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Financial Issues - 2026 10 12 Financial Issues · KNEO Podcast

• 0:03
  Speaker 1: Welcome to Financial Issues, where we help you steward faithfully
• 0:07
  Speaker 1: by honoring God with your investments. Now listen in as
• 0:11
  Speaker 1: we give you the practical tools and advice you need
• 0:14
  Speaker 1: to become a biblically responsible investor.
• 0:22
  Speaker 2: This is Financial Issues, where we help you defund the
• 0:25
  Speaker 2: darkness and fund the light by investing with biblical integrity. Hi,
• 0:28
  Speaker 2: I'm Mark Manelli, your host, and joining me is my
• 0:31
  Speaker 2: good friend Sam Case. Welcome, Sam.
• 0:34
  Speaker 3: Wait, who on earth is this man I'm talking to?
• 0:36
  Speaker 3: You've been gone so long, Mark. It's good to have
• 0:39
  Speaker 3: you back.
• 0:40
  Speaker 2: It is good to be back.
• 0:41
  Speaker 3: You look quite tanned for our radio audience. He's absolutely glowing.
• 0:45
  Speaker 3: And now Seth has the opportunity to do that. I
• 0:48
  Speaker 3: think he ran away for vacation just this morning, didn't he? Yeah,
• 0:52
  Speaker 3: I think you inspired him. He's like, wait a minute,
• 0:54
  Speaker 3: maybe I'm going to take vacation. But I alone am
• 0:57
  Speaker 3: the good and faithful servant. I remain for financial issues.
• 1:01
  Speaker 3: So glad you're here, Sam.
• 1:03
  Speaker 2: As we go into a wonderful show today, one on
• 1:06
  Speaker 2: Columbus Day, a lot of people saying, well, it's a holiday, Mark.
• 1:09
  Speaker 2: Why are you guys here? Well, the markets are open.
• 1:12
  Speaker 2: If the markets are open, we're generally open as well.
• 1:14
  Speaker 2: So we want to do that. It's not that we're...
• 1:17
  Speaker 2: trying to diss Columbus. I mean, I am Italian, and
• 1:20
  Speaker 2: I'm very happy that he found America, or at least
• 1:23
  Speaker 2: the Bahamas, because my goodness, the Bahamas are gorgeous, you know.
• 1:28
  Speaker 2: So we are very happy to be here on Columbus
• 1:30
  Speaker 2: Day with you, and we're glad you're with us. We
• 1:32
  Speaker 2: got a full, full show today, and we're going to
• 1:35
  Speaker 2: cover some very interesting things, including one of the things
• 1:40
  Speaker 2: that a lot of people don't think about, especially because
• 1:42
  Speaker 2: of the way the There may be all sorts of
• 1:48
  Speaker 2: great opportunities. We're going to talk about that.
• 1:50
  Speaker 3: Rising tides raise all ships, Mark.
• 1:52
  Speaker 2: There you go.
• 1:53
  Speaker 3: But before we get into that, we do have our
• 1:55
  Speaker 3: verse of the week. So let's kick out the week
• 1:57
  Speaker 3: with a bang here. Colossians 3, 23 and 24. And
• 2:02
  Speaker 3: whatever you do, do it heartily as to the Lord
• 2:04
  Speaker 3: and not to men, knowing that from the Lord you
• 2:07
  Speaker 3: will receive the reward of the inheritance for you serve
• 2:10
  Speaker 3: the Lord Christ.
• 2:12
  Speaker 2: Hmm. A great verse, a wonderful verse, one that tells
• 2:16
  Speaker 2: us that stewardship is about not just what we do,
• 2:20
  Speaker 2: but who we serve. And that's so very important because
• 2:24
  Speaker 2: we do it all for the glory of God. And
• 2:26
  Speaker 2: that's what it's all about. Whatever we do, do it intentionally,
• 2:31
  Speaker 2: do it on purpose, do it with all we have
• 2:36
  Speaker 2: to glorify the one true God. That's a wonderful thing.
• 2:39
  Speaker 2: I also think it's... It's important because in this, it
• 2:43
  Speaker 2: helps us to realize we don't just want to be
• 2:46
  Speaker 2: good stewards for earthly rewards. We want it to go
• 2:50
  Speaker 2: way beyond that. We want it to be purposely to
• 2:54
  Speaker 2: honor our God first and foremost, and then realize that
• 2:58
  Speaker 2: God never lets a good thing go without reward. letting
• 3:03
  Speaker 2: us glorify in it as well. So, you know, it's just,
• 3:07
  Speaker 2: he's perfect in all ways and efficient.
• 3:10
  Speaker 3: So I think it also provides much needed meaning to
• 3:13
  Speaker 3: some of the drudgery that work can be. It can
• 3:15
  Speaker 3: be kind of monotonous, but if you realize there's really
• 3:17
  Speaker 3: no such thing as monotonous work with the Lord, if
• 3:20
  Speaker 3: you're doing it intentionally for him, everything that you do
• 3:23
  Speaker 3: has a purpose and, And that just changes your attitude
• 3:26
  Speaker 3: in what you're doing.
• 3:27
  Speaker 2: Yes, yes. Yeah, I agree. Managing God's resources wisely. I
• 3:33
  Speaker 2: remember an old story, and I don't know if it's
• 3:37
  Speaker 2: Indian or where it came from, but it was this
• 3:41
  Speaker 2: guru or this pastor or monk was doing dishes with
• 3:47
  Speaker 2: his friend. And his friend was like, I really don't
• 3:50
  Speaker 2: like doing dishes. He says, that's because you don't know
• 3:52
  Speaker 2: how to do them. He says, what do you mean?
• 3:54
  Speaker 2: I don't know how these are clean. He says, no, no, no.
• 3:56
  Speaker 2: He says, when you're doing them, are you thinking about
• 3:59
  Speaker 2: the Lord? What? He says, yeah, each dish you clean,
• 4:03
  Speaker 2: you're cleaning to the Lord. So it glorifies him that
• 4:06
  Speaker 2: there's clean dishes here and they're wonderful dishes honoring God.
• 4:10
  Speaker 2: And he says, that added a whole different light to
• 4:13
  Speaker 2: how he looked at doing dishes or doing anything. You know,
• 4:16
  Speaker 2: you're not, the goal isn't the rush just to get
• 4:18
  Speaker 2: it done. The goal is to get it done in
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  Speaker 2: a way that glorifies God. Amen to that, Mark.
• 4:23
  Speaker 3: That's awesome.
• 4:25
  Speaker 2: Amen, yeah. I love it. So anyway, we have a
• 4:28
  Speaker 2: lot going on today. You know, I know that the
• 4:32
  Speaker 2: pre-markets aren't that exciting, really. They're down a little bit
• 4:36
  Speaker 2: and a little bit in the red, although crude's up. Oh, no.
• 4:40
  Speaker 2: But so is gold and Bitcoin and other things. But
• 4:44
  Speaker 2: the NASDAQ, it's down, but it's down so insignificantly that
• 4:50
  Speaker 2: I'm not sure where. Oh, you know what? I just
• 4:52
  Speaker 2: got an update on it. Everything's green now. So it
• 4:54
  Speaker 2: looks like we're going to have.
• 4:55
  Speaker 3: It's because it knows you're back, Mark.
• 4:57
  Speaker 2: Yeah. By the way, you know, before I left, I
• 5:00
  Speaker 2: asked the markets to behave themselves.
• 5:02
  Speaker 1: And they did.
• 5:02
  Speaker 2: Yeah, and they did. So I guess now they're celebrating.
• 5:07
  Speaker 2: Praise God for that.
• 5:08
  Speaker 3: But Mark, you really didn't exactly go away, right? Because
• 5:11
  Speaker 3: you were a super busy bee while you were on vacation,
• 5:13
  Speaker 3: even penned a new op-ed. And I do want to
• 5:15
  Speaker 3: talk about it. Uh, it's not out yet. It's an
• 5:17
  Speaker 3: upcoming article, but we're so good to our audience. We're
• 5:21
  Speaker 3: going to give you a sneak peek of what it's
• 5:22
  Speaker 3: all about. It's called, is the sky falling or is
• 5:26
  Speaker 3: it raining gold? And Mark, so it's about, uh, treasury yields, right? What,
• 5:30
  Speaker 3: what does that title mean?
• 5:33
  Speaker 2: Well, you know, for months, for months, uh, Ever since
• 5:36
  Speaker 2: Trump's been in, no matter what happens, the sky's falling, right?
• 5:41
  Speaker 2: So what's happened when interest rates started rising is that
• 5:46
  Speaker 2: all they focused on was the negative side of it,
• 5:49
  Speaker 2: the negative consequence of higher interest rates. You know, like, oh,
• 5:53
  Speaker 2: mortgages are going to go up. Borrowing costs are going
• 5:56
  Speaker 2: to go up for business. It's going to cause businesses
• 5:59
  Speaker 2: to go out of business. The greater pressure on consumers, business,
• 6:02
  Speaker 2: and government. But Even though I believe those concerns are legitimate,
• 6:07
  Speaker 2: and they are, we can see some of those, not
• 6:09
  Speaker 2: as bad as the world's ending, but there has been
• 6:13
  Speaker 2: some impact. But they're only telling half the story. There's
• 6:17
  Speaker 2: two sides to every interest rate move. Someone is paying
• 6:20
  Speaker 2: it and someone is receiving it. For the faithful steward,
• 6:24
  Speaker 2: and this is where it comes in, for somebody who
• 6:27
  Speaker 2: really embraces stewardship, who's managed their money wisely and avoided
• 6:31
  Speaker 2: unnecessary debt, and they built their savings and investment plans properly,
• 6:38
  Speaker 2: higher interest rates can represent opportunity rather than financial pain.
• 6:44
  Speaker 2: So that's what it's all about. For example, take a
• 6:46
  Speaker 2: 10-year treasury yields, reach 5%, okay? Income investors have an
• 6:51
  Speaker 2: opportunity to earn meaningful income without the risk of being
• 6:55
  Speaker 2: in stocks or REITs or corporate bonds. That's the point
• 7:00
  Speaker 2: of the title. Is the sky falling or is it
• 7:03
  Speaker 2: raining gold? You see, depending on your stewardship, where you're
• 7:08
  Speaker 2: at in embracing God's directives for how we manage his
• 7:13
  Speaker 2: money will determine whether we can see this as a
• 7:16
  Speaker 2: negative or a positive. Will it impact us negatively or positively?
• 7:21
  Speaker 2: And the media only told us half the story. So
• 7:23
  Speaker 2: that's what it's really all about.
• 7:25
  Speaker 4: Yeah.
• 7:26
  Speaker 3: Can you talk about that? So it's over 5% now.
• 7:28
  Speaker 3: And so you said this really changes the analysis of
• 7:32
  Speaker 3: stocks in general, at least for income investors. How does
• 7:35
  Speaker 3: that change that analysis and what makes a good income
• 7:38
  Speaker 3: stock now that the yields are so high?
• 7:42
  Speaker 2: Well, Sam, um, It really comes down to the risk-reward
• 7:46
  Speaker 2: calculation for every investment, including stocks. You see, stocks carry
• 7:51
  Speaker 2: greater uncertainty. Obviously, we purchase stocks, we buy in, we
• 7:57
  Speaker 2: become a partner in, we become an owner in stocks
• 8:00
  Speaker 2: because when the company grows, when it strengthens itself, when
• 8:06
  Speaker 2: it becomes larger, hopefully the price follows that and we
• 8:11
  Speaker 2: win because we earn more. growth in those things. So
• 8:16
  Speaker 2: some stocks pay dividends. For stocks offering a 3% dividend
• 8:21
  Speaker 2: or less, they may have looked good when treasuries were
• 8:25
  Speaker 2: around 2%. But when treasuries start paying 5%, we need
• 8:29
  Speaker 2: to ask whether stock potential the potential dividend the stock
• 8:34
  Speaker 2: is paying is worth the risk of this stock going
• 8:38
  Speaker 2: up and down. The volatility of the stock, primarily the
• 8:41
  Speaker 2: possibility of losing money in capital losses, that is the
• 8:48
  Speaker 2: risk really there for this 3%. When we can get
• 8:51
  Speaker 2: a 5% yield backed by the full taxing authority of
• 8:54
  Speaker 2: the United States. So for growth stocks, a little bit
• 8:59
  Speaker 2: difference there. It puts a little more emphasis on earnings
• 9:04
  Speaker 2: and growth valuation. If we're not going to see 5%
• 9:06
  Speaker 2: a year in a growth stock, why would we buy
• 9:10
  Speaker 2: it if we could get 5% in yield on a
• 9:14
  Speaker 2: pretty safe treasury? So both for dividend stocks and growth stocks,
• 9:19
  Speaker 2: it affects how we look at them.
• 9:22
  Speaker 3: Right, right. Now, to be clear, though, treasuries aren't exactly risk-free, right?
• 9:27
  Speaker 3: There are some things that people need to be aware of.
• 9:30
  Speaker 3: It's not like there's completely in the safe zone with treasuries.
• 9:35
  Speaker 3: Is that right?
• 9:36
  Speaker 2: Well, that's true. Treasuries are probably among the safest investments available,
• 9:41
  Speaker 2: but there's still things like there's interest rate risk. If
• 9:44
  Speaker 2: interest rates go up, it could cause the bonds you
• 9:48
  Speaker 2: are holding to lose capital in them. They could come
• 9:52
  Speaker 2: down in price, okay? So if you don't hold them
• 9:56
  Speaker 2: to maturity and you need to sell them, at some
• 10:00
  Speaker 2: point for an emergency or something, you could lose some
• 10:03
  Speaker 2: money in it. But holding an individual treasury bond to
• 10:06
  Speaker 2: maturity and selling it before maturity are two different distinctions. So,
• 10:12
  Speaker 2: There's inflation risk, there's reinvestment risk, meaning once the bonds
• 10:16
  Speaker 2: come due, and there's opportunity costs to consider. And actually,
• 10:19
  Speaker 2: you know what? Why don't we continue this on the
• 10:22
  Speaker 2: other side? Because I'd really like to make this really
• 10:24
  Speaker 2: clear for people who are buying into treasuries, because this
• 10:29
  Speaker 2: is something they need to do if they're an income investor.
• 10:33
  Speaker 2: So you're going to want to stay with us as
• 10:35
  Speaker 2: we talk about this a little bit deeper, how to
• 10:39
  Speaker 2: manage the treasury risk and how to make it even...
• 10:42
  Speaker 2: better for you and take advantage of it. The good
• 10:45
  Speaker 2: news is that if you're a believer and you manage
• 10:48
  Speaker 2: your money according to God's word, you're in a position
• 10:51
  Speaker 2: to take advantage of it instead of being taken advantage of.
• 10:55
  Speaker 3: 610-363-1110. All right, guys, welcome back to Financial Issues. I'm
• 11:09
  Speaker 3: Samuel Case here with the man himself, Mark Manilla. Mark,
• 11:13
  Speaker 3: we were talking about treasury yields and some of the
• 11:16
  Speaker 3: risks associated with them. But before we get to that,
• 11:19
  Speaker 3: I do want to tell you about our friends over
• 11:20
  Speaker 3: at Timothy Plan. Mark, I just love the Timothy Plan.
• 11:24
  Speaker 3: So much. It was how I initially got into investing
• 11:27
  Speaker 3: was Timothy Plan with their mutual funds and ETFs. They
• 11:30
  Speaker 3: just made everything so easily done. And I had the
• 11:34
  Speaker 3: peace of mind knowing that it's all biblically responsible. So
• 11:38
  Speaker 3: easy to do, to get involved with their products. They're
• 11:41
  Speaker 3: integral to the financial issue strategy. You can learn more
• 11:44
  Speaker 3: at timothyplan.com. So, Mark, let's get back to our conversation
• 11:49
  Speaker 3: about treasury yields. So we were talking about risk. You
• 11:52
  Speaker 3: had some more things to say about that, right?
• 11:54
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I'd really like to simplify it a little bit.
• 11:56
  Speaker 2: Let me give you three different examples. Let's say that
• 11:59
  Speaker 2: you buy into the treasuries today and rates continue to rise,
• 12:04
  Speaker 2: but you hold it to maturity. If rates rise to 6%,
• 12:07
  Speaker 2: your bond value actually falls dramatically. the value of the
• 12:11
  Speaker 2: bonds that you already own actually falls. But if you
• 12:14
  Speaker 2: continue receiving If you hold the maturity, you get back
• 12:19
  Speaker 2: what you paid in it, plus you receive all the
• 12:21
  Speaker 2: interest along the way. So no risk there if you
• 12:23
  Speaker 2: don't have to get rid of it. But if rates
• 12:26
  Speaker 2: continue to rise and you have to sell before maturity,
• 12:29
  Speaker 2: then you might have a little capital hit on those.
• 12:32
  Speaker 2: You might find that you receive a little bit less
• 12:35
  Speaker 2: than you paid because the newer bonds offer higher yields.
• 12:39
  Speaker 2: So holding the maturity, you get the income you wanted
• 12:42
  Speaker 2: and nothing happens. If you have to sell in the meantime,
• 12:46
  Speaker 2: then you have a problem of a little bit of
• 12:49
  Speaker 2: capital loss. And the third scenario is if rates fall.
• 12:52
  Speaker 2: If rates decline, let's say to 4% and your existing
• 12:58
  Speaker 2: treasuries are paying 5%, there's potential allowing you to sell
• 13:02
  Speaker 2: at capital gains. So You may not even hold at
• 13:05
  Speaker 2: the maturity if the capital gains are enough. Let's say
• 13:08
  Speaker 2: that if rates fell to like 2% and you're holding
• 13:11
  Speaker 2: 5% bonds, they could increase substantially and you could sell
• 13:16
  Speaker 2: them off. Of course, you'd lose the income you have,
• 13:19
  Speaker 2: but you get the capital gains and then maybe you
• 13:22
  Speaker 2: start taking on a little more risk in the preferreds
• 13:25
  Speaker 2: or the dividend paying stocks that could pay you the
• 13:28
  Speaker 2: 5% that you want. And buy more of those than
• 13:31
  Speaker 2: you could have before. So those are the main things
• 13:35
  Speaker 2: that you need to be looking at for all that
• 13:38
  Speaker 2: is that. I would say a good steward manages these risks.
• 13:43
  Speaker 2: First of all, you match the bond maturities to your
• 13:45
  Speaker 2: anticipated cash needs. If you're going to need the money
• 13:48
  Speaker 2: in 10 years, you buy 10 years. If you need
• 13:51
  Speaker 2: it in 20 years, you'll buy 20 years. You know,
• 13:53
  Speaker 2: that kind of thing. So don't put short-term money into
• 13:56
  Speaker 2: long-term bonds is what I'm saying. And consider spreading the
• 13:59
  Speaker 2: maturities across decades. several years rather than committing everything to
• 14:03
  Speaker 2: one maturity date. We call that laddering. That way, when
• 14:06
  Speaker 2: one comes due, others are still paying you the interest. Well,
• 14:11
  Speaker 2: the interest rates could be down, so you might have
• 14:13
  Speaker 2: to move that money from the part of the ladder
• 14:15
  Speaker 2: that came due into other investments to get the income
• 14:19
  Speaker 2: that you want. And I would say evaluate the income
• 14:23
  Speaker 2: opportunity without assuming you can predict the future interest rates. Meaning,
• 14:29
  Speaker 2: is 5% enough for your income needs? If it is,
• 14:33
  Speaker 2: you may want to lock that in. And if you
• 14:36
  Speaker 2: need it over the long term, lock it in for
• 14:38
  Speaker 2: long term. So treasuries can provide dependable income and really
• 14:43
  Speaker 2: a high degree of principal protection. And I think that's
• 14:47
  Speaker 2: what affects the stock market as well. We want to
• 14:51
  Speaker 2: be more selective in dividend-paying stocks, and even more selective
• 14:56
  Speaker 2: in growth stocks because we can get 5%. That should
• 14:59
  Speaker 2: be the bottom line now, not breaking even, not losing money,
• 15:04
  Speaker 2: but 5%. If you base your bottom line on that now,
• 15:07
  Speaker 2: what happens is you look at stock a little different.
• 15:10
  Speaker 2: You make sure they have the financial steel that we
• 15:13
  Speaker 2: want it to have. You make sure that it's strong,
• 15:16
  Speaker 2: the potential is strong, the balance sheet is strong, income
• 15:19
  Speaker 2: statement is strong. They're managing their debt well because If
• 15:24
  Speaker 2: with the interest rates up higher, you don't want them
• 15:26
  Speaker 2: to get weaker on you. So it increases the quality
• 15:31
  Speaker 2: selectiveness of everything you buy by having higher interest rates.
• 15:35
  Speaker 2: There's a lot of positive things about higher interest rate.
• 15:37
  Speaker 2: Is it there, Sam?
• 15:39
  Speaker 3: Yeah, well, really what I'm hearing here, Mark, is that
• 15:42
  Speaker 3: if you've managed your debt well, and if you're keeping
• 15:45
  Speaker 3: a cool head about the whole situation, Really, no matter
• 15:48
  Speaker 3: what happens, if rates rise, fall, swing back and forth,
• 15:52
  Speaker 3: if you're being a good steward about these things, it
• 15:54
  Speaker 3: can be, what, a win-win-win situation?
• 15:57
  Speaker 2: Absolutely. That's a very good summary of it. It comes
• 16:01
  Speaker 2: down to godly stewardship always gives us opportunities, whatever is
• 16:06
  Speaker 2: going on in the market. It's not that we need
• 16:09
  Speaker 2: to predict the future because we can't. We know we can't.
• 16:11
  Speaker 2: Only God can. What it does mean, though, is that
• 16:14
  Speaker 2: we're prepared for whatever the future brings us, and we
• 16:18
  Speaker 2: can adapt to it and take advantage of the opportunities
• 16:21
  Speaker 2: that come along.
• 16:22
  Speaker 3: Is there anyone who treasuries might not be a good
• 16:26
  Speaker 3: idea for right now?
• 16:27
  Speaker 2: Well, yeah, of course. There's different types of people who
• 16:32
  Speaker 2: need treasury. Treasuries are a consideration for Investors who need
• 16:39
  Speaker 2: dependable income, who want to preserve capital and are looking
• 16:43
  Speaker 2: to reduce unnecessary investment risk, they're attractive for retirees. Investors
• 16:50
  Speaker 2: near retirement and savers who... have little or no debt
• 16:54
  Speaker 2: and sufficient cash reserve. Those are who should be in treasuries.
• 16:59
  Speaker 2: Younger people, young men and women who are beginning their investment,
• 17:03
  Speaker 2: they have the time to recover from pullbacks, things like that.
• 17:06
  Speaker 2: They don't need 5%. They should be going for the
• 17:09
  Speaker 2: average of 10% a year in their portfolio. That's where
• 17:13
  Speaker 2: buying stocks and being a little more aggressive and realizing
• 17:17
  Speaker 2: the markets are going to go up and down. It's
• 17:19
  Speaker 2: going to be a roller coaster, but over the long term,
• 17:21
  Speaker 2: You're going to outperform those treasuries. And as you get
• 17:24
  Speaker 2: close to retirement, that's when you start switching and saying, hey,
• 17:28
  Speaker 2: I need to get a little more protective on what
• 17:31
  Speaker 2: I have here and get a little more conservative and
• 17:34
  Speaker 2: start developing a little income. Because when I get to
• 17:38
  Speaker 2: total retirement, I want to develop a portfolio that can
• 17:41
  Speaker 2: support me in my retirement with the income and the
• 17:44
  Speaker 2: capital gains that can spin off.
• 17:47
  Speaker 3: Makes sense to me, Mark. By the way, in the chat,
• 17:49
  Speaker 3: people are asking about TPFI. That's the Timothy Plan Fixed Income.
• 17:54
  Speaker 3: Is that primarily invested in treasuries?
• 17:57
  Speaker 2: It does invest in some treasuries, but it's also primarily,
• 18:02
  Speaker 2: I believe at this point, in corporate bonds. So corporate
• 18:05
  Speaker 2: bonds have a little more risk to them. Sometimes they
• 18:09
  Speaker 2: have a better yield to them. I think right now
• 18:12
  Speaker 2: the TPFI is paying a little bit above 4%. And
• 18:18
  Speaker 2: it's probably taken a little bit of hit as the
• 18:20
  Speaker 2: interest rates rise. Remember, the portfolio was full of bonds.
• 18:25
  Speaker 2: So when interest rates rise, existing bonds lose a little
• 18:30
  Speaker 2: bit of their capital gains that they have or their
• 18:34
  Speaker 2: pricing comes down a little bit to offset that. So
• 18:37
  Speaker 2: what we're seeing in TPFI is maybe it's come down
• 18:40
  Speaker 2: in price a little bit, but it's still paying a
• 18:42
  Speaker 2: great dividend. So when you look at TPFI, you need
• 18:46
  Speaker 2: to look at it for its income capability, not for
• 18:50
  Speaker 2: the capital gains. And so, yeah, there'll be some fluctuation
• 18:53
  Speaker 2: in the pricing, the net asset value or the trading
• 18:57
  Speaker 2: price on that ETF. But you're buying it for the income.
• 19:01
  Speaker 2: Remember that. No, that makes sense.
• 19:04
  Speaker 3: Hey, Mark, why don't we shift gears a little bit
• 19:06
  Speaker 3: and move on to the markets, get a little bit
• 19:08
  Speaker 3: of a market recap here. So by late afternoon on Friday,
• 19:12
  Speaker 3: the Dow Jones was flirting with a full percent gain
• 19:15
  Speaker 3: while the other benchmark indices rose nicely as well. The
• 19:18
  Speaker 3: Dow ended about up 0.8 percent, S & P up
• 19:22
  Speaker 3: about half a percent. Same with the NASDAQ, a little
• 19:25
  Speaker 3: bit more, actually, 0.64%. And then the Russell also up
• 19:30
  Speaker 3: about half a percent. Mark, while you were away, though,
• 19:33
  Speaker 3: we were wrapping up the third quarter. I want to
• 19:36
  Speaker 3: get your thoughts about the third quarter and how you
• 19:39
  Speaker 3: feel the market's going to be experiencing things going into.
• 19:43
  Speaker 2: The end of the year. Yeah, I i i get
• 19:46
  Speaker 2: that um you know i hate doing projections but i'll
• 19:51
  Speaker 2: tell you i'm cautiously optimistic even even with the even
• 19:55
  Speaker 2: with the um Even with what's going to go on
• 19:59
  Speaker 2: in November.
• 20:00
  Speaker 3: That was my question. Are we going to just be
• 20:02
  Speaker 3: all holding our breath for the next couple weeks until
• 20:04
  Speaker 3: we find out what happens?
• 20:06
  Speaker 2: Of course we are. We're going to hold our breath.
• 20:08
  Speaker 2: We're going to look at what happens. But no matter
• 20:10
  Speaker 2: what happens, we're prepared as stewards. Remember... Cautiously optimistic is
• 20:17
  Speaker 2: based on facts, by the way, not on what I
• 20:20
  Speaker 2: wanted to do. We have a resilient economy. It's proven
• 20:23
  Speaker 2: over and over again you can't take it down at
• 20:25
  Speaker 2: this point. We have strong corporate earnings that are holding
• 20:30
  Speaker 2: up the stock market. It's not being held up by hope.
• 20:32
  Speaker 2: We see earnings like never before in history going on
• 20:37
  Speaker 2: in the stocks. We have incredible business investment going on.
• 20:41
  Speaker 2: Trillions are coming into the United States. And we have
• 20:44
  Speaker 2: a stock market that's just actually shown the ability to
• 20:49
  Speaker 2: absorb some of the most significant challenges that we've seen
• 20:53
  Speaker 2: in history as well. So think about it. The S
• 20:56
  Speaker 2: & P 500 is up 14% this year. Elections really
• 21:02
  Speaker 2: can create uncertainty, but that's just short term. And by
• 21:05
  Speaker 2: the way, historically, fourth quarters have been particularly strong. So
• 21:09
  Speaker 2: we got a lot to say. We got a lot
• 21:11
  Speaker 2: to look forward to. When I say this market, I
• 21:19
  Speaker 2: like this market. It goes beyond that in the sense
• 21:21
  Speaker 2: that I also believe discipline is what makes this market. Remember,
• 21:26
  Speaker 2: there's a lot of stocks that are overvalued right now.
• 21:29
  Speaker 3: Yeah, Mark, you said in a recent commentary, the market
• 21:32
  Speaker 3: rewards discipline. This in particular is a market that rewards discipline.
• 21:38
  Speaker 3: I know that investing always has a level of discipline
• 21:41
  Speaker 3: to it, but what about this market in particular maybe
• 21:44
  Speaker 3: requires a little bit more?
• 21:46
  Speaker 2: Well, we just talked about how interest rates force us
• 21:49
  Speaker 2: into a quality, increasing the quality of the decisions we make.
• 21:53
  Speaker 2: We need to be more selective. Investors need to be
• 21:56
  Speaker 2: more selectors. We need that. We need to maintain our
• 21:59
  Speaker 2: allocation because we never know when somebody is going to
• 22:03
  Speaker 2: pull the rug out from underneath the markets. And we
• 22:06
  Speaker 2: need to recognize that valuations have gotten ahead of fundamentals.
• 22:10
  Speaker 2: So in a lot of stocks. So I believe this
• 22:13
  Speaker 2: is a good time if you're rebalancing your portfolio, which
• 22:16
  Speaker 2: you should be more regularly than normal because of the
• 22:21
  Speaker 2: high valuations of a lot of things. You need to
• 22:23
  Speaker 2: keep cash available for those opportunities. Remember, again, I'm going
• 22:27
  Speaker 2: to say it one more time, long-term investing does not
• 22:31
  Speaker 2: mean buying overvalued stocks. Let's be selective during this period.
• 22:35
  Speaker 2: The number here is 610-363-1110, 610-363-1110. We're talking about a
• 22:37
  Speaker 2: lot of important things today. do with your portfolio. We'd
• 22:46
  Speaker 2: love to have your call. Oscar, I see you in
• 22:48
  Speaker 2: the queue there. We're down to the last minute of
• 22:50
  Speaker 2: this segment. We'll get to your call as soon as
• 22:52
  Speaker 2: we come back. If you have to leave us, sorry
• 22:55
  Speaker 2: to see you go, but you can continue with us
• 22:58
  Speaker 2: on financialissues.org. That's financialissues.org. A lot of people don't know this, Sam,
• 23:04
  Speaker 2: but if you go out to financialissues.org, you can watch
• 23:09
  Speaker 2: the show live there. instead of on a television or
• 23:12
  Speaker 2: a radio. Not that we want you to not listen
• 23:14
  Speaker 2: to it on television or radio. But then you can
• 23:17
  Speaker 2: also be in the chat room. And with all those
• 23:20
  Speaker 2: wonderful people we have in the chat room, thank you
• 23:22
  Speaker 2: all for wishing me or saying welcome back, Mark, really
• 23:26
  Speaker 2: welcoming me back. They're thrilled, Mark. I know. Thank you.
• 23:30
  Speaker 2: That's all so good. But 610-363-1110 and financialissues.org, two things
• 23:36
  Speaker 2: you want to write down on a piece of paper
• 23:38
  Speaker 2: because they're important. And we'll start taking calls when we
• 23:41
  Speaker 2: come back from this very short break to honor the
• 23:45
  Speaker 2: those who we partner with as you do and as
• 23:49
  Speaker 2: we've seen over the years as you do as well
• 23:51
  Speaker 2: so 610-363-1110 Welcome back, everyone. I'm Mark Minnelli, your host,
• 24:11
  Speaker 2: and Sam is with me in the control room, and
• 24:13
  Speaker 2: we want you to join us. The number here is 610-363-1110.
• 24:17
  Speaker 2: Come on in and join us, and thank you all
• 24:19
  Speaker 2: in the chat for the warm welcome you've given us.
• 24:22
  Speaker 2: We're going to take calls now and answer questions. Let's
• 24:26
  Speaker 2: go to... Sam, let's go to Oscar in Santa Clara, California.
• 24:30
  Speaker 3: First, before we go to him, I just want to
• 24:32
  Speaker 3: say I'm very impressed that he's calling at 6.30 a.m.
• 24:35
  Speaker 3: from California. Oscar, welcome to Financial Issues. You're live on air.
• 24:42
  Speaker 4: Hello.
• 24:43
  Speaker 2: Hello, Oscar. What's on your mind this morning in this
• 24:46
  Speaker 2: early morning out in California?
• 24:49
  Speaker 4: Yeah, I know. Actually, I set an alarm to wake
• 24:54
  Speaker 4: up because I wanted to... to call, you know.
• 25:00
  Speaker 2: Ed, you did.
• 25:00
  Speaker 4: Welcome back. Thank you. I'm glad to hear that you're back.
• 25:06
  Speaker 4: Hope you had a great time.
• 25:09
  Speaker 2: I did. Got a lot of rust and a little
• 25:13
  Speaker 2: bit of sun, so thank you.
• 25:15
  Speaker 4: Awesome. So my question is, well, so my employer offers
• 25:21
  Speaker 4: retirement plans But none of them are BRI. So I
• 25:28
  Speaker 4: asked him if there was a way I could choose
• 25:32
  Speaker 4: a Timothy plan. And he said he would try to
• 25:36
  Speaker 4: see if he could do that. But also he asked
• 25:42
  Speaker 4: me to give him the font or ticker symbol and
• 25:51
  Speaker 4: So I was wondering if it's possible and if he
• 25:56
  Speaker 4: can do that. I wanted to know which Timothy plan
• 26:02
  Speaker 4: for retirement would you suggest me? I'm 30 and I'm
• 26:07
  Speaker 4: a partner.
• 26:09
  Speaker 2: Okay. Well, yeah, absolutely. First of all, there is a letter,
• 26:14
  Speaker 2: by the way. It sounds like you're already taking care
• 26:15
  Speaker 2: of it, but if you want to give an official
• 26:17
  Speaker 2: letter to your to your employer, there's a really nice
• 26:22
  Speaker 2: letter we have that is out on the site that
• 26:25
  Speaker 2: you could download, and it's very respectful and asks them
• 26:28
  Speaker 2: to make it give you the opportunity to participate in
• 26:33
  Speaker 2: the plan. And it sounds like they're willing to, so
• 26:36
  Speaker 2: you probably don't really need to do that, but if
• 26:38
  Speaker 2: you wanted to, you could. It might give you some
• 26:40
  Speaker 2: language when you're having the conversation with them again. But secondly,
• 26:46
  Speaker 2: I need to know the 401k is primarily what's in
• 26:49
  Speaker 2: it now. Is it all mutual funds of some sort?
• 26:54
  Speaker 2: Or do you have the opportunity to buy individual stocks
• 26:59
  Speaker 2: and ETFs and things like that?
• 27:02
  Speaker 4: I mean, I'm not sure. I guess I could ask,
• 27:06
  Speaker 4: but like, Since none of the stocks or funds were BRI,
• 27:14
  Speaker 4: I just asked him, is there a way, maybe just
• 27:18
  Speaker 4: at least Timothy?
• 27:20
  Speaker 2: I can try asking for stocks. Well, I'll give you
• 27:26
  Speaker 2: a couple options. If it's mutual funds only in there,
• 27:29
  Speaker 2: Timothy Plans has traditional mutual funds. What they could do
• 27:33
  Speaker 2: is offer a group of Timothy Plans or a single one,
• 27:37
  Speaker 2: a group of Timothy Plans. I'd go with their small cap,
• 27:40
  Speaker 2: their mid-large cap, their Israeli fund, and their international fund.
• 27:46
  Speaker 2: That way you could create as much of a portfolio
• 27:50
  Speaker 2: in leaning more aggressive or less aggressive with them. You
• 27:54
  Speaker 2: could also put in a bond fund there, too. But
• 27:57
  Speaker 2: at your age, I would be focused more on the
• 28:00
  Speaker 2: growth portfolios. If they allow ETFs, that means something like
• 28:06
  Speaker 2: the mid-large cap, the small cap, the international ETFs. I
• 28:11
  Speaker 2: would use those for you. But if there's others at
• 28:17
  Speaker 2: your employer, there may be older people who may need
• 28:21
  Speaker 2: some income, so there's also an ETF for that. But
• 28:26
  Speaker 2: if they just only want to give you one fund
• 28:28
  Speaker 2: to invest in, then I would go with the mutual fund,
• 28:31
  Speaker 2: the fund of funds, the growth fund. They have a
• 28:36
  Speaker 2: strategic growth fund that's made up of multiple funds. I
• 28:41
  Speaker 2: know this is a lot of information, and if you
• 28:44
  Speaker 2: stay on the phone after this call, what I can
• 28:47
  Speaker 2: do is we could email you out a lot of
• 28:50
  Speaker 2: the information of these different funds, or you could go
• 28:53
  Speaker 2: out to timothyplan.com. Just remember, for you, at your age
• 28:58
  Speaker 2: at 30, you probably, if you already have your savings
• 29:01
  Speaker 2: set up, if you have the motor on your castle,
• 29:03
  Speaker 2: you want to be into the growth portfolio. So the
• 29:08
  Speaker 2: strategic growth fund of funds would be the one single fund. Otherwise,
• 29:13
  Speaker 2: you could go with a small cap ETF, mid-large cap ETF,
• 29:17
  Speaker 2: international ETF, and make a nice portfolio out of that
• 29:21
  Speaker 2: as well. Is that helpful, Oscar?
• 29:26
  Speaker 3: Yes.
• 29:27
  Speaker 4: Just one more thing.
• 29:28
  Speaker 3: Sure.
• 29:30
  Speaker 4: So in case it's not possible, you know, because he
• 29:34
  Speaker 4: didn't say he would do that. but in case that
• 29:38
  Speaker 4: he can't do it, would you recommend me just to
• 29:48
  Speaker 4: put the money in the cash allocation? Well, let me
• 29:53
  Speaker 4: ask you this.
• 29:56
  Speaker 2: Are they matching your contributions?
• 29:59
  Speaker 4: Yeah, I was going to say that, too. He matches
• 30:04
  Speaker 4: 50% of my contributions up to 6%. So basically, I
• 30:10
  Speaker 4: have to do 6%, and they do 3%. Yeah.
• 30:17
  Speaker 2: So, yeah, I think that's a good strategy. If they're
• 30:19
  Speaker 2: matching 50%, then the first year that you put a
• 30:22
  Speaker 2: dollar in there, they're putting in 50 cents, so you
• 30:26
  Speaker 2: already have a 50% return. If the markets go up
• 30:30
  Speaker 2: beyond that for you, you're doing good. As time goes on, though,
• 30:34
  Speaker 2: that comes down because the interest rate on the money
• 30:37
  Speaker 2: market isn't going to be that great. However, he doesn't determine,
• 30:43
  Speaker 2: your employer doesn't determine what's in, well, he does eventually.
• 30:47
  Speaker 2: He has to say whether he's going to stay with
• 30:49
  Speaker 2: the sponsor that's doing your 401k. But if the sponsor
• 30:53
  Speaker 2: won't allow you biblically responsible investments in it. He could switch.
• 30:58
  Speaker 2: But if they won't allow it, then yes, I think
• 31:02
  Speaker 2: your strategy would make sense. Down the road, if you
• 31:06
  Speaker 2: want to send us a copy of all your investments...
• 31:11
  Speaker 2: possibilities in that 401k, we could take a look at
• 31:15
  Speaker 2: it and see if we could find a little bit
• 31:17
  Speaker 2: better solution for you. If there's anything that might lean BRI,
• 31:24
  Speaker 2: even though the name of it isn't biblically responsible or
• 31:27
  Speaker 2: Timothy plan, it still could be clean. For example, some
• 31:31
  Speaker 2: small stock mutual funds, even though they have nothing to
• 31:35
  Speaker 2: do and it's not on purpose, they still screen clean.
• 31:38
  Speaker 2: Because most small cap companies don't have enough money to
• 31:42
  Speaker 2: waste on DEI and being woke. So I would say
• 31:46
  Speaker 2: there might be some opportunities within it that some people
• 31:49
  Speaker 2: might be missing just because they say Vanguard on them
• 31:52
  Speaker 2: or something, you know. So we'd be happy to take
• 31:55
  Speaker 2: a look at that for you and get back to you.
• 31:57
  Speaker 2: Leave your email address for us or you can email us.
• 32:03
  Speaker 2: I think, Sam, what's the address? Email with a question. Oh, Asker,
• 32:09
  Speaker 2: you emailed this question, so we have your email. No,
• 32:11
  Speaker 2: you didn't. You're a caller. Never mind. You want to
• 32:13
  Speaker 2: email us.
• 32:14
  Speaker 5: No, but I did actually.
• 32:18
  Speaker 4: Kind of gave you, gave last week. I asked this
• 32:24
  Speaker 4: last week, but it was different, you know.
• 32:29
  Speaker 2: Okay.
• 32:29
  Speaker 4: A different question. I can give you.
• 32:32
  Speaker 2: Yeah, leave it with who, leave it with who. Meg,
• 32:37
  Speaker 2: I think she's screening calls today. Leave it with Meg
• 32:40
  Speaker 2: and we will get back with you and send us
• 32:42
  Speaker 2: a copy of your elections that you have. Also, I
• 32:47
  Speaker 2: would really suggest you download that letter because it helps
• 32:51
  Speaker 2: them understand their responsibility to allow you to have investments
• 32:56
  Speaker 2: as well. Oscar, you've asked a really great question. I
• 33:00
  Speaker 2: appreciate you doing that in your call. And what I'd
• 33:03
  Speaker 2: like to do is address something that I believe we're
• 33:07
  Speaker 2: going to see in the future here, Oscar, and that
• 33:09
  Speaker 2: is that There will be some lawsuits in the future
• 33:13
  Speaker 2: from people who believe they're being discriminated against because they
• 33:16
  Speaker 2: can't invest with biblical integrity in 401ks. I believe there's
• 33:20
  Speaker 2: people out there who are getting tired of being sidelined
• 33:23
  Speaker 2: because they believe in God and believe in Jesus Christ.
• 33:27
  Speaker 2: I also believe there's going to be more lawsuits. I
• 33:30
  Speaker 2: say more because I saw one or two so far
• 33:32
  Speaker 2: in my lifetime where people had told their advisor, their
• 33:36
  Speaker 2: financial advisor, that They wanted to invest with biblical integrity
• 33:40
  Speaker 2: and their advisor snuck in things that were offensive, like
• 33:45
  Speaker 2: things that were involved in abortion, things like that. So
• 33:48
  Speaker 2: we're going to see more and more of that. This
• 33:50
  Speaker 2: letter to your employer respectfully and honorably asked them to
• 33:54
  Speaker 2: give you the opportunity to participate with the rest of
• 33:57
  Speaker 2: the employees and not sideline you for being a Christian.
• 34:00
  Speaker 2: God bless you, Oscar, for bringing us that question. Really
• 34:05
  Speaker 2: appreciate it. And I look forward to... conversing with you
• 34:09
  Speaker 2: a little bit via email on some of this information. Jim,
• 34:13
  Speaker 2: I see you in the queue here. And unfortunately, we're
• 34:19
  Speaker 2: down to one minute. So if you hold on till
• 34:21
  Speaker 2: after the break, we'll get to you. And for the
• 34:24
  Speaker 2: rest of you, it's 610-363-1110. We'd love you to call in.
• 34:29
  Speaker 2: One of the things that happens here is when you
• 34:31
  Speaker 2: call in and you ask a question like Oscar just did,
• 34:35
  Speaker 2: and like Jim's going to do, is it not only
• 34:38
  Speaker 2: helps them, but it helps so many other people around
• 34:41
  Speaker 2: the world who are watching and participating in financial issues
• 34:45
  Speaker 2: to understand something that maybe they didn't even realize that
• 34:49
  Speaker 2: in their, for example, a lot of people don't realize
• 34:51
  Speaker 2: in their 401k, they may be invested in pornography and abortion.
• 34:56
  Speaker 2: and use and abuse of God's children. Most believers who
• 35:00
  Speaker 2: really love the Lord don't want to do that, and
• 35:02
  Speaker 2: we're trying to help you find solutions to help your
• 35:05
  Speaker 2: employer to do that in an honorable and respectful way. Again,
• 35:10
  Speaker 2: the number here is 610-363-1110. We're going to answer questions
• 35:15
  Speaker 2: for the rest of the show. We hope you'll join us.
• 35:35
  Speaker 6: The opinions and recommendations expressed on this program do not
• 35:38
  Speaker 6: necessarily represent the opinions of the station or any of
• 35:41
  Speaker 6: the program's sponsors. Additionally, all products or services offered by
• 35:45
  Speaker 6: the program's sponsors may not be known by the program.
• 35:51
  Speaker 2: Welcome back, everyone. This is Financial Issues, and we're so
• 35:54
  Speaker 2: glad you're with us. 610-363-1110. Light up those phones. We'd
• 35:58
  Speaker 2: love to answer your questions. But, you know, before we
• 36:00
  Speaker 2: go there, Sam, Seth ran away. this week on vacation.
• 36:07
  Speaker 2: But we really didn't get to tell very many people
• 36:10
  Speaker 2: about his Narnia petition that he got going.
• 36:13
  Speaker 3: That's right.
• 36:14
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 36:14
  Speaker 3: And well, a lot of people apparently do know about it.
• 36:17
  Speaker 3: He's getting calls left and right to come on different
• 36:19
  Speaker 3: radio shows and talk about this. You can find more
• 36:23
  Speaker 3: about this. For those who don't know, they're basically, oh,
• 36:27
  Speaker 3: I don't know, gender-swapping Aslan, the Jesus figure in the
• 36:31
  Speaker 3: Narnia Netflix series. Seth and we at Financial Issues have
• 36:35
  Speaker 3: started a petition telling Netflix we're not happy about this,
• 36:40
  Speaker 3: and frankly, we're taking a stand letting them know this
• 36:43
  Speaker 3: is why Christians are not investing in Netflix, because of
• 36:46
  Speaker 3: garbage like this. This isn't a one-time offense from Netflix.
• 36:50
  Speaker 3: They have a huge track record. We want to use
• 36:52
  Speaker 3: this as an opportunity, yes, to talk to Netflix, but
• 36:56
  Speaker 3: also as a rallying cry for biblically responsible investing, that
• 37:00
  Speaker 3: so many Christians are investing in this type of stuff
• 37:03
  Speaker 3: without even knowing it. So you can go to takeaction.financialissues.org,
• 37:09
  Speaker 3: or even easier, defundnetflix.com and sign that petition.
• 37:15
  Speaker 2: Absolutely. Get out there and do that. Let's do this.
• 37:17
  Speaker 2: Let's let Netflix know that Christians aren't sleeping through this all.
• 37:22
  Speaker 2: When you deface our Christian heritage, when you try to
• 37:28
  Speaker 2: do these ugly things to our beliefs, we're not going
• 37:32
  Speaker 2: to support you. We're not going to get behind you.
• 37:34
  Speaker 2: We're not going to partner with you in our investments.
• 37:37
  Speaker 2: We're going to stay away and hopefully, you know, stop
• 37:42
  Speaker 2: subscribing to Netflix as well. I think it's very important
• 37:47
  Speaker 2: that we realize that we're not welcome there. They are
• 37:50
  Speaker 2: making fun of our Lord and God, and they've done
• 37:53
  Speaker 2: it over and over again, along with the foul language
• 37:56
  Speaker 2: and the porn and and the woke-ism that they do
• 37:59
  Speaker 2: on all their stuff. It's time to move on, people.
• 38:03
  Speaker 2: As great stewards, it's time to move on and move
• 38:06
  Speaker 2: away from it. Get out there and sign that petition.
• 38:08
  Speaker 2: And with that said, I promise I get to Jim here.
• 38:11
  Speaker 2: So let's go to Jim in Florida. Jim, welcome to
• 38:14
  Speaker 2: Financial Issues. I don't hear him here.
• 38:20
  Speaker 5: And you're rested up, and now I can raise your
• 38:23
  Speaker 5: blood pressure.
• 38:25
  Speaker 2: That's good to talk to you again, Jim. You know,
• 38:28
  Speaker 2: I read your little comment that Meg put in there
• 38:31
  Speaker 2: saying that we sparred. I don't remember sparring. I guess
• 38:34
  Speaker 2: maybe we had a difference on....
• 38:37
  Speaker 5: Go ahead. I didn't mean to interrupt you.
• 38:39
  Speaker 2: No, no, go ahead.
• 38:40
  Speaker 5: No, I was just going to say about three months ago,
• 38:42
  Speaker 5: we called and we were talking about interest rates being up,
• 38:46
  Speaker 5: and you were talking about how bad this is for
• 38:49
  Speaker 5: our economy. It's going to destroy it, which I thought
• 38:53
  Speaker 5: was a little hyperbolic, but... Anyway, I'm glad you're singing
• 38:58
  Speaker 5: my tune now. Wait a second. As I mentioned then,
• 39:04
  Speaker 5: there's 76 million people in the United States over the
• 39:07
  Speaker 5: age of 65. And we also talked about the rule
• 39:10
  Speaker 5: of 100, how much money you should have invested in
• 39:13
  Speaker 5: the market. And a lot of us would like to
• 39:15
  Speaker 5: have some fixed rate stuff to make us a little
• 39:18
  Speaker 5: bit of money on the side. And so now that
• 39:21
  Speaker 5: we've got interest rates up a little, I notice you
• 39:25
  Speaker 5: see there might be a silver lining to that cloud.
• 39:29
  Speaker 5: Always is for.
• 39:31
  Speaker 2: A great investor, for somebody who loves the Lord and
• 39:34
  Speaker 2: follows God's template on how to manage money. what he
• 39:38
  Speaker 2: says about how we should do things, there's always opportunities
• 39:42
  Speaker 2: that others don't have. Just to go back, I was
• 39:46
  Speaker 2: not saying the sky was falling. What I was saying
• 39:48
  Speaker 2: was an idiotic way to try and bring down interest rates,
• 39:53
  Speaker 2: destroy the economy to bring down interest rates, or to
• 39:59
  Speaker 2: destroy the growth of an economy. to bring down inflation
• 40:03
  Speaker 2: is an idiotic thing to do. Destroy the economy. That's
• 40:07
  Speaker 2: all I was saying. Interest rates at 5%. I know
• 40:10
  Speaker 2: a lot of people believe the sky's falling and running
• 40:13
  Speaker 2: around with their hair on fire. I don't believe that
• 40:16
  Speaker 2: at 5%. I've seen a lot. You and I, Jim,
• 40:18
  Speaker 2: have seen a lot higher interest rates. And we've seen things.
• 40:24
  Speaker 5: 12 and 13, yes. I've seen that. And I will admit,
• 40:26
  Speaker 5: when you start hitting 12 and 13%, you're getting, you know, 13,
• 40:30
  Speaker 5: 14% for a CD. Yeah. The economy's in trouble, but
• 40:35
  Speaker 5: you know, what.
• 40:35
  Speaker 2: An opportunity at that time, right?
• 40:38
  Speaker 6: Oh man.
• 40:39
  Speaker 5: I can remember those.
• 40:40
  Speaker 2: Who are positioned properly.
• 40:43
  Speaker 5: Well, my dad called me and was crying. He goes,
• 40:45
  Speaker 5: I get that. What's wrong. He goes, my last 13%
• 40:48
  Speaker 5: CDs coming through today. But, uh, that, that being as
• 40:54
  Speaker 5: it is, um, You know, we've been through this period
• 40:58
  Speaker 5: now the last, what, 12, 13 years that the stock
• 41:02
  Speaker 5: market's just gone crazy. And so, you know, we hear
• 41:05
  Speaker 5: about these 10%, 14% returns. I mean, even Dave Ramsey,
• 41:10
  Speaker 5: I hear him say something about that. And I go,
• 41:13
  Speaker 5: that's not history. You know, historically, the stock market returned
• 41:17
  Speaker 5: maybe 8% and bonds 4.5% to 6%. But here's what
• 41:20
  Speaker 5: I want to say is, There's a reason why our
• 41:26
  Speaker 5: bonds are up to now 5.5%. China's not buying our
• 41:31
  Speaker 5: debt anymore. People are worried about our currency remaining the
• 41:37
  Speaker 5: reserve currency of the world. And to get people to buy,
• 41:43
  Speaker 5: they have to keep raising it up. So there might
• 41:46
  Speaker 5: be some underlying problems here that you're correct about. It
• 41:52
  Speaker 5: might have something to do with the U.S. economy and
• 41:54
  Speaker 5: its debt.
• 41:56
  Speaker 2: Yeah, and its debt. That's where the issue is. Our
• 41:59
  Speaker 2: Congress and our president, I know the president is supposed
• 42:02
  Speaker 2: to put together the budget and present it to Congress,
• 42:05
  Speaker 2: and then Congress tweaks and is supposed to move on it,
• 42:08
  Speaker 2: but that's not what's happening. What's happening is that nobody's
• 42:12
  Speaker 2: doing their job, and it's because there are people in
• 42:16
  Speaker 2: Congress who hate our country, for one. They've been elected.
• 42:19
  Speaker 2: They're trying to destroy it. But you're absolutely right. I believe,
• 42:24
  Speaker 2: and you've heard me say this, Jim, over and over,
• 42:26
  Speaker 2: debt is the number one enemy of America right now.
• 42:29
  Speaker 2: When our dollar starts being used for international trade as
• 42:33
  Speaker 2: the default currency for international trade, that will, again, cause
• 42:38
  Speaker 2: interest rates to rise even more because we'll have to
• 42:42
  Speaker 2: less people will want to own our treasuries, will want
• 42:45
  Speaker 2: to own our treasury bonds. When we start raising rates
• 42:49
  Speaker 2: even more and more, what's going to happen at home,
• 42:52
  Speaker 2: people here have gotten to the point to where we
• 42:55
  Speaker 2: are all concerned with the debt to the point to
• 42:57
  Speaker 2: where we don't even trust it anymore. Eventually, there could
• 43:01
  Speaker 2: be a default. Eventually, something could happen. When that happens,
• 43:04
  Speaker 2: I could see a recession. I could see 5, 10,
• 43:06
  Speaker 2: maybe 15 years of recovery before we get back to
• 43:12
  Speaker 2: where the economy and everything else is in place. Our
• 43:16
  Speaker 2: national debt could take America down, and I believe that
• 43:20
  Speaker 2: is why exactly like you said, you summarized it real well.
• 43:24
  Speaker 2: I believe that is the number one risk to America
• 43:28
  Speaker 2: right now is the debt, and we need to get
• 43:30
  Speaker 2: that under control. Now, Jim, I do have hope, and
• 43:34
  Speaker 2: you might say I'm just an optimist. I believe that
• 43:37
  Speaker 2: this administration has been laying the foundations to be moving
• 43:40
  Speaker 2: in that direction. After the election, I'm hoping to see
• 43:44
  Speaker 2: within the first year after the election a notable decrease
• 43:49
  Speaker 2: in what's happening with our debt and what's happening with
• 43:53
  Speaker 2: our deficit spending. I pray that I'm not wrong. If
• 43:57
  Speaker 2: we don't see that, man, we need to be on
• 44:00
  Speaker 2: our knees praying for this country.
• 44:03
  Speaker 5: Well, one thing I would mention here would be this $ 5, 000
• 44:06
  Speaker 5: that they talked about. And I don't know if that
• 44:10
  Speaker 5: was a joke or not. You know, after the election,
• 44:14
  Speaker 5: you know, everybody in America gets $ 5, 000.
• 44:17
  Speaker 3: Jim, if I had to guess, that's Trump just saying things,
• 44:20
  Speaker 3: but that's just my opinion.
• 44:21
  Speaker 2: Trump being a troll? Really?
• 44:25
  Speaker 5: Because Vesit was in on that, and I'm thinking, okay,
• 44:27
  Speaker 5: we're going to add $ 1. 2 trillion to the deficit, which
• 44:31
  Speaker 5: goes to the debt, which means another $ 250 to $ 300
• 44:36
  Speaker 5: hundred million dollars payout every year from that. And then
• 44:40
  Speaker 5: you're going to dump another trillion into the economy without
• 44:44
  Speaker 5: an increase in goods or products. Isn't that the classic
• 44:49
  Speaker 5: definition of inflation?
• 44:51
  Speaker 2: It sure is. Where that money comes from is.
• 44:55
  Speaker 5: What's going to be important.
• 44:58
  Speaker 2: Yeah. If he does do it, I mean, Trump is
• 45:01
  Speaker 2: a troll. You know, he does troll the other side
• 45:04
  Speaker 2: and doesn't... really well, but I'm hoping, like you, that
• 45:11
  Speaker 2: if they do do this, that money isn't coming out
• 45:14
  Speaker 2: of thin air, but from somewhere else, from some way
• 45:19
  Speaker 2: they've recovered this money from somewhere, and they can prove it,
• 45:23
  Speaker 2: which is very unlikely. I know, Jim, but hey, you
• 45:28
  Speaker 2: can only hope, right?
• 45:29
  Speaker 5: Well, yeah, I was going to say, you can only hope,
• 45:32
  Speaker 5: but yeah. And you were talking about the budget. Aren't
• 45:38
  Speaker 5: we on our 23rd or 24th or 28th, you know,
• 45:43
  Speaker 5: what do they call that when they don't pass a budget?
• 45:46
  Speaker 2: The magical continuing resolution, Jim.
• 45:49
  Speaker 5: Continuing resolution, yeah. So there is no budget.
• 45:55
  Speaker 2: Yeah, get off your butts, Congress, and do your job.
• 45:58
  Speaker 2: We want people in there who are going to do
• 46:00
  Speaker 2: their job. And I don't care what side of the
• 46:03
  Speaker 2: aisle they're on. They have to do their job. If
• 46:06
  Speaker 2: they're not going to, they don't deserve to get paid.
• 46:08
  Speaker 2: I really believe an amendment would be really nice or
• 46:11
  Speaker 2: a law that says if the budget is not done
• 46:14
  Speaker 2: on time, you stop receiving your income. You stop being
• 46:18
  Speaker 2: paid as a senator, as a representative until it is completed.
• 46:25
  Speaker 2: I would love to see that. Thank you so much, Jim.
• 46:27
  Speaker 2: I really appreciate you. I love the way you voice
• 46:31
  Speaker 2: things and the way you do it in a God-honoring way.
• 46:34
  Speaker 2: And I think you have some really good insights into
• 46:36
  Speaker 2: what's going on in this world, as do many of
• 46:39
  Speaker 2: our listeners and our participants here at at financial issues.
• 46:43
  Speaker 2: We're glad you're with us. We're glad you love God
• 46:47
  Speaker 2: so much that you've decided to invest with integrity. And
• 46:50
  Speaker 2: higher interest rates, they shouldn't be bothering you at this
• 46:53
  Speaker 2: time if you've been a good steward. And if for
• 46:56
  Speaker 2: some reason you stumbled, that's okay too. There's always time
• 46:59
  Speaker 2: to get back online. Remember, Today's the first day of
• 47:02
  Speaker 2: being the best steward you've ever been in your life.
• 47:05
  Speaker 2: God bless everyone. I want to thank you again for
• 47:08
  Speaker 2: loving the Lord and showing it by the way you
• 47:10
  Speaker 2: invest with biblical integrity.