Latest / KNEO Podcast / Financial Issues - 2026 10 29 Financial Issues

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Financial Issues - 2026 10 29 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.
• 0:21
  Speaker 2: This is Financial Issues, where we help you defund darkness
• 0:25
  Speaker 2: and fund the light by investing with biblical integrity. It's
• 0:28
  Speaker 2: great to be here with you this Thursday, folks. I'm
• 0:30
  Speaker 2: Seth Udinski. Sam Case, our faithful audio producer, once again
• 0:35
  Speaker 2: is out today. His back has been killing him, but
• 0:37
  Speaker 2: we've got your host, Mark Manilla. Mark, it's a bummer
• 0:40
  Speaker 2: not to have Sam today, but I'm glad that we're
• 0:42
  Speaker 2: here at least, right?
• 0:43
  Speaker 3: Yeah, praise God for that. And we have so many
• 0:46
  Speaker 3: things to praise God about, don't we? Including we have
• 0:49
  Speaker 3: Elijah there.
• 0:50
  Speaker 2: We got Elijah back on the control room. Great to
• 0:52
  Speaker 2: have him.
• 0:53
  Speaker 3: That's right, brother.
• 0:54
  Speaker 2: Yeah, folks, keep Sam in your prayers for sure. It's
• 0:57
  Speaker 2: such a bummer to... you know, have that be a
• 1:00
  Speaker 2: continual thing. So we trust the Lord's healing there, but
• 1:03
  Speaker 2: Sam is certainly doing as well as he can, despite
• 1:06
  Speaker 2: being in some pain for sure. So 610-363-1110. We'd love
• 1:09
  Speaker 2: to hear from you all on our show today. Joel
• 1:11
  Speaker 2: Noble is going to join us shortly. Also, the Fed
• 1:13
  Speaker 2: made its decision. We'll discuss all that. But Mark, first
• 1:16
  Speaker 2: and foremost, you had just mentioned that we have so
• 1:19
  Speaker 2: much to be thankful for. And I think that is
• 1:21
  Speaker 2: just so important for us to remember. We were talking
• 1:23
  Speaker 2: before the show this morning, just about what we deserve
• 1:27
  Speaker 2: versus what we've received. And I may be speaking out
• 1:31
  Speaker 2: of term here, but I think everybody listening to this
• 1:33
  Speaker 2: show probably is in a position where they have received
• 1:37
  Speaker 2: much more than they deserve. And they are enjoying so
• 1:40
  Speaker 2: much more grace than they deserve.
• 1:42
  Speaker 3: If they're thinking straight, they'll realize what they deserve. You
• 1:49
  Speaker 3: He didn't get paid one night. He drove like on
• 1:51
  Speaker 3: his last few bucks up to a church to play
• 1:54
  Speaker 3: and minister to people. And when he's left, the pastor
• 1:58
  Speaker 3: shook his hand and sent him on his way. And
• 2:00
  Speaker 3: he's like praying on his way home. He says, God,
• 2:02
  Speaker 3: I just don't understand that I've dedicated my life to
• 2:05
  Speaker 3: doing this. I gave my last few bucks. I may
• 2:07
  Speaker 3: not even make it home. I may run out of gas.
• 2:10
  Speaker 3: He says, you know, I don't deserve this, God. And
• 2:12
  Speaker 3: then all of a sudden he had this feeling come
• 2:14
  Speaker 3: over like, oh, I really don't want what I deserve. Absolutely, Mark.
• 2:20
  Speaker 4: Yeah.
• 2:21
  Speaker 2: There's, you know, I've, I've had conversations with folks and
• 2:23
  Speaker 2: I've even felt this before too, where we shake our
• 2:25
  Speaker 2: fist at God almost. And we say, God, why are you,
• 2:28
  Speaker 2: why are you treating me so poorly? Why are you
• 2:30
  Speaker 2: being so unfair? And we need to be very careful
• 2:32
  Speaker 2: when we ask for that, because if we ask for
• 2:34
  Speaker 2: God to be fair, we would all wake up in
• 2:37
  Speaker 2: hell right now.
• 2:38
  Speaker 3: That would be fair. And you know what? It just,
• 2:41
  Speaker 3: we miss every, everything around us is so normal. That's
• 2:45
  Speaker 3: the issue. When you live in an environment, you don't
• 2:47
  Speaker 3: see things anymore. This morning, for some reason, God put
• 2:51
  Speaker 3: on my heart to count my blessings even more so
• 2:55
  Speaker 3: than regularly. And I just looked around. I thought, I'm
• 2:57
  Speaker 3: waking up. here in this nice bed in this air
• 3:01
  Speaker 3: conditioned heating, cool, you know, cool and heated house, the
• 3:06
  Speaker 3: house in a bedroom with running water with more food
• 3:11
  Speaker 3: in the, in the refrigerator than, than we need. Uh,
• 3:14
  Speaker 3: you know, I mean, it's just like, what do I
• 3:18
  Speaker 3: have to be, uh, unhappy about. I have more than
• 3:23
  Speaker 3: I need. God has provided way beyond. And I know
• 3:26
  Speaker 3: not everybody does, but everybody has a lot more than
• 3:30
  Speaker 3: they acknowledge. And if we can't count our blessings, if
• 3:33
  Speaker 3: we can't look around us and say, oh my gosh,
• 3:36
  Speaker 3: thank you for this, Lord, then then we just, we're
• 3:40
  Speaker 3: going to miss it. We're never going to be happy
• 3:42
  Speaker 3: because this world is trying to program us to believe
• 3:45
  Speaker 3: we just need a little bit more to be happy.
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  Speaker 3: Always a little bit more. Nothing is enough. Just, you
• 3:52
  Speaker 3: always need more. And if the enemy can keep us
• 3:55
  Speaker 3: in that state of mind, then God doesn't get the
• 3:57
  Speaker 3: glory for all he has entrusted to us, all he
• 4:01
  Speaker 3: has blessed us with. And he has blessed us with abundance.
• 4:04
  Speaker 3: Think about it. There are more secondhand stores now than
• 4:08
  Speaker 3: ever in history. Why is that? It's because we have
• 4:11
  Speaker 3: so much stuff. You know, even our impoverished live in
• 4:17
  Speaker 3: apartments or places where they have heating, cooling, internet, gaming.
• 4:23
  Speaker 3: I mean, it's just amazing. I read a statistic where
• 4:29
  Speaker 3: the average household now has three cars or something like that,
• 4:33
  Speaker 3: which was... just amazing, where 50 years ago, it was
• 4:36
  Speaker 3: one car, you know, it just, we forget how blessed
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  Speaker 3: we really are, and all of a sudden, the blessings
• 4:43
  Speaker 3: become curses, because, you know, even I, I had to
• 4:47
  Speaker 3: get my tags for my car, okay, and it really
• 4:51
  Speaker 3: irritated me, I had to pay taxes on those tags,
• 4:54
  Speaker 3: you know, You know, it's like I paid for this car.
• 4:57
  Speaker 3: Why should I have to continually pay property tax, personal
• 5:00
  Speaker 3: property tax? And I start complaining. There it is. There's
• 5:03
  Speaker 3: the enemy got my brain already. Here I am complaining
• 5:06
  Speaker 3: about a wonderful vehicle that God gave me. You know,
• 5:11
  Speaker 3: it's just we don't see the good in it all.
• 5:14
  Speaker 3: And then I started thinking, you know, you and I
• 5:16
  Speaker 3: and many others are musicians at heart. you know, we've
• 5:20
  Speaker 3: played music in our life on worship teams and stuff.
• 5:23
  Speaker 3: And I started thinking, how many songs, and I come
• 5:26
  Speaker 3: from the classic rock era. So it's like, I want
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  Speaker 3: to think, I want to start listening to some music
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  Speaker 3: that talks about what a wonderful day, what a beautiful thing.
• 5:36
  Speaker 3: Think of, you know, that counts our blessing, that talks
• 5:39
  Speaker 3: about how great things are, because there's so many songs
• 5:43
  Speaker 3: that are about heartbreak and and people dying and ugliness
• 5:48
  Speaker 3: and stuff. And I, and I said, I'm going to,
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  Speaker 3: I'm just going to take a moment here and, and
• 5:52
  Speaker 3: make a list of those songs that talk about how
• 5:55
  Speaker 3: great it is to be alive.
• 5:57
  Speaker 4: Huh?
• 5:58
  Speaker 5: Yeah.
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  Speaker 3: I can't think of any, any classic rock. I can't
• 6:02
  Speaker 3: think of any, um, any, any songs like that. I mean,
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  Speaker 3: there's some worship songs that are praising God for the
• 6:09
  Speaker 3: blessings and stuff, but I can't think of any others.
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  Speaker 3: It's like, oh, my gosh, I didn't even realize how
• 6:16
  Speaker 3: bad it was, how strong the enemy was at programming
• 6:21
  Speaker 3: us until just this moment. So we need to wake
• 6:24
  Speaker 3: up every morning, and we need to praise God, and
• 6:27
  Speaker 3: we need to get some songs out there. If you
• 6:30
  Speaker 3: know of a song that is honoring not just a
• 6:33
  Speaker 3: God but is saying, yes, what a wonderful day, besides
• 6:38
  Speaker 3: the Ray Charles or– whoever did that song.
• 6:42
  Speaker 2: Louis Armstrong.
• 6:44
  Speaker 3: Yeah, Louis Armstrong or whoever did that song. I would
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  Speaker 3: like to hear about the positive songs that actually either
• 6:51
  Speaker 3: directly or indirectly say, wow, what an incredible life God
• 6:56
  Speaker 3: has given us. How thankful we are for that, acknowledging
• 7:02
  Speaker 3: the blessings of our Lord. I'd love to hear from
• 7:05
  Speaker 3: people about that today.
• 7:06
  Speaker 2: Yeah, for sure, Mark.
• 7:09
  Speaker 3: 610-363-1110.
• 7:09
  Speaker 2: It'd be a good practice to get into, folks, to
• 7:12
  Speaker 2: count our blessings and do it often. You know, Mark,
• 7:14
  Speaker 2: let's talk real quickly here with the short time we
• 7:16
  Speaker 2: have left in this segment about what happened yesterday with
• 7:18
  Speaker 2: the Federal Reserve. And then we'll get to our topic
• 7:20
  Speaker 2: of the day in the next segment there. So the
• 7:21
  Speaker 2: Fed kept interest rates steady.
• 7:24
  Speaker 3: Huzzah!
• 7:24
  Speaker 4: Yay!
• 7:25
  Speaker 3: Surprise! The Federal Reserve.
• 7:27
  Speaker 2: Voted Wednesday, of course, to keep the overnight funds rate
• 7:29
  Speaker 2: in a range between 3.75% and 4%. Two of the
• 7:33
  Speaker 2: 12 FOMC voters dissented from the decision wanting to raise
• 7:37
  Speaker 2: rates by a quarter point. Mark, what do you think
• 7:39
  Speaker 2: about this? Should we all just hold hands, sing kumbaya
• 7:41
  Speaker 2: until the cows come home because we're not getting another
• 7:44
  Speaker 2: interest rate increase? Or what should we make of this?
• 7:47
  Speaker 3: Well, I had a little bit of ribbing from people
• 7:49
  Speaker 3: when I said I was really glad to see the
• 7:51
  Speaker 3: new chair. I think things will change on the Fed Reserve,
• 7:54
  Speaker 3: that the move towards an understanding that you don't have
• 7:57
  Speaker 3: to destroy our economy to bring down inflation. that that
• 8:01
  Speaker 3: only brings down fake inflation or synthetic inflation imposed by
• 8:07
  Speaker 3: printing too much money or things like that. Real inflation
• 8:11
  Speaker 3: comes down when we get the debt under control, so
• 8:14
  Speaker 3: people love to buy our debt, which means it gets
• 8:18
  Speaker 3: competitive instead of us having to raise rates or the
• 8:21
  Speaker 3: market raise the rates or the yield on those to
• 8:24
  Speaker 3: get it to sell so we can cover our debt.
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  Speaker 3: just disgusting spending that Congress does. You don't have to
• 8:33
  Speaker 3: kill the patient to get rid of the cancer is
• 8:35
  Speaker 3: what it comes down to. It sounds like the Fed
• 8:37
  Speaker 3: may be moving in that direction. It's a a light
• 8:41
  Speaker 3: of hope for me. They're starting to see there are
• 8:43
  Speaker 3: better ways to, to bring down inflation than destroy the economy, uh,
• 8:49
  Speaker 3: by raising rates. So companies can't expand or retool or
• 8:53
  Speaker 3: get more productive and then people get laid off and
• 8:55
  Speaker 3: then there's less spending. And when there's less spending, that
• 8:58
  Speaker 3: means there's more supply backing up on the shelves. When
• 9:01
  Speaker 3: there's more supplies backing up on the shelves, it means that, uh,
• 9:06
  Speaker 3: that they've got to lower the cost to sell it,
• 9:08
  Speaker 3: and they start lowering their costs, and then the companies
• 9:10
  Speaker 3: go out of business because they're not making enough profit
• 9:14
  Speaker 3: in the stock market. You don't have to do that
• 9:17
  Speaker 3: to bring inflation down. We're starting to get actually mature, grown-up,
• 9:21
  Speaker 3: intelligent people, I believe, in the Fed, hopefully. And I'm
• 9:25
  Speaker 3: going to just praise God for that this morning. Good stuff, Mark.
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  Speaker 2: Yep, I would agree with that 100%. Markets yesterday, they
• 9:32
  Speaker 2: were kind of keeping an eye on what the Fed
• 9:33
  Speaker 2: was going to do, Mark, but they were pretty cautiously
• 9:35
  Speaker 2: optimistic throughout the day. And even after the vote came out,
• 9:40
  Speaker 2: which can sometimes be something that jars the markets a
• 9:42
  Speaker 2: little bit, it really didn't yesterday. The indices remained carefully green,
• 9:45
  Speaker 2: and that's how they ended. Wednesday's bell saw the Dow
• 9:47
  Speaker 2: up about a fifth of a percent. The S &
• 9:49
  Speaker 2: P was up about a quarter and the Nasdaq was
• 9:51
  Speaker 2: up about a quarter as well. The Russell 2000 small
• 9:54
  Speaker 2: caps was the winner yesterday. It was up about two-fifths
• 9:57
  Speaker 2: of a percentage point. This morning, Mark, it looks like
• 10:00
  Speaker 2: the markets have been shaken a little bit. We were
• 10:02
  Speaker 2: wondering if that was because of the GDP numbers that
• 10:07
  Speaker 2: just came out, or do you think that's something else?
• 10:09
  Speaker 2: Or is it just a simple backswing from the good
• 10:11
  Speaker 2: day yesterday?
• 10:11
  Speaker 3: Yeah, I'm really not sure what it's from because the
• 10:14
  Speaker 3: numbers that just came out this morning, I took a
• 10:16
  Speaker 3: look at, and my first glance said, these aren't bad.
• 10:19
  Speaker 3: We're We're seeing increased GDP, which is good, unless you're
• 10:23
  Speaker 3: old school and you think the only way to cure somebody,
• 10:26
  Speaker 3: to get rid of the cancer is to kill the patient,
• 10:30
  Speaker 3: which is the same thing we're saying about you know,
• 10:33
  Speaker 3: the economy is the only way to bring down inflation
• 10:36
  Speaker 3: is to kill the economy. Well, if you're old school,
• 10:38
  Speaker 3: then maybe that could cause it. But otherwise, I thought
• 10:41
  Speaker 3: things looked really good. So I don't know. Maybe it's
• 10:44
  Speaker 3: just a knee-jerk reaction like we always see.
• 10:49
  Speaker 6: 610-363-1110.
• 10:50
  Speaker 3: Maybe you have an insight into this. Give us a call.
• 11:04
  Speaker 2: Welcome back, folks. Great to be here today.
• 11:08
  Speaker 3: 610-363-1110.
• 11:08
  Speaker 2: Hey, just a reminder, tomorrow, Friday, we've got overtime. We've
• 11:11
  Speaker 2: got Focus Friday, of course, Bible study in the morning.
• 11:14
  Speaker 2: Friday's always a great time at Financial Issues. Just wanted
• 11:17
  Speaker 2: to give you a quick alert about that there, folks. Okay, Mark,
• 11:20
  Speaker 2: so an interesting discussion we have before us here. The
• 11:23
  Speaker 2: financial issues ETF model. Now, there is not an ETF
• 11:26
  Speaker 2: model yet, but however, several folks have been asking about one.
• 11:29
  Speaker 2: For example, Tracy from North Dakota asked this, Mark. She said, hello,
• 11:33
  Speaker 2: a couple of weeks ago, It was put on my
• 11:35
  Speaker 2: heart and mind to rebuild my growth and income stock
• 11:38
  Speaker 2: portfolio as an ETF portfolio. The feeling has been with
• 11:42
  Speaker 2: me every day since. I cannot find an ETF asset
• 11:47
  Speaker 2: allocation model or educational information for this rebuild on the website.
• 11:51
  Speaker 2: Where should I look? What do you think, Mark?
• 11:54
  Speaker 3: Well, Tracy, you should look ahead. You are looking ahead
• 11:57
  Speaker 3: because we are coming out with an ETF model. We
• 12:01
  Speaker 3: have a fund model now that is comprised of both
• 12:04
  Speaker 3: mutual funds and ETFs. And slowly over the last year,
• 12:08
  Speaker 3: more ETFs have come into that than mutual funds. So, yeah,
• 12:13
  Speaker 3: we have been slowly moving in that direction. And then
• 12:16
  Speaker 3: it was decided we would just do a whole other
• 12:19
  Speaker 3: asset allocation of just ETFs because of the low cost,
• 12:23
  Speaker 3: the somewhat possibility of some better tax handling than over
• 12:29
  Speaker 3: mutual funds. So we'll still have a fund model and
• 12:33
  Speaker 3: that'll include ETFs and mutual funds, but we'll also have
• 12:36
  Speaker 3: an ETF model that will only include ETFs that pass
• 12:40
  Speaker 3: the biblically responsible investing criteria. So we're onto that. We're
• 12:45
  Speaker 3: looking at that and we're hoping to have it out
• 12:48
  Speaker 3: as we release some of the new upgrades to the
• 12:53
  Speaker 3: asset allocation near the end of the year here. So
• 12:56
  Speaker 3: people can start the year off looking at the new
• 12:58
  Speaker 3: model and deciding if they want to utilize that asset
• 13:01
  Speaker 3: allocation guidelines are not. So we're there. We're, we're very
• 13:05
  Speaker 3: close for you. I'm glad Tracy, you, you are looking
• 13:09
  Speaker 3: ahead like that because ETS can make a great portfolio.
• 13:14
  Speaker 3: I know a lot of millionaires who primarily just invest
• 13:17
  Speaker 3: in ETFs and nothing else.
• 13:20
  Speaker 2: Mark, do you, do you expect that? So as I
• 13:23
  Speaker 2: think about this, you know, I'm thinking, okay, the ETF
• 13:25
  Speaker 2: model versus the mutual fund model or just the regular
• 13:27
  Speaker 2: fund model, they might look similar in some ways. How
• 13:30
  Speaker 2: might this look similar to what we already have in
• 13:32
  Speaker 2: the fund model, but how might it also look different?
• 13:35
  Speaker 3: Well, it'll probably be very similar to the mutual fund model,
• 13:38
  Speaker 3: but the difference is we don't have an ETF that
• 13:40
  Speaker 3: can say Israeli common values fund. Yeah. Yeah. ETF. There
• 13:46
  Speaker 3: isn't one, there's a mutual fund. So what we have
• 13:49
  Speaker 3: to do then is find ETFs in certain segments in
• 13:52
  Speaker 3: certain areas of the world. If we want to try
• 13:54
  Speaker 3: and pull that together like that. Um, there are defensive
• 13:58
  Speaker 3: fund style ETFs. They're just not, they don't mirror the,
• 14:04
  Speaker 3: like the Timothy Plain defensive funds or things like that.
• 14:07
  Speaker 3: So there's plenty of ETFs out there to, I mean,
• 14:11
  Speaker 3: there's just gobs of them, both Timothy Plain and other
• 14:14
  Speaker 3: that do pass the biblical responsible criteria. So we'll be
• 14:18
  Speaker 3: able to pull those in and drop them in there. Remember,
• 14:22
  Speaker 3: ETFs are like mutual funds in the sense that they're
• 14:25
  Speaker 3: a bucket where, A bunch of investors buy into this
• 14:29
  Speaker 3: bucket of stocks that are managed by somebody or are
• 14:33
  Speaker 3: just guided by a strict index style guidance. Everybody's heard
• 14:40
  Speaker 3: of the S & P 500 index funds. Well, there
• 14:44
  Speaker 3: are biblically responsible funds that aren't S & P 500,
• 14:47
  Speaker 3: but maybe that screen the S & P 500. For example,
• 14:52
  Speaker 3: the Timothy Plan small cap is like an index fund
• 14:57
  Speaker 3: of small cap stocks that meet certain criteria. The Timothy
• 15:02
  Speaker 3: Plan mid-large cap ETF is the same way. It's more
• 15:07
  Speaker 3: of an index. So you have dozens, hundreds possibly of
• 15:12
  Speaker 3: stocks in there to cover that environment. And they're only
• 15:16
  Speaker 3: rebalanced or adjusted. once every quarter or once every six
• 15:23
  Speaker 3: months depending on the ETF. So the index funds are
• 15:29
  Speaker 3: more just like investing in an index, obviously, and they're
• 15:35
  Speaker 3: not actively managed, but some of the other ETFs are
• 15:38
  Speaker 3: actively managed, meaning there's some managers behind there picking and
• 15:42
  Speaker 3: choosing which should be in there and not in there,
• 15:44
  Speaker 3: and they change more often than the index funds. Awesome, Mark.
• 15:49
  Speaker 2: Folks, it's a good reminder as any to just talk
• 15:52
  Speaker 2: about the fact that, Mark, we certainly love both mutual
• 15:55
  Speaker 2: funds and ETFs. They both have a purpose. I prefer
• 15:58
  Speaker 2: ETFs a little more. I know you do as well,
• 16:00
  Speaker 2: simply for the simplicity of them. you know, different things
• 16:03
  Speaker 2: like that. And so this, this is an exciting thing.
• 16:05
  Speaker 3: Capital gains handling.
• 16:06
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 16:06
  Speaker 2: Yeah, absolutely. Tracy, what a, what a great question. And
• 16:09
  Speaker 2: it's so, it's, we're so glad that you're keeping an
• 16:11
  Speaker 2: eye out on that.
• 16:12
  Speaker 3: And it's just, um, I, I'm just always amazed we're
• 16:15
  Speaker 3: working on something and then somebody will throw in a
• 16:17
  Speaker 3: question about what we're already working on. So that's a
• 16:20
  Speaker 3: wonderful thing. I, it just shows us how smart our, uh, yeah.
• 16:24
  Speaker 3: those people who, who are, uh, uh, join us on
• 16:27
  Speaker 3: air here. Absolutely.
• 16:29
  Speaker 2: Well, Mark, here's a good follow-up question that is in
• 16:31
  Speaker 2: a similar vein to this conversation, though, a little bit different.
• 16:34
  Speaker 2: John is asking in mutual funds, what do you mean
• 16:37
  Speaker 2: by the same fund family? Mark, you've used that term
• 16:39
  Speaker 2: before past hosts have on the show as well. What
• 16:42
  Speaker 2: does it mean to be in the same fund family?
• 16:44
  Speaker 3: Oh, it's just like a regular family. You're born into it.
• 16:48
  Speaker 3: You know, you were created in this family and that's
• 16:51
  Speaker 3: what a mutual fund. Family of funds is, for example,
• 16:54
  Speaker 3: Timothy Plan family of funds. Well, the Timothy Plan is
• 16:58
  Speaker 3: the overarching business that is releasing or creating mutual funds
• 17:05
  Speaker 3: and ETFs that by prospectus are BRI compliant. So all
• 17:10
  Speaker 3: the funds, the mutual funds, the ETFs, the offerings they
• 17:14
  Speaker 3: take to the market are created there. They're part of
• 17:17
  Speaker 3: the Timothy Plan fund. family, just like, you know, Fidelity
• 17:20
  Speaker 3: has its funds, Schwab has it, there's, everybody has different, there's,
• 17:26
  Speaker 3: there's just gobs of different family of funds. All that
• 17:29
  Speaker 3: is donate, denoting is that there's an organization, a business
• 17:35
  Speaker 3: that creates these and releases them. And they're all part
• 17:39
  Speaker 3: of that family. Awesome, Mark. Did that make sense? Was
• 17:42
  Speaker 3: that clear enough?
• 17:43
  Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah.
• 17:43
  Speaker 3: No, it absolutely does.
• 17:45
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 17:45
  Speaker 3: And that makes it easier sometimes. For example, with the
• 17:50
  Speaker 3: Timothy plant, I know no matter what mutual fund or
• 17:53
  Speaker 3: ETF I go into, it's going to be biblically responsible.
• 17:57
  Speaker 3: It's going to be screened more stringently than probably any
• 18:01
  Speaker 3: other family of funds. So if that is one of
• 18:05
  Speaker 3: the higher concerns, which it should be for everybody who
• 18:08
  Speaker 3: names Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior, the biblical
• 18:12
  Speaker 3: responsible investing concept should be first and foremost. It's gate
• 18:16
  Speaker 3: one of whether you hold or don't hold a fund
• 18:20
  Speaker 3: is whether it passes the BRI compliance. Well, Timothy Plan
• 18:24
  Speaker 3: has it, so I can feel very comfortable about moving
• 18:26
  Speaker 3: into their funds, and then I can just take my
• 18:28
  Speaker 3: time to go through and say, okay, which of these
• 18:31
  Speaker 3: funds do I like from a technical or fundamental perspective?
• 18:36
  Speaker 3: Which one of these do I like from a financial
• 18:38
  Speaker 3: steel perspective? I don't have to worry about the BRI
• 18:42
  Speaker 3: aspect of it. Another family of funds might be a
• 18:46
  Speaker 3: family of funds that only does index ETFs. So you
• 18:49
  Speaker 3: know when you go out to that looking for an
• 18:52
  Speaker 3: ETF that maybe tracks an index, you could probably find
• 18:58
  Speaker 3: it there. And you can find many versions of it there.
• 19:00
  Speaker 3: For example, some mutual funds just straight track the index.
• 19:06
  Speaker 3: Some will use options and all sorts of derivatives to
• 19:11
  Speaker 3: double the amount that the index does up or down.
• 19:15
  Speaker 3: And some do triple, some do negative. Some will say
• 19:18
  Speaker 3: if the mark, if this index is up, then this
• 19:20
  Speaker 3: will be down equally as much, you know? So there's also,
• 19:23
  Speaker 3: you know, you can go out to those index families
• 19:27
  Speaker 3: and find those kinds of funds. If you're really into that.
• 19:33
  Speaker 2: Mark, when you have a, a group of funds that
• 19:37
  Speaker 2: are all in the same family, Does that mean that
• 19:39
  Speaker 2: you're not well diversified? Like, should you have different families?
• 19:43
  Speaker 3: No, it's not the family that determines that it's the
• 19:46
  Speaker 3: individual mutual fund.
• 19:47
  Speaker 6: Got it.
• 19:48
  Speaker 3: Let's stay. Let's stick with the. Timothy plan example. Sure.
• 19:51
  Speaker 3: Timothy plan has a small cap mutual fund. That was
• 19:54
  Speaker 3: their very first fund. When, when Timothy plan came out, uh, when,
• 19:58
  Speaker 3: when Timothy plan launched, the only mutual fund they had
• 20:01
  Speaker 3: was the Timothy plan, small cap fund. Okay. Uh, then
• 20:06
  Speaker 3: they added a mid large cap and then they added
• 20:09
  Speaker 3: a bond fund. And so they kept adding funds as
• 20:14
  Speaker 3: they went along. Then they started getting into the difference
• 20:17
  Speaker 3: of growth or value. And now like, look at their ETFs.
• 20:21
  Speaker 3: They don't just have growth ETFs. They have free cashflow ETFs,
• 20:25
  Speaker 3: which means they're looking for Not only those that are
• 20:28
  Speaker 3: biblically responsible, but those that have strong free cash flow.
• 20:33
  Speaker 3: That means money after their expenses used to expand the
• 20:36
  Speaker 3: business or return money to investors, things like that. So
• 20:41
  Speaker 3: they're looking for strong cash flow companies. So each one
• 20:45
  Speaker 3: could be a little different. That doesn't mean there won't
• 20:48
  Speaker 3: be some overlapping sometimes. You might have an ETF that's
• 20:51
  Speaker 3: a free cash flow ETF, and it might have some
• 20:55
  Speaker 3: of the same cash stocks in it that may be
• 20:57
  Speaker 3: a non-free cash flow, one that's more like just an
• 21:01
  Speaker 3: index of a growth ETF might have similar stocks in it.
• 21:09
  Speaker 3: But that can happen no matter what, whether it's part
• 21:12
  Speaker 3: of the family or not part of the family. But
• 21:14
  Speaker 3: the capitalization might be different or the industry, you know,
• 21:19
  Speaker 3: there's a lot of sector ETFs as well, or the
• 21:23
  Speaker 3: part of the world that they're looking at the businesses in, Like,
• 21:27
  Speaker 3: for example, Israeli Common Values Fund has dozens of stocks
• 21:33
  Speaker 3: in it from Israel. The International Fund might have a
• 21:37
  Speaker 3: few of those in there as well, but not necessarily
• 21:40
  Speaker 3: because it's not focused on Israel. It's just looking around
• 21:43
  Speaker 3: the world for the best stocks that they believe should
• 21:45
  Speaker 3: be in an international fund. So it could be, but
• 21:48
  Speaker 3: it also... doesn't necessarily mean there's going to be overlap.
• 21:53
  Speaker 3: It's always good to know where that overlap is, especially
• 21:56
  Speaker 3: if you're, uh, oftentimes people will use ETFs and mutual funds,
• 22:01
  Speaker 3: and then they'll buy individual stocks to overweight certain areas
• 22:05
  Speaker 3: where they already may be overweighted in those areas. If
• 22:08
  Speaker 3: they haven't reviewed the funds strictly enough to see, Oh,
• 22:12
  Speaker 3: I own, uh, 0.5% in this mutual fund. I own 0.5%
• 22:16
  Speaker 3: in that mutual fund. And I, you know, and you
• 22:19
  Speaker 3: add it up and you like own 10% of the
• 22:21
  Speaker 3: stock in your portfolio and didn't even know it. And
• 22:24
  Speaker 3: then you bought another three to 5% over here directly.
• 22:27
  Speaker 3: So you got to be careful about that.
• 22:31
  Speaker 2: Yeah, Mark, that is really helpful. You know, I know
• 22:32
  Speaker 2: that's a question that a lot of our listeners ask
• 22:34
  Speaker 2: if they're in a mutual fund or an ETF based portfolio,
• 22:38
  Speaker 2: they do ask the question sometimes, is it okay for
• 22:40
  Speaker 2: me to buy maybe one or two stocks to play
• 22:43
  Speaker 2: with a little bit, or even to fill out, you know,
• 22:45
  Speaker 2: say they're in an ETF model, but they don't have
• 22:47
  Speaker 2: an Israeli ETF, but they want to buy a couple
• 22:49
  Speaker 2: of the stocks. That's an okay thing to do.
• 22:52
  Speaker 3: And I know people who just go out to the
• 22:54
  Speaker 3: ETF fact sheets, look at them and say, Oh, here's
• 22:56
  Speaker 3: the top 10. Those are really helpful. So yeah, or
• 22:59
  Speaker 3: the mutual fund. So if you wanted to add a
• 23:03
  Speaker 3: little bit of Israeli companies to it, but you didn't
• 23:06
  Speaker 3: want to hold the mutual fund, the Israeli Commons Fund,
• 23:09
  Speaker 3: you can go out, look at the top 10 holdings
• 23:11
  Speaker 3: or look at all the holdings and decide which ones
• 23:14
  Speaker 3: you want to hold and buy them individually. A lot
• 23:17
  Speaker 3: of them might already be ADRs, which makes it easier
• 23:20
  Speaker 3: to buy. So there's ways to do it. There's ways
• 23:24
  Speaker 3: to invest. So many ways to invest. And that's why
• 23:26
  Speaker 3: we're here. We want to help you to navigate this
• 23:29
  Speaker 3: and if you have to navigate away because you're listening
• 23:32
  Speaker 3: on radio or television and they don't carry the second
• 23:35
  Speaker 3: half go to financialissues.org and let's continue the conversation together financialissues.org
• 23:42
  Speaker 3: and the number here if you have some questions of
• 23:44
  Speaker 3: anything we talked about today or about your your own
• 23:47
  Speaker 3: personal finances we're here to help 610-363-1110.
• 24:00
  Speaker 2: Folks, it's great to be here with you today. 610-363-1110,
• 24:03
  Speaker 2: that's the number to call in. Hey, today's show brought
• 24:05
  Speaker 2: to you in part by our friends at Samaritan Ministries.
• 24:07
  Speaker 2: If you want to get off the rat race of
• 24:09
  Speaker 2: big healthcare and join a health-sharing community that is run
• 24:13
  Speaker 2: by Christians for Christians to honor Christ, Samaritan Ministries is
• 24:17
  Speaker 2: where you need to go. Samaritanministries.org, Book of Acts, health-sharing,
• 24:20
  Speaker 2: it's wonderful. And you know, folks, it's so important for
• 24:22
  Speaker 2: you to consider this because right now it looks like
• 24:25
  Speaker 2: Affordable Care Act premiums are spiking at record levels today.
• 24:30
  Speaker 2: and healthcare cost transparency is needed. Insurers have proposed a
• 24:34
  Speaker 2: median 15% premium increase for 2027. This is according to
• 24:38
  Speaker 2: an October 8th Commonwealth Fund analysis. This analysis said, rising
• 24:42
  Speaker 2: provider prices, prescription drug expenses, increased service use, workforce shortages,
• 24:48
  Speaker 2: all contributing to higher costs. As premiums rise, consumers may
• 24:52
  Speaker 2: select plans with lower monthly costs, but higher deductibles. This
• 24:55
  Speaker 2: is according to the report. And of course, such decisions
• 24:58
  Speaker 2: could leave households exposed to substantial out-of-pocket bills and medical
• 25:02
  Speaker 2: debt when illness or injury strikes. And Mark, when illness
• 25:04
  Speaker 2: or injury strikes, you need someone who cares for you.
• 25:07
  Speaker 2: And this is why, you know, groups like Samaritan Ministries
• 25:10
  Speaker 2: are so important. That's why we have them here as
• 25:11
  Speaker 2: our group plan here at the ministry. So important, Mark.
• 25:14
  Speaker 3: And Seth, on top of that, just the complication of
• 25:17
  Speaker 3: trying to figure out which Medicare package you should be
• 25:21
  Speaker 3: taking or if it's not Medicare, which insurance healthcare package
• 25:27
  Speaker 3: you should be taking before your Medicare time. It gets very,
• 25:31
  Speaker 3: very complicated. What are your doctors? What are your medications?
• 25:34
  Speaker 3: What is your wife's? What is your children's? And you
• 25:37
  Speaker 3: start juggling all this stuff and to figure out which
• 25:39
  Speaker 3: one makes the most sense on top of all the
• 25:42
  Speaker 3: other complications of government, being involved in your health care,
• 25:46
  Speaker 3: it gets crazy. Well, here to bring some light to this,
• 25:49
  Speaker 3: to help us understand it, and maybe even simplify it
• 25:53
  Speaker 3: and show us how to make health care compassion again,
• 25:57
  Speaker 3: is the Director of Public Policy at Samaritan Ministries, Joe Noble. Joe,
• 26:01
  Speaker 3: welcome to the show.
• 26:02
  Speaker 6: I appreciate you having me.
• 26:04
  Speaker 3: Thank you for being on. So tell me, with all
• 26:08
  Speaker 3: this news coming out about all the Medicare changes and
• 26:12
  Speaker 3: the increases, and we know the same thing's happening with insurances,
• 26:17
  Speaker 3: regular health care insurances, how do we make sense of
• 26:20
  Speaker 3: all this? And especially since, you know, we can't even
• 26:25
  Speaker 3: tell what they'll charge for something when we go to
• 26:27
  Speaker 3: a hospital or go to the doctor. You know, we
• 26:30
  Speaker 3: don't get an estimate like you do when you have
• 26:32
  Speaker 3: a car accident or something and they fix your car
• 26:35
  Speaker 3: or they fix your house. You know, you get quotes
• 26:37
  Speaker 3: up front. What do we do? Yeah.
• 26:40
  Speaker 6: So you're right.
• 26:42
  Speaker 4: Healthcare is really about the only thing I can think
• 26:45
  Speaker 4: of where the price is disconnected from the consumer.
• 26:52
  Speaker 6: If you go to the grocery store, if I go
• 26:53
  Speaker 6: to the grocery store, the prices are right there.
• 26:57
  Speaker 4: And, you know, we're even now, you know, there's angst
• 27:00
  Speaker 4: and anger over, dynamic pricing, you know, where you get
• 27:03
  Speaker 4: to the register, and it's suddenly gone up, imagine not
• 27:06
  Speaker 4: even knowing the price in the first place, pick something
• 27:09
  Speaker 4: off a shelf, and then you go up there. And
• 27:12
  Speaker 4: you know, if you work for this employer, then that
• 27:13
  Speaker 4: banana costs this amount, if you're over 65, it only
• 27:16
  Speaker 4: costs this amount.
• 27:18
  Speaker 6: And that's how healthcare works.
• 27:20
  Speaker 4: There's really no idea up front, and even after you
• 27:24
  Speaker 4: have it, what the cost is. And then, because of that,
• 27:29
  Speaker 4: consumer really can't make choices. And then as you're seeing,
• 27:33
  Speaker 4: it drives the price up. When you can't shop around
• 27:36
  Speaker 4: and make decisions, then there's really no reason for folks
• 27:40
  Speaker 4: to go someplace else. And then they get stuck with
• 27:42
  Speaker 4: these high prices. And then that just trickles down to
• 27:45
  Speaker 4: the insurance. Even though they have networks and they've worked
• 27:49
  Speaker 4: out deals, they're going to raise that price because the
• 27:53
  Speaker 4: hospitals have raised and providers have raised their price. And
• 27:57
  Speaker 4: that's what we're seeing because The consumer is completely disconnected
• 28:01
  Speaker 4: from the whole system.
• 28:03
  Speaker 3: It just doesn't seem there's any solution for this, Joe.
• 28:07
  Speaker 3: What can somebody do?
• 28:09
  Speaker 4: So, I mean, I'm a big proponent of price transparency.
• 28:14
  Speaker 4: I would love for the states to pass stronger price
• 28:18
  Speaker 4: transparency laws. A lot of them have in the states
• 28:21
  Speaker 4: taken it on. The Fed has, honestly, under both administrations,
• 28:26
  Speaker 4: under the first Trump administration and then Biden, extended it,
• 28:29
  Speaker 4: and then Trump has come back at it. But for
• 28:32
  Speaker 4: the longest time, the price transparency, the fines have been anemic.
• 28:39
  Speaker 4: I looked one time at our local hospital, and I
• 28:41
  Speaker 4: think it was about 16 minutes of revenue if they
• 28:45
  Speaker 4: didn't comply. So after 16 minutes, they could pay the
• 28:49
  Speaker 4: fine for not complying with price transparency. And fortunately, the
• 28:53
  Speaker 4: states have started to pick up and add penalties that
• 28:57
  Speaker 4: actually have some teeth. And I would love to see
• 29:00
  Speaker 4: more states do that. And because then once the prices
• 29:03
  Speaker 4: become transparent, then we can have real shopping.
• 29:06
  Speaker 6: We have real competition. And hopefully that'll drive down the prices.
• 29:10
  Speaker 3: Well, how does that compare? I mean, we know you're
• 29:13
  Speaker 3: with Samaritan Ministries and we love the ministry. And this
• 29:17
  Speaker 3: is a health sharing. But how does that help this
• 29:20
  Speaker 3: in any way?
• 29:21
  Speaker 6: It does.
• 29:21
  Speaker 3: Yes.
• 29:22
  Speaker 4: Since our members, they present as cash pay or self pay,
• 29:26
  Speaker 4: depending on how they phrase it. And then they can
• 29:30
  Speaker 4: actually part of the price transparency laws on the Fed
• 29:34
  Speaker 4: is they should be able should give you an estimate
• 29:38
  Speaker 4: and folks can shop around. You know, it's obviously harder
• 29:41
  Speaker 4: on emergencies. You know, you show up in the emergency
• 29:43
  Speaker 4: room with, you know, you're kind of stuck there.
• 29:47
  Speaker 3: Yeah, bleeding out unconscious. Yeah, it's hard to shop around
• 29:51
  Speaker 3: at that moment.
• 29:51
  Speaker 6: Yeah.
• 29:52
  Speaker 4: And so, but I've told this story, I think on
• 29:53
  Speaker 4: this show more than once, even in sometimes in emergencies,
• 29:57
  Speaker 4: I took my son who is now, you know, he
• 30:00
  Speaker 4: was nine at the time. He's now about to turn
• 30:02
  Speaker 4: 18 to the emergency room. And, you know, he ended
• 30:06
  Speaker 4: up needing stitches. But I had a choice at that
• 30:08
  Speaker 4: moment because I was a Samaritan member. I didn't have
• 30:11
  Speaker 4: to go to a particular emergency room because my employer
• 30:14
  Speaker 4: was telling me go there with the government. And so
• 30:17
  Speaker 4: I chose one that I knew had a separate pediatric ER.
• 30:21
  Speaker 4: And I took him to that one away from, you know,
• 30:23
  Speaker 4: the gunshot wound, away from the overdoses. And so things
• 30:27
  Speaker 4: like that, it's the choices that we have as Samaritan members.
• 30:31
  Speaker 4: We have complete control of our health care dollars. And
• 30:35
  Speaker 4: my oldest, who, you know, now married with, you know,
• 30:38
  Speaker 4: a child, he was a college soccer player, you know,
• 30:42
  Speaker 4: tore his ACL. He did a ton of research before.
• 30:45
  Speaker 6: He got it repaired.
• 30:46
  Speaker 4: And we ended up going down about three hours away
• 30:49
  Speaker 4: to a hospital that worked on professional soccer players.
• 30:52
  Speaker 6: And that was completely our choice.
• 30:55
  Speaker 4: And, you know, we looked at price, we looked at service,
• 30:58
  Speaker 4: and we made that choice as a Samaritan member. And again,
• 31:01
  Speaker 4: it wasn't our employer, wasn't the, you know, government telling
• 31:04
  Speaker 4: us where to go. So that kind of freedom is
• 31:08
  Speaker 4: what helps keep the cost down for us.
• 31:11
  Speaker 3: One of the things that I always talk about as
• 31:14
  Speaker 3: a steward is that choices, the idea of having options
• 31:18
  Speaker 3: is one of the keys to success in your finances.
• 31:23
  Speaker 3: The more freedom you have, the more ability you have
• 31:25
  Speaker 3: to choose to compare things and make decisions that way,
• 31:30
  Speaker 3: the more opportunity you have to be successful as an investor,
• 31:34
  Speaker 3: as a spender, even in the way you earn. The
• 31:37
  Speaker 3: more options you have on jobs, obviously, the better potential
• 31:42
  Speaker 3: for having you be more successful at finding a job
• 31:45
  Speaker 3: that fits the lifestyle you believe God has for you
• 31:49
  Speaker 3: and those kinds of things. So having those options, having
• 31:52
  Speaker 3: flexibility in healthcare is something I know a lot of
• 31:56
  Speaker 3: people wish they had. I know with my children, we
• 31:59
  Speaker 3: always went no matter what to where we thought was
• 32:01
  Speaker 3: the best place. And sometimes that could cost us because
• 32:04
  Speaker 3: of our insurance would not cover it because it was
• 32:07
  Speaker 3: out of network or something. But I don't want just
• 32:10
  Speaker 3: the same guy who's, like you said, working on the
• 32:13
  Speaker 3: gunshot wounds and the overdoses and spends more time there
• 32:17
  Speaker 3: because they're in the emergency room working on my son's ear.
• 32:24
  Speaker 3: So having those choices makes sense. I'm so glad you
• 32:28
  Speaker 3: brought that up to us. With the midterms being right
• 32:31
  Speaker 3: around the corner here, actually just right around the corner.
• 32:36
  Speaker 3: How's this upcoming midterm election going to impact the work
• 32:40
  Speaker 3: you guys are doing there at Samaritan Ministries? And how
• 32:45
  Speaker 3: will this all come together? How will this impact healthcare
• 32:49
  Speaker 3: midterm elections?
• 32:51
  Speaker 4: Yeah, one of the things we're watching very closely is
• 32:55
  Speaker 4: we've been working on health savings account reform for years.
• 33:00
  Speaker 4: And if you, you know, I'm sure you're familiar, but
• 33:02
  Speaker 4: if your listeners aren't, It's a tax sheltered account where
• 33:06
  Speaker 4: you can pay medical expenses out of that, but you
• 33:09
  Speaker 4: need a high deductible insurance policy and able to have
• 33:12
  Speaker 4: that in healthcare sharing like Samaritan doesn't qualify. So we're
• 33:15
  Speaker 4: trying to get that opened up so that our members
• 33:18
  Speaker 4: would be able to use those types of accounts. And then,
• 33:22
  Speaker 4: so depending on what happens on, on the midterms, you know, we.
• 33:26
  Speaker 6: Could see that it could go either way.
• 33:30
  Speaker 4: If you know, if it, if the, you know, House
• 33:33
  Speaker 4: and the Senate do flip. The majority now, the Republicans
• 33:38
  Speaker 4: may try to do a whole bunch of lame duck stuff,
• 33:40
  Speaker 4: including health savings, you know, reform, or if they, you know,
• 33:46
  Speaker 4: retain that, they may, you know, do it, you know,
• 33:49
  Speaker 4: while they're still in the majority. So we're just, you know,
• 33:53
  Speaker 4: we've been working on that for a long time. So
• 33:55
  Speaker 4: that's really kind of where our focus is in the last,
• 33:58
  Speaker 4: you know, few months of the year is to hopefully
• 34:00
  Speaker 4: try to get health savings accounts, you know, over the
• 34:03
  Speaker 4: finish line and get that, get that reformed.
• 34:06
  Speaker 3: Well, Joe, we're always blessed to have you on the show.
• 34:09
  Speaker 3: We're so glad you can make it today. And we're
• 34:11
  Speaker 3: blessed to have Samaritan Ministries out there to give us
• 34:14
  Speaker 3: a choice in healthcare that you don't have anywhere else.
• 34:17
  Speaker 3: The choice to go where you want to go, not
• 34:19
  Speaker 3: be dictated by where you work and their plan or
• 34:23
  Speaker 3: the government or something else. Thank you so much for
• 34:26
  Speaker 3: joining us and God bless you, sir. Really appreciate you.
• 34:28
  Speaker 6: Thank you for having me.
• 34:30
  Speaker 3: All righty, Joe. And thank you all for being with us.
• 34:33
  Speaker 3: You know, we got another segment coming up here in
• 34:36
  Speaker 3: just a few minutes, and we want you to join us.
• 34:39
  Speaker 3: The number here is 610-363-1110. I know we've covered a
• 34:43
  Speaker 3: lot today, Seth. We've covered the news, the release of
• 34:48
  Speaker 3: information from the feds. We've covered different things on mutual funds.
• 34:54
  Speaker 3: We're covering health care. But more than anything else, we're
• 34:57
  Speaker 3: covering how blessed we are. Right now, you may be
• 35:01
  Speaker 3: sitting somewhere financially strapped or in trouble or whatever, but
• 35:06
  Speaker 3: God's still there for you. Embrace him, trust him, and
• 35:10
  Speaker 3: know that he's there for you. We'll be right back
• 35:12
  Speaker 3: because we're here for you as well.
• 35:23
  Speaker 5: The opinions and recommendations expressed on this program do not
• 35:26
  Speaker 5: necessarily represent the opinions of the station or any of
• 35:29
  Speaker 5: the program's sponsors. Additionally, all products or services offered by
• 35:33
  Speaker 5: the program's sponsors may not be known by the program.
• 35:36
  Speaker 2: That's been a busy show today, folks. Hey, I want
• 35:41
  Speaker 2: to remind you what the scripture says. We're talking about
• 35:43
  Speaker 2: being blessed today and recognizing that. And I think our
• 35:46
  Speaker 2: verse of the week really hits on that. Malachi 3.10 says,
• 35:49
  Speaker 2: It says, bring all the tithes into the storehouse, that
• 35:51
  Speaker 2: there may be food in my house, and try me
• 35:53
  Speaker 2: now in this, says the Lord of hosts, if I
• 35:55
  Speaker 2: will not open for you the windows of heaven and
• 35:56
  Speaker 2: pour out for you such blessing that there will not
• 35:59
  Speaker 2: be room enough to receive it. Mark, I think we
• 36:01
  Speaker 2: can say confidently that we are recipients of that blessing.
• 36:04
  Speaker 2: I know I feel that, absolutely. And I don't feel
• 36:07
  Speaker 2: like a lavishly wealthy person by any stretch of the imagination,
• 36:10
  Speaker 2: but when I think about what I deserve, I sure
• 36:12
  Speaker 2: do feel pretty wealthy.
• 36:14
  Speaker 3: It's amazing. Yeah, you know, anything above the flames of hell...
• 36:19
  Speaker 3: is grace. And what we deserve is the flames of hell. So,
• 36:24
  Speaker 3: you know, that's the bottom line. Anything above that is
• 36:27
  Speaker 3: something worth counting as a blessing. And unfortunately, we don't
• 36:31
  Speaker 3: count that we can talk. I mean, there's just so
• 36:35
  Speaker 3: many things that we forget about, that we can breathe,
• 36:39
  Speaker 3: that we're still alive, that we have a loving God
• 36:42
  Speaker 3: that just is with us all the time. Even You know,
• 36:46
  Speaker 3: I don't want to belittle that some people are going
• 36:49
  Speaker 3: through some really rough times physically, emotionally, financially. But even
• 36:54
  Speaker 3: in the midst of the worst of the times, and
• 36:56
  Speaker 3: by the way, I had some serious poverty times in
• 37:00
  Speaker 3: my life. You know, even in those times, I was
• 37:05
  Speaker 3: living better than most of the people in the world
• 37:09
  Speaker 3: were living at that time. You know, even the times
• 37:13
  Speaker 3: I didn't have a shelter. for myself, you know, even
• 37:17
  Speaker 3: the times where I didn't have enough money to buy
• 37:20
  Speaker 3: a 99 cent sandwich at Jack in the Box to
• 37:24
  Speaker 3: eat that day. I still was living better than most
• 37:28
  Speaker 3: people in the world, you know, and God had me
• 37:31
  Speaker 3: in the right place for a right time so that
• 37:33
  Speaker 3: I would get motivated, do the right things and move
• 37:35
  Speaker 3: in the right direction to come closer to him. And
• 37:38
  Speaker 3: I just, I got to thank God for all that.
• 37:40
  Speaker 3: And so do you. So do you and I. And
• 37:42
  Speaker 3: you know what? I find stuff. Under most circumstances, those
• 37:46
  Speaker 3: people who are hurting the most usually acknowledge the blessings
• 37:51
  Speaker 3: of God the most.
• 37:53
  Speaker 4: Yeah.
• 37:55
  Speaker 3: It's when we get so buried in blessings that we
• 37:59
  Speaker 3: stop seeing how good our God is. We get so comfortable.
• 38:03
  Speaker 3: Another one of the tools of the enemy. We can't
• 38:05
  Speaker 3: let that happen. Absolutely.
• 38:07
  Speaker 6: Absolutely.
• 38:07
  Speaker 2: And, you know, Mark, it's not the fault of being
• 38:10
  Speaker 2: buried in blessings. It's our fault when we start thinking, oh,
• 38:13
  Speaker 2: my goodness.
• 38:13
  Speaker 3: Right.
• 38:14
  Speaker 2: I must be doing pretty darn good. Look at all
• 38:16
  Speaker 2: this good stuff that's happening. And I mean, listen, the
• 38:19
  Speaker 2: scripture tells us pride goes before destruction and haughty spirit
• 38:22
  Speaker 2: before the fall. Oftentimes that's when You know, the destruction
• 38:24
  Speaker 2: comes then is when we start to get far too haughty.
• 38:27
  Speaker 2: We need to be humble. We need to be humble.
• 38:29
  Speaker 3: And do not be conformed to this world, but be
• 38:32
  Speaker 3: transformed by the renewing of your mind. Remember, it doesn't
• 38:34
  Speaker 3: say the renewing of your heart or anything else that
• 38:37
  Speaker 3: says renewing of your mind. You're being programmed 24-7 by
• 38:41
  Speaker 3: the world, and the world is being programmed by the enemy.
• 38:44
  Speaker 3: So if you realize that, that's the first step to
• 38:47
  Speaker 3: taking hold of your mind and starting to put good
• 38:50
  Speaker 3: things in it. Start with the Bible. Start with good
• 38:53
  Speaker 3: godly reading. Start with positive aspects. Start by looking around you.
• 38:57
  Speaker 3: Try and make a list of everything in your world
• 39:00
  Speaker 3: that is a good thing. If you start now, you
• 39:03
  Speaker 3: won't be able to finish before the end of the year.
• 39:05
  Speaker 3: I mean, it just goes on and on and on.
• 39:07
  Speaker 3: Even with all the ugliness in the world and all
• 39:10
  Speaker 3: these things, God has blessed us beyond our beyond our understanding.
• 39:14
  Speaker 3: And if once you start thinking about those things, your
• 39:17
  Speaker 3: days change, things change, you start having a better outlook
• 39:20
  Speaker 3: and the programming of the world starts losing its impact.
• 39:24
  Speaker 4: Yeah.
• 39:25
  Speaker 2: Well said, Mark. Hey, Mark, here's a good, speaking of
• 39:27
  Speaker 2: things that are well said, William in our chat from Mississippi.
• 39:30
  Speaker 2: He's saying, I'm moving into an ETF growth and income model.
• 39:33
  Speaker 2: I'm going to move out of my single stocks as
• 39:35
  Speaker 2: needed by pruning and then capital gains considerations. I base
• 39:38
  Speaker 2: my ETF selection on the FISM fund growth and income model.
• 39:41
  Speaker 2: I don't have the Israel or the defensive ETF. I'm
• 39:44
  Speaker 2: working on moving to Timothy plan ETFs available and we'll
• 39:47
  Speaker 2: address what's not available in time. Sounds like a good
• 39:49
  Speaker 2: strategy to me, Mark.
• 39:50
  Speaker 3: Sounds like a great strategy. And we will have that
• 39:53
  Speaker 3: asset allocation model out hopefully pretty soon. I know before
• 39:56
  Speaker 3: the end of the year, that sounds like a long
• 39:58
  Speaker 3: time away, but we're talking about 45 to 60 days
• 40:01
  Speaker 3: down the road here, we'll be releasing that hopefully. And
• 40:04
  Speaker 3: that you'll then be able to take that asset allocation model,
• 40:08
  Speaker 3: go out to the funding choices that are out there.
• 40:10
  Speaker 3: We'll have ETFs, Timothy plan ETFs, and possibly a few
• 40:14
  Speaker 3: others that pass the BRI screening that will fill some
• 40:17
  Speaker 3: areas that maybe the Timothy plan doesn't. So you won't
• 40:21
  Speaker 3: have to struggle with that, William, or who was it earlier?
• 40:25
  Speaker 3: I asked the question about the ETFs I brought in.
• 40:27
  Speaker 2: It was Tracy.
• 40:28
  Speaker 3: Tracy.
• 40:29
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 40:29
  Speaker 3: Yeah. So, You'll have all that at your fingertips and
• 40:33
  Speaker 3: our opinions on all that and the guidance there. So
• 40:36
  Speaker 3: you can take it, look at it, decide how you
• 40:40
  Speaker 3: want to use it, how strict a guide rails or
• 40:43
  Speaker 3: how loose. It's up to you. It's between you and God, obviously.
• 40:47
  Speaker 3: We're here to support you. We're like the co-pilot here.
• 40:49
  Speaker 3: We're not the pilot on this. We're the co-pilot. You're
• 40:52
  Speaker 3: the pilot. God has entrusted this to you. We want
• 40:55
  Speaker 3: you to utilize it in a way that honors him
• 40:59
  Speaker 3: and do the best you can while you're doing so.
• 41:02
  Speaker 3: So we'll be in that co-pilot seat with the new
• 41:07
  Speaker 3: ETF asset allocation model coming out very soon.
• 41:11
  Speaker 6: Yep.
• 41:12
  Speaker 2: Good stuff, Mark. Hey, before we get to our next question,
• 41:14
  Speaker 2: let me just remind our listeners that tomorrow is Friday,
• 41:16
  Speaker 2: so we've got overtime. Make sure that you're with us
• 41:19
  Speaker 2: on financialissues.org slash watch. Bible study in the morning as well.
• 41:22
  Speaker 2: We're closing Proverbs chapter 13, and we'll also be doing
• 41:26
  Speaker 2: Focus Friday tomorrow, so a lot of questions. Mark, I
• 41:28
  Speaker 2: also wanted to tell you that the markets are down,
• 41:31
  Speaker 2: which makes me sad, but that's okay because we're counting
• 41:33
  Speaker 2: our blessings this morning. The NASDAQ is not blessing us, though,
• 41:36
  Speaker 2: because it's down 1.5%. The Dow Jones down a third
• 41:40
  Speaker 2: and the S & P down about a half.
• 41:41
  Speaker 3: Yeah. You know, Cat did some reporting. I think they
• 41:44
  Speaker 3: were down 10% on revenues or whatever. And I think
• 41:47
  Speaker 3: that's shaken some people. I think so, too. Looks like
• 41:50
  Speaker 3: Alphabet missed earnings as well.
• 41:52
  Speaker 4: Yeah.
• 41:52
  Speaker 3: A lot of the big techs are reporting the impact
• 41:56
  Speaker 3: of the cost of AI is going to affect their
• 42:00
  Speaker 3: revenue generation and their profitability. So people are saying, hmm.
• 42:06
  Speaker 3: Didn't see that coming as if it wasn't there from
• 42:08
  Speaker 3: the very beginning, that you're spending hundreds of billions of
• 42:11
  Speaker 3: dollars and there's no revenues from it yet, or there's
• 42:14
  Speaker 3: very little. But that'll go away too. Remember, everything happens
• 42:19
  Speaker 3: in cycles. We just need to be careful. If it's
• 42:23
  Speaker 3: a strong company and the valuation, the price valuation went
• 42:27
  Speaker 3: through the ceiling, you know, the then you should have
• 42:31
  Speaker 3: expected some pullbacks. That's why we prune. That's why we trim.
• 42:34
  Speaker 3: That's why we diversify from those pruning into other areas
• 42:38
  Speaker 3: so that when the market does finally spread out, realize
• 42:41
  Speaker 3: that they got ahead of themselves and buying into things
• 42:45
  Speaker 3: that haven't proven themselves yet. That as it spreads out,
• 42:48
  Speaker 3: like into the small caps, like we talked about earlier,
• 42:51
  Speaker 3: you're already there and that part of your portfolio rises,
• 42:55
  Speaker 3: helping offset some of the downturn of the area that
• 42:58
  Speaker 3: is pulling back because it got ahead of itself. Good stuff.
• 43:02
  Speaker 3: That's why stewardship is so important. It's not chasing things.
• 43:08
  Speaker 3: It's being prudent and it's step-by-step systematic so you can
• 43:12
  Speaker 3: honor God in what you're doing by being biblically responsible,
• 43:16
  Speaker 3: but then only utilizing those types of funds, those equities
• 43:23
  Speaker 3: that meet your criteria for the long term. Well said.
• 43:27
  Speaker 3: And not panicking. It also brings joy and peace in
• 43:29
  Speaker 3: your life. Yeah, sure does. Being a steward instead of
• 43:32
  Speaker 3: a day trader. Sure does. Not that day traders can't
• 43:35
  Speaker 3: make money, but boy, there's a lot of anxiety in that.
• 43:37
  Speaker 2: Is the anxiety worth the potential to make money?
• 43:40
  Speaker 3: Yep.
• 43:41
  Speaker 2: Brian is 58, Mark. He's saying, my wife has a
• 43:43
  Speaker 2: traditional IRA with Fidelity. We got 30,000 in the money markets,
• 43:46
  Speaker 2: earning about 3.5%. That's 55% of the account. The other
• 43:49
  Speaker 2: funds in the account are invested with the following. You
• 43:51
  Speaker 2: got Timothy Funds, 20%, Stocks, 25%. She's wanting to take
• 43:55
  Speaker 2: distributions at 59 and a half, which is in five
• 43:57
  Speaker 2: years for her. I'm an active partner. We have the
• 44:00
  Speaker 2: account invested in the growth fund. What would you recommend
• 44:02
  Speaker 2: having the money market portion invested in? We also have
• 44:05
  Speaker 2: a Roth that has about $ 40, 000 in it. So Mark,
• 44:08
  Speaker 2: that 30,000 of the money market, that's over half of
• 44:10
  Speaker 2: the account. So there's a lot of cash to play
• 44:12
  Speaker 2: with evidently.
• 44:13
  Speaker 3: What should they do? Yeah. And five years till retirement.
• 44:16
  Speaker 3: Did I catch that right? There's a lot of percentages
• 44:18
  Speaker 3: in there. You read that off, but yeah, it sounds like, uh, I,
• 44:22
  Speaker 3: I would, I would start with getting focused and the
• 44:25
  Speaker 3: focus should be on, on a couple of things. One,
• 44:28
  Speaker 3: when is, uh, when is the money needed separate the
• 44:32
  Speaker 3: money needed sooner than the money needed later. That will
• 44:36
  Speaker 3: help you to realize what could be in growth and
• 44:39
  Speaker 3: what should be in safe money. You know, if 30,000
• 44:43
  Speaker 3: is 55% of the traditional IRA, whether that's too much
• 44:46
  Speaker 3: cash depends on when the withdrawals should be coming out. Well,
• 44:50
  Speaker 3: five years, I think that you're being a little bit overcautious,
• 44:53
  Speaker 3: but if that's your sleep factor, that's okay. Um, but
• 44:58
  Speaker 3: estimate how much she, she is planning on taking out
• 45:01
  Speaker 3: in the first couple of years. And then that should
• 45:04
  Speaker 3: be in the safe money. Maybe the rest of that
• 45:06
  Speaker 3: should then, um, go into things like growth because she'll
• 45:12
  Speaker 3: have seven. five to seven years and before she'll need
• 45:16
  Speaker 3: that money. So it gives you a little time to
• 45:18
  Speaker 3: go through any major pullbacks or something like that. So,
• 45:22
  Speaker 3: and then you need to consider safe money alternatives.
• 45:25
  Speaker 4: Yeah.
• 45:25
  Speaker 3: A money market is good right now. It's one of
• 45:27
  Speaker 3: the few periods, you know, occasionally money markets do that,
• 45:30
  Speaker 3: but usually it does that only during inflationary times. So
• 45:34
  Speaker 3: if this administration does get the inflation under control, you're
• 45:38
  Speaker 3: going to want to have some alternatives. So you might
• 45:41
  Speaker 3: be looking at other type of safe money or at
• 45:44
  Speaker 3: least semi-safe money. So consider locking in some treasuries or
• 45:50
  Speaker 3: CDs and then ladder them for when she needs to
• 45:54
  Speaker 3: pull that money out in five years or six years.
• 45:58
  Speaker 3: And that way you can lock in those returns that way.
• 46:01
  Speaker 3: And then start looking at the growth portfolio and making
• 46:04
  Speaker 3: sure that maybe you want to get into some things
• 46:07
  Speaker 3: like some dividend paying stocks just to help with the
• 46:10
  Speaker 3: income and things like that. So you really should be
• 46:14
  Speaker 3: focusing first on when is that money needed and what's
• 46:17
  Speaker 3: it needed for. And then you can determine where it
• 46:21
  Speaker 3: should go. Appreciate the question. That's actually a good stewardship question.
• 46:25
  Speaker 3: And don't forget, remember the IRA tax rules, because I
• 46:30
  Speaker 3: don't know if she's going to be pulling out of
• 46:31
  Speaker 3: the Roth or pulling out of the IRA. Should depend
• 46:35
  Speaker 3: on where you're at tax-wise as a household and how
• 46:37
  Speaker 3: you file your taxes. So make sure you look into
• 46:39
  Speaker 3: that as good. I want to thank you all for
• 46:41
  Speaker 3: being great stewards. I want to thank you for being
• 46:43
  Speaker 3: here with us. You made today a wonderful day to
• 46:46
  Speaker 3: be praising the Lord, acknowledging his existence in our life,
• 46:50
  Speaker 3: and focusing on his care for us. God bless you
• 46:54
  Speaker 3: all for loving God and showing that by the way
• 46:57
  Speaker 3: you invest with biblical integrity. Look forward to seeing you
• 47:00
  Speaker 3: tomorrow on Overtime and Focus Friday. God bless.