned 62 this year, you would be subject to the current Social Security rules. So you can't take only your ex-husband's benefit now and switch to your own later if your benefit would be higher. When you file, Social Security treats it as filing for all retirement benefits for which you're eligible and pays you the higher of your own benefit or your divorced spouse benefit up to 50% of your ex-husband's full retirement age benefit if if you qualify. But if you claim it at 62, your benefit's permanently reduced for claiming early. And then the divorced spouse benefit is also reduced if you claim before your full retirement age. So, um, you know, that that would not be an option there. Uh, you would certainly get that permanent reduction and you wouldn't be able to switch later, which is not the case with survivor's benefits. You are able to take it early and then switch to your own higher benefit later.
Beth Thank you so much for explaining that. I really appreciate your help.
Rob West Absolutely, Beth. Thanks for your call today. Lord bless you. Well, we're going to take a quick break here. When we come back, we'll get to more of your phone calls. I also want to mention a really some incredible thoughts that John Cortines had about building your financial house on God's word in our latest issue of Faithful Steward magazine. I'll mention that, plus dive into some more questions right after this. Stay with us.
SEGMENT 4
Rob West Great to have you with us today on Faith and Finance on American Family Radio. I'm Rob West. Our team is not here today, so let me just remind you not to call in, but I will also remind you that we have some great questions that we lined up in advance. So let's go to Chicago. Bertha, how can I help you?
Bertha Thank you for taking my call. I would like to know, what is the procedure for setting up a trust for my children, and do I need a lawyer?
Rob West Yeah. Setting up a trust, Bertha, begins with identifying what the trust is intended to accomplish, and then working absolutely with a qualified estate planning attorney to draft the appropriate documents. So, typically when somebody puts a revocable trust in place—just meaning you can change it if you want to while you're alive—you would want to clarify your goals, and most people are using it to avoid probate, or they want to control when and how their heirs receive an inheritance, or provide for a child with special needs, or in the case of an irrevocable trust, protect assets from creditors. What is your primary objective in thinking about a trust?
Bertha Well, to avoid probate, and I just would like for them to be able to get it, you know, without having any problems with probate or anything like that.
Rob West Yeah, got it. That can certainly be accomplished with a trust, and keeping the assets out of the probate court. The revocable living trust is usually the primary way folks will do that. So, it's the most comprehensive option. It does require though that any assets that you want to flow through the trust be titled in the trust so that they pass to beneficiaries without probate, and the successor trustee that you name in the trust documents can manage and distribute them privately according to the trust terms. The other way to do that alongside a trust would be through a beneficiary designation. So this is typically for retirement accounts or life insurance policies or annuities where you're able to add a beneficiary to the account, and it generally will avoid probate and go straight to the named beneficiary. And then there's also something called a transfer on death or a payable on death, and that can be added, depending on your state, to real estate, bank accounts, brokerage accounts, things like that. But the revocable living trust is that legal instrument that allows you to have anything titled in the name of the trust, or where the trust is the beneficiary of it at your death, to pass to your heirs outside of probate. It's going to require an attorney to draft it for you. It's probably going to cost you $3,000 roughly and can be a very effective tool. The other added benefit of the trust is twofold: one is that if you are living, but you're incapacitated, your successor trustee can step in and manage the assets of the trust even though you're still alive—that's not the case with a will. The second thing is, a will passes everything immediately following probate; a trust is able to pass over time if you choose. So you could say, you know, pass certain assets upon the graduation of college, or, you know, pass something at 20, and then 30, and then 40. I mean, you have that kind of control with a trust that you don't have with a will.
Bertha Thank you. Thank you very much.
Rob West All right, Bertha. You are welcome. If you need to contact an estate planning attorney who is a Christian follower, you could reach out to a certified Kingdom Advisor at findcskana.com and just ask for a referral, they would all have one that they work with. Thanks for your call today. Let's go to St. Peters, Missouri. Colleen, how can I help?
Colleen Hi, Rob, and thanks for taking my call. I'm 72 years old and retired, and utilizing some of my retirement—just a little bit. And I am coming into $50,000 soon, and my financial advisor would like me—or advised me—to pay off my house. My house balance roughly is $27,000. My question is, I just, you know, I'm just fearful of just taking that hunk of the money and not only having less than half of it left for like emergencies or things like that. So I was wondering what you think about that.
Rob West Well, I think it's a great question to ask, because although I love you paying off your mortgage, and that would, you know, if you can pay it off in full—and you certainly would if you go this direction—then you recoup 100% of that mortgage payment, or at least the principal and interest, back into your budget, which is going to give you a little bit more margin and allow you to continue to build your savings. However, we don't want you to get in a position where you just don't have enough cash reserves. What is the interest rate on the mortgage?
Colleen 3%.
Rob West Okay. So it's very low, considering today's rates. What would be the emergency fund you would have left after paying it off? Just the difference between the $27,000 and the $50,000, or do you have additional funds right now?
Colleen I have like $8,000 in my savings account. I do not have a lot of reserve.
Rob West And what are you spending on a monthly basis roughly?
Colleen I'm going to say probably three grand.
Rob West Okay. So if we were to try to have, you know, 12 months' expenses, that'd be $36,000. You've got $8,000, so, you know, you wouldn't need all of this 50, but, you know, you could use it. So I think the good news is that even if you were to pay off this loan in full, you know, you would still have, after paying $27,000, you'd still have $23,000, and then, you know, at that point, you can add that $8,000 that you've got to it, and that would give you 31, and, you know, that would give you 10 months' worth of expenses, which is pretty good. And you would recoup your monthly payment. What is your principal and interest payment currently?
Colleen Okay, I have a—not a typical mortgage loan. My house payment is $489 or $490. My, um, interest, is that what you asked for?
Rob West Yeah, the payment that you send each month that usually includes principal and interest.
Colleen Okay, so that's the principal, and the interest, I save $200 a month because in December is when I pay the interest on the place, and that's about $24,000.
Rob West Hmm, okay. So do you have an amortized loan with a scheduled monthly payment that you have to make, or what kind of loan do you have?
Colleen It's—it's, I want to say it's a second, um, second—I don't know. It's not a mortgage loan, but I did get it from the bank so I could get—and I got this for 3% because I did it this way, like I don't have that thing that you have with a regular mortgage.
Rob West Yeah, the escrow maybe? Well, here's the thing. Because your rate is so low, you could take—if you'd feel better having the whole $50,000 available because it just gives you a little more cushion than expected, you could absolutely get 4%. For instance, our friends at Adelphi Christian Banking are offering 4% on up to $100,000 insured at faithfi.com/banking. So if that gives you more peace of mind, you could put it in a high-yield savings or money market, earn more than you're paying in interest, and have the full amount available to you. But if you say, "No, I want to own my home, and I'll be glad to recapture that monthly payment," I don't think you can go wrong there as well. Hang on the line, we'll talk a bit more. We'll be right back.
SEGMENT 5
Rob West I'm grateful to have you with us today on Faith and Finance here on American Family Radio. Sit back and enjoy. We're going to cover a lot of ground here in our final segment. We'll get to as many calls as we can, and let's do that right now. We're going to head to Charleston, South Carolina, beautiful city. Nat, go ahead.
Nat Oh hi! Hi Rob.
Rob West Hi.
Nat Um, thank you for calling. I am actually from your neck of the woods, from Minneapolis.
Rob West Where, where are you from?
Nat Well, Minneapolis.
Rob West Oh, I'm actually from originally South Florida, I'm currently in Atlanta is where I'm based out of, but Minneapolis is a great place.
Nat Oh, I thought you were in St. Paul for some reason.
Rob West No, no, not me.
Nat No.
Rob West Okay.
Nat It's, it's cold, where, we're used to 20 below.
Rob West Oh, yeah, yeah. I'm not sure I could do that, but I, I have great respect for people who can.
Nat Yeah, right? I never got used to it. I was there for 25 years and, um, so, my question is, they're a couple, um, I decided to make the move after the pandemic, uh, to the, to the East Coast for health reasons. I have a pacemaker, and I was very excited, and I did make the move. However, things were, my health definitely improved, I have a pacemaker, um, but my financial emergency fund was completely drained. It took a big toll on me, and so my finances went downhill pretty quickly. And I did have a job lined up, but it fell through, so I was very discouraged, and I continued to work, uh, on little side jobs, but not in my career. And then I became a missionary here and lived very minimally, but my finances kept, um, you know, going downhill, and I closed the three credit cards I had, and got behind in car payments, and you name it. It's, it's been probably the hardest I ever had, and I never been able to get that financial emergency fund again. And I been doing full-time ministry for the Lord and brought many people to him, especially the tourists. So I was focusing on tourism, um, and now I need a new transmission in my car, which it kind of crushed me. And so I am in a crossroads and with no financial cushion, you know, emergency fund, and I don't know what to do. So I wanted to call you to see if you can help me put things in perspective, especially with my health, and see if I can see a financial advisor or a Kingdom advisor.
Rob West Yes. Well, I'm so glad you called, and I'm sorry to hear about what you're going through, and I know this, you're carrying a lot here, and, um, I, I appreciate you sharing it with us and trusting us with it. And we really want to start with stability before strategy. And so, you know, we, we need to go back to the basics, and once things are stable, then we can start to rebuild, and, and I will be, um, offering to help provide a certified Christian financial counselor who could journey alongside you, and we're going to pay for it, so it won't cost you anything. But, essentially, where you want to start is you want to take inventory of where you are today. So you want to list all your income sources, list every monthly expense, list all your debts, the balances, the interest rates, the minimum payments. Then you want to create a simple, realistic budget. Now, you may have some of these things, but this is kind of the, the steps. And we need to prioritize the essentials. So we start with housing and utilities and food and transportation and insurance and medications, and then we eliminate or pause non-essential spending until you're back on a stable footing. And then we try to build a starter emergency fund. So don't feel like you need six months of expenses immediately. Let's start with $500, and then $1,000, and then we'll work toward three months living expenses over time. And then next, we'll want to develop a, a debt payoff plan. So we want to stay current on the minimum payments. Um, do you have credit card debt right now, or, uh, tell me about your debt?
Nat I do, and, um, just wanted to clarify, it's just me, I'm not married, it's just me and my service dog that moved here.
Rob West Okay.
Nat And she's doing fine, she's a great help for me, for my pacemaker. And, um, my priority is to keep this pacemaker, which is my number four. I don't want any more surgeries.
Rob West Wow.
Nat And stability comes with that, right? I had nine surgeries in the past 12 years or 10 years, and I am pretty much married to Medtronic.
Rob West Wow.
Nat Yeah, um, but yes, um, I agree with you. I have not been able to make the minimum payments in the American Express or the Visa or the money market that got closed, and basically trying to keep my roof over my head and food and gas, and honestly, I've never been like this, and, uh, and of course car payments. Um, so the car, I got it in Minneapolis, and it's, it's a great car, it's a 2019 Hyundai Santa Fe. And I paid about 25,000 already, so I have about under 6,000 to pay. So I prayed about it, and the Lord said, it's worth it to get that transmission. Um, the dealer was planning to charge me 7,000, so I moved on to a couple other, um, quotes, you know, trust transmission shops here, and I got it as low as 4,000 with a, uh, refurbished transmission with 12 months warranty from Hyundai. So, but I, I don't even have my basics, so how can I pay those 4,000? Um, but in the meantime, I'm still driving this car because it's my only way to move, and I'm terrified and praying every day that I, that it won't leave me.
Rob West Yes. Well, he won't, he will, he's promised he'll never leave us or forsake us. Philippians 4:19, and God will supply every need of yours according to his riches in glory in Christ Jesus. And so it's a reminder that God knows every need, and he is our ultimate provider. And then Jesus calls us to trust him rather than to be consumed by worry, and I realize that's easier said than done, but we go back to God's word and we're reminded that we seek first the kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be added. And we reflect on God's faithfulness. You see this repeatedly throughout scripture. King David, uh, reflects in the Psalms, um, you know, on God's faithfulness. He says, I've been young, and now I'm old, and yet I've not seen the righteous forsaken or his children begging for bread. And so we know God is faithful. He is our provider. And that every day we have a fresh opportunity to experience God's mercy and and provision. And so you need to take the next wise step, and I think that starts with evaluating where you are, creating that simple budget. Let's start putting away what we can. Let's create a debt payoff plan. It's going to take time, but that's okay. And I'm going to give you somebody to walk alongside you, um, a certified Christian financial counselor. We're going to pick up the bill for it, but it's going to be somebody that can pray with you, encourage you, help you put that plan together, look at the actual numbers, and help you decide what comes first and what comes second. And, uh, let's, um, watch as, as God provides and you get on a more solid financial footing, okay?
Nat That would be great. And, um, I actually did look into the financial advisors here in the area, and I found a nice lady who is also a survivor, and she's in Mount Pleasant, which is one of the suburbs of, uh, Charleston. So I would love to do it with her. Her name is Mary, and I have her last name, but, um,
Rob West Okay.
Nat She doesn't have to be a CKA.
Rob West Yeah, I mean the kind of situ—well, well, the only thing I would say is the situation you're in typically is not one for a Certified Kingdom Advisor. Now, some CKAs, although they're typically providing comprehensive financial planning and investments, some of them as a ministry, as a part of their practice, will do some pro bono work that's more along the lines of budgets and debt repayment, which is really what you need. We need to put the the basics in place. You're not looking for investment management or financial planning, you just need kind of a simple plan, where do I go from here, one week, one month at a time. If she's able to do that, great. But typically, that would not be a CKA. That would be what's called a certified Christian financial counselor because they're more skilled at, uh, working with budgets and debt repayment, things like that. That's what I'm happy to pay for, but if you have a relationship with a CKA who's willing to take this on, even though it's not a part of their normal scope, that's great. I would trust any Certified Kingdom Advisor that you would reach out to. So I'm going to put you on hold. The team will get your information, will get you in touch with a cert CFC, and you can choose whether to go with that CKA near you or the certified Christian financial counselor. And Nat, uh, Lord bless you. We appreciate your call today. Know the Lord is with you and we're going to be praying for you. God bless you. Bye-bye. Let's go to Norton, Ohio. Dave, how can I help?
Dave Yeah, I set up a trust for my wife, um, she was in a facility with Alzheimer's and, um, she passed a couple years ago. I just wondered how often should you review a trust, and should I redo the thing?
Rob West Yeah, good rule of thumb on this, Dave, is to review your trust every three to five years, even if nothing major happened. Now, anytime there's a significant life event, you need to review it. So, since your wife has passed, and I'm sorry to hear that, this is one of those major life events that need a review, uh, because beneficiaries may need to be updated, successor trustees need to change, assets need to be retitled in the name of the trust. I suspect that's already been done. But, um, your wishes or family circumstances may be different now, uh, and if the trust was designed as a joint revocable living trust, part of it may have become irrevocable at your wife's passing depending on how it was written. So, definitely need to have that reviewed, sir. Well, folks, that's going to do it for us today.
So thankful for my team today, Devin, Sandy and Taylor and everybody here at FaithFi that makes this possible. Hey, let me encourage you once again, we love, getting your encouraging notes. We're so thankful for so many of you that support this program on a regular basis. That's how we do what we do every day. If you would consider coming alongside us in that way, we'd certainly be grateful. We'll send you all of our resources as a thank you, a quarterly kind of insiders update from me on the ministry, and it's a huge part of helping us do what we do every day. To learn more about the FaithFi partner program, just head to faithfi.com/give. That's faithfi.com/give. Well, hope you, uh, enjoy the rest of your day. Come back and tune in tomorrow. We'll do it all over again, Lord willing. I'm Rob West, and on behalf of my team, go out and live as a faithful steward. Lord bless you. Bye-bye.
If you think of your finances in terms of stewardship and that God is the rightful owner of all things—you’re not wrong. But should the concept of stewardship only pertain to our assets? On this Faith & Finance on AFR, host Rob West will welcome Jason Myhre to talk about a bigger vision of stewardship that goes beyond our money and possessions. Then, on to calls.
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