Financial Issues - 07.29.2025

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:04):
Welcome to Financial Issues, where we join reality with truth,
helping you make the most of your money by honoring
God with your investments. Now listen man, as we give
you the practical tools and advice you need to become
a biblically responsible investor.

Speaker 2 (00:25):
Welcome back to Financial Issues, everybody. It's great to be
here with you, Seth, you Dinsky, hanging with you this morning.
We appreciate you spending your morning here with us. Folks,
Welcome to the show. Happy to have all of you. Hey,
we got a busy show today. Later on in the show,
I've got financial advisor Andy Thrift. He's going to join
me to discuss the savvy ways that Christians can keep
their money out of the greedy pause of Uncle Sam

(00:46):
and deploy it for God's glory. I'm a big fan
of that. I'm sure many of you are as well,
so you're going to want to stay tuned for that
that's going to be later in the show. Also your
comments and questions. Speaking of which chat, Good morning chat.
I would love for you to answer this question for me. Please,
if you're in the chat, give me an answer to
this question. Keep it short, you can go long if
you want to. That's okay. I don't think there's a

(01:06):
word limit in our chat. Is there ever a time
when you should not tithe? The question is, is there
ever a time where you should not tithe? We'll take
a stab at that later on in the show. I'm
grateful for each of you. I'm especially grateful for my
friend who is back from vacation, Sam Case Sam.

Speaker 3 (01:23):
My first day miss buddy, and he's coming with the
hard hitting questions should we or should we not tithe?
The answer might surprise you.

Speaker 2 (01:30):
That's right. I'm keeping you on your toes. Sam. No, dude,
we missed you last week. It's great to have you back.

Speaker 3 (01:35):
Yeah, I'm glad the place is still here.

Speaker 2 (01:36):
Yeah, we're all still were. We survived, as it were.

Speaker 3 (01:39):
We are Samless week.

Speaker 2 (01:41):
That's right, we survived the Samless week. So grateful for Sam. Hey, Also, folks,
be on the lookout for a partner commentary that'll be
up probably in the next twenty four hours. I'd say
look out for it later this evening, or if you
go to bed early, check it out first thing in
the morning. You'll probably see it there. So great to
have each of you this morning. Thanks for joining us. However,
you're listening or watching, take a look at the markets here.

(02:01):
Quick to start the show, folks. So after a winning week,
yesterday the indicies they're relatively muted, so investors were digesting
the latest updates on US foreign trade deals. Of course,
the big one over the weekend was the deal that
the United States set with the EU. By midday, the
major averages were mostly positive, but only moderately, so the
tech heavy Nasdaq was leading the way. The afternoon, the

(02:22):
indusices kind of retreated a bit. The Dow Jones and
the sp sank towards the flat line. By late afternoon
it was the same. By the closing bell, the Dow
Jones finished slightly below the flat line. The S and
P five hundred was barely positive. It was basically a
flat line finish, but technically it was positive, and for
the S and P five hundred it was a sixth
straight all time high finish, so it kept a little
streak going there for the SMP. The Nasdaq, meanwhile, was

(02:45):
the big winner of the day, up about a third
of a percentage point. As of this morning, Continuing relatively
positive are the major indices as they're looking at some
earnings reports that we're having, of course, also keeping an
eye on what's coming later on in the week. And
I just want to remind you, folks, we're kind of
entering the busy season of this week. So we get
a double dose of magnificent seven earnings tomorrow, I believe

(03:06):
it's Meta and Microsoft, and then Thursday is going to
be Amazon and Apple. Also tomorrow we get the Federal
Reserve announcing its interest rate decision, So you can expect
the markets. Actually, Sam, let me ask you this, do
you think the markets will be more calm this week
or maybe not as calm this week? With all that
stuff going on there.

Speaker 3 (03:25):
They're gonna probably be so zen, They're gonna be like,
it's amazing, They're gonna be levitating.

Speaker 2 (03:31):
Absolutely no, folks, you can expect. Listen, I'm not saying
that this will happen, but it might not be your
typical calm week. Markets might shoot up, they might go down.
Just be ready for that. Could that could happen for sure?
Now again, it might not. If we get some strong
earnings reports, if the markets seem at least to be
somewhat pleased with whatever the Fed decides, which I guess

(03:52):
the jury is still out.

Speaker 3 (03:53):
But is that calm If they do cut interest rates
and the mag seven does, well, that's not exactly calm.
That's exact excitement.

Speaker 2 (03:58):
That's gonna be excitement as absolutely so mine is.

Speaker 3 (04:02):
There is not a zero percent chance that the Fed
will cut rate. Trump seems to think they will have
to see.

Speaker 2 (04:07):
Uh huh, yep, yep. So we'll just have to see
what happens there, folks. Exactly right. But at any rate, Sam,
speaking of Trump, I would love to get your thoughts
on this headline here. So we saw yesterday Trump set
a global baseline tariff between fifteen and twenty percent. What
can you tell us about that, Sam.

Speaker 3 (04:22):
Right, this comes on the heels of his big deal
with the EU, saying clock's ticking. The bell is about
to toll for everyone else if you don't have a deal,
so you better get in line. President Donald Trump said
the baseline tariff, as you said, would be in the
range of fifteen to twenty percent, probably one of those
two numbers quote in his words. His comments come just
days before the August first tariff tariff deadline, as dozens

(04:44):
of countries have still not reached those trade deals with
the United States. He simply says there's not enough time
to make those deals with everyone. He said, you can't
sit down and make deals with two hundred countries.

Speaker 2 (04:56):
Yeah, So that's just one more thing to be looking
out for this week as well. That we have that
tariff headline. There so interesting stuff, and it should.

Speaker 3 (05:02):
Be noted that if a country doesn't currently have a
deal with Donald Trump and these tariffs do come online,
Howard Lutnick says, they still can negotiate. So even after
August first, we still could get some more deals.

Speaker 2 (05:12):
Sure, yep, yep. Absolutely. We also get some earnings calls
out today, folks, nothing to sneeze at, but we do
get Verizon and United Health. So I saw some headlines
saying that it looks like United Health the earnings will
be worse than expected, which you know comes to be
expected in the middle of the lawsuit that they're in
right now over the perhaps suspect or suspect Medicare billing practice.

Speaker 3 (05:35):
And I believe they said for the whole year. I
might have misread that title, but I don't think it
was just for the quarter all of twenty twenty five.
It's not going to look too hot.

Speaker 2 (05:44):
Yep, that's exactly right. Procter and Gamble beat this morning.
Nothing too crazy there, but that was what we're seeing
from the earnings calls. So once again, nothing crazy today.
Tomorrow I think we'll be more of the big day.
Same with Thursday as well, and even Friday's nothing to
sneeze out. We got Berkshire Hathaway on Friday. So all right, Sam,
let's take a look. So we got a question from

(06:04):
Brian that I thought was interesting. I think we can
take a look at this one. What is Brian saying?

Speaker 3 (06:08):
Brian is asking about TE ninety one and TE fifty
seven and he wants to know if they are still
bri ill.

Speaker 2 (06:15):
Brian, thanks for that question. I appreciate that right now.
So technically, according to our screening, they are still BRI
but they're on BRI watch right now. I can't give
a solid answer at this point as to if they
will still be Byes if they survive their BRI screening. Basically,
that's really what we're looking at right now. They sit

(06:36):
on BRI watch, which means, folks, for your purposes, Brian
is for use for everyone else who's wondering. They are
a hold for you until we figure out what's going on.
Here they are a hold. Shanna had actually mentioned T
E ninety one on the conference call. I would highly
encourage each and every one of you to please go
back and listen to that. Even if you listen to
the conference call already, go back and listen to what
Shanna talked about with T E ninety one. I believe

(06:59):
it was in the latter half of the conference call.
I think it was in the partner questions section. I
might have to go back and confirm that, but I
mean it would be well worth I you to listen
to the whole conference call again anyway, but particularly with that,
because she said some really good things about it. Unfortunately,
there's some warning signs we're seeing with this one that
could possibly lead to a cell for BRI reasons, hence
the reason why it's on br I Watch in the

(07:20):
first place.

Speaker 3 (07:21):
But I would say, don't let that spook you and
preceptively sell exactly.

Speaker 2 (07:25):
Yeah, that's that's very important. Sam. You're exactly right. When
a stock goes on the hold list, that's not a cell,
and when it goes on br I Watch, that's not
a cell. Necessarily, that's not a cell. Yet the hope
is it's on br I Watch for the purpose of
us doing some deeper research to see what's going on,
because we've heard some rumors. There are things that maybe

(07:47):
we're thinking, okay, could could this company be dipping into
non BRI territory, which could be very dangerous for us.
That's that new category that we added on the website. Folks.
You didn't have that on the old website. We have
it now. Basically it's treated as a hold until further notice,
where we're looking into this company to see, Okay, are
these rumors that they're engaging in such and such a
thing true. For example, say it was rumored that a

(08:10):
company sponsored a gay pride parade or something like that.

Speaker 3 (08:12):
You'd have this a lot during the height of the
DEI movement DEI nonsense, which isn't exactly the same as
being not BRI yet. But if a company's doing a
lot of things associated with the DEI programs and policies,
that would likely be a company that's going to be
on the BRI Watch. We can't prove they're not BRI
just yet, but they're doing some things. There's some smoke there,

(08:33):
so let's find out there's actually fire or it's just
a misconception. Yep, yep.

Speaker 2 (08:37):
It's the old saying, Sam, where there's smoke, there's fire.
If you see smoke, there will be fire there. But
the question is is it a nice contained fire and
a fire pit, or is it a blaze that's consuming
a whole house. That's really kind of what we're trying
to look at here. The hope and prayers that the
rumors are unfounded, in which case the holding returns to
being a regular hold for our purposes. So, Brian, to
your question, while a company's on BRI Watch, it's still

(08:59):
a hold, still a hold, And so I.

Speaker 3 (09:01):
Said that it can stay on br I Watch for
quite some time because these things do take some time
to clarify.

Speaker 2 (09:06):
Absolutely. And keep in mind, you know, now, once the
company's on BRI Watch, in order to get back to
buy status, which is what you're asking Brian, it now
has to jump through two hoops. So it has to
survive the BRI scrutiny, but then it also has to
go back to a place where it could potentially be
a good buy. So say it survives BRI scrutiny, it's
just back to the whole list. It might be up
near all time highs. It might not be the best

(09:27):
buying opportunity if you're placing new money into it. Anyway,
So we might still keep it on the whole list
for quite some time, and then we'll see, you know,
if there's signs of long term growth, it could go higher,
or if there's a sell off it comes back down
a little bit, then you might see it go back
onto the buy list. I'm not saying that's the case
for these in particular, because again, we're just gonna have
to wait and see as we, you know, kind of
come to an understanding of what's going on with these

(09:47):
companies in particular. But Brian, that's a good question. I
hope that can help you, and I hope that can
help some other people who are wondering that also. You know, folks,
it did remind me, just to remind all of you,
please do play around with the new website. It's so
helpful for us to know what things are working, what
things aren't working. That again, what we just mentioned that
br I Watch is a new website feature. There's a

(10:08):
lot of new website features. We've heard some wonderfully positive
feedback about the website. So if you like it, if
you like what you see, I would highly encourage you
to keep on playing around with it, you know, especially
if you've got a really robust, well diversified portfolio. That
just means you'll be using the tools even more and
more so. Good stuff, Brian, Thanks for that question there,
All right, folks. We'll get to another question coming up

(10:30):
on the other side as well as that question. Is
there ever an appropriate time not to tithe? I want
to hear your answers, folks, should you ever not tithe?
And get to some of these later on in the program?
More financial issues up?

Speaker 4 (10:43):
Let it do.

Speaker 3 (10:44):
This security is offered through GA Repel and Company, a

(11:05):
registered broker dealer and Investment Advisor member FINRA and SIPC.
Opinions expressed by Shanna are hers alone and are for
informational purposes only and do not necessarily represent those of
GA Repel or the outlet on what you are listening.
You should consider how the information applies to your situation
prior to personally implementing it, and consult any financial professional

(11:26):
you work with to make sure it's applicable to your
financial plan.

Speaker 2 (11:33):
Welcome back everyone, Good to see you this morning. I
see several answers to my question. In the chat there,
so we'll get to those in just a moment here
if we have time in this segment. Speaking of questions, actually,
you know what, before we do questions, I should mention
the pre markets all positive right now, as the markets
slated to open in about ten minutes or so, the
Dow is just above the flat line, the SMP is

(11:55):
about a fifth above, and the Nasdaq is about two
fifths above.

Speaker 3 (12:00):
Beaver's this week seth. Although I don't know what's so
eager about Beavers compared to you.

Speaker 2 (12:05):
Either, other than that it's sort of rhymes.

Speaker 3 (12:07):
I guess it sounds nice. They're industrious. That's exactly right.
There's that.

Speaker 2 (12:10):
Yeah, industrious Beavers doesn't roll off the tongu quite as
much of you if it's more true. Totally agree, all right, Sam,
Let's get to another question here. Joseph is asking about cryptocurrency.
What does he have to say?

Speaker 3 (12:19):
Joseph asks a very relevant question with some of the
headlines we're dealing with this month. He says, is cryptocurrency,
bri I do have a little bit of crypto, and
I'm not sure if I should just sell it and
then invest in something else.

Speaker 2 (12:32):
Joseph's a good question. It's one that we will get
from time to time. Before I give my answer, let's
se what Shanna has to say about this, because she's
referenced this before. She actually answered recently another question sort
of similar to yours from another partner. I believe that
we have that clip here, So let's hear what Shanna
has to say first. Then I'll add my comments as well. Joseph,
Wanda a couple questions for you. Maybe we can take
these piece by piece, Shanna, She says, I looked at

(12:54):
Dan's video comments on cryptocurrency. I still have a few questions.
Here's my first one. Since the original bitcoin, not the offshoots,
is not owned by any person or company, how do
you measure if it's bri I.

Speaker 5 (13:07):
So the way that we measure a company for br
for biblically responsible is the company. When you buy shares
of stock, you're becoming an owner of a company. Now
you don't get to make the day to day decisions
about what happens with the company's resources, about whether they
pay for their employees to travel across state lines and

(13:28):
get an abortion, whether they donate money to a gay
pride parade or festival, whether they support legislation that is
anti family and tries to push marriage is something that
it's not. You don't get to make those day to
day decisions. You're delegating that authority to the board of
directors and the CEO, but you're expecting them to generate
a return for you, but you don't want them to

(13:51):
generate a return. That's that involves you having to compromise
on your Christian convictions, on your moral convictions. Crypto is
considered to be neutral because there's it's more like a
it's more like a commodity. Then there's no decisions to
be made there. So you know, bitcoin is not going

(14:15):
to force you. You know, buying bitcoin or cryptocurrency is
not going to force you to do anything with that
asset that is against your moral conviction. So that's why
it's it's neutral when it comes to whether or not
it's biblically responsible.

Speaker 2 (14:30):
So Joseph, I hope that's helpful there. I agree with
what Shanna said. There's nothing inherently morally suspect from a
BRI perspective about cryptocurrency, Like you just said there, it's
neutral in the same way that you would say the
dollar is neither br or non BRI.

Speaker 3 (14:45):
And that tends to be the argument that's that's a
good comparison, because the one argument that will come up
that it's not BRI. I I don't agree with this,
but the argument goes something like, well, cryptocurrency, because it's
not regulated and it can't really be traced all that well,
is a favored currency of drug dealers, criminals, terrorists, all
kinds of people like that. But so is cash money

(15:07):
also for similar reasons that it can't easily be traced,
and we don't have a problem using cash just because
nasty people use it. Also, I want to say, just
like with cash, cryptos similar and that when you buy,
say a bitcoin, I'm not recommending you do, but I'm
just saying, let's say you did buy one, you just
own that one bitcoin, So it's different from a stock

(15:27):
and in that only you own what you own. It
really does not affect what other people are doing with
that amount that you have.

Speaker 2 (15:34):
That's really well said, Sam. And you know, back to
what you had said about the you know, the money
being used by evil people, You're exactly right. Cash can
be used by those people as well. And let's not
forget for thousands of years before cash money, that money
was called gold, and gold was used in that same way.
And it's the same with gold too. It's neither bri

(15:55):
or non br It's a neutral phenomenon. I think the
question we have to get to here, Sam with this
and Joseph, hopefully this can be helpful with you. Cryptocurrency
is not a question of a moral investment versus immoral,
but it's wise versus unwise. It's a question of wisdom
versus not wisdom. Sam, to your point what you had
just brought up about the money being used by drug
traffickers and terrorists, I think you do need to consider

(16:17):
is crypto a wise investment in that regard because it
can be accessed by these sort of evil folks. I
can remember, you know, Dan Celia used to talk all
the time, you know, about how there would be millions
and millions of cryptocurrencies that would just get lost every year,
and so stuff like that. It's just a consideration for you.
Now there are some arguments, and when it gets lost,

(16:39):
I don't think there's really any way way to done
backet you don't know where it is, you don't Yeah,
Now there's also the flip side of that, is a
lot of people argue that certain cryptocurrencies are more secure,
at least in the sense of they're protected from inflation,
and you know, that's that's certainly I think that's a
really really good argument. But nonetheless, I don't think that
takes away the point either that there are still a

(16:59):
lot of questions about the security of it as a whole.
So really, I think it comes down to it's not
moral versus immoral as much as it is wise versus unwives.
A lot of life is like this. I was thinking
about this yesterday, Sam. Is it sinful for me to
go home today and to take a bite out of
my lawnmower? Probably not, probably not, But it's stupid. It's

(17:20):
really it's really not smart. You know, it would it
would hurt my teeth, would harm my mouth. It's it's
not necessarily sinful, but it's not wise. And that's really
the point there. It's an extreme example, but if something
is unwise, we still shouldn't do it. Now. Again, I'm
not saying necessarily that all cryptocurrency investment is something that

(17:42):
you should not do, but I am saying that's really
what the question is that we have to ask Bitcoin
and say, part coin are very different things, very different things,
exactly right, and the markets will show you that you
certainly will. Yeah, and you throw pepe coin in there
and all those other ones, and you can see there's
some crazy cryptocurrencies out there. But it's very speculative, it
really is. It tends to be volatile. There's little in

(18:02):
terms of regulations. It's still kind of the wild West
of investing. Because of all this, Joseph, we really feel
like the long term investor should think long and hard
about if crypto is really the right move. If you're
aiming for a robust, long term portfolio that's going to
be sustained, we believe it would fit much better for you, know,

(18:23):
that type of portfolio, a long term portfolio, would be
much better for you to invest in the options that
we offer on our by list.

Speaker 3 (18:31):
So then the question is he mutually owns the bitcoin
or whatever he owns. I'm not sure what he owns,
and he wants to know should he sell it, what
should he do with that?

Speaker 2 (18:38):
That's a good question, Joseph. So here's here's what I'd
tell you once again, if you're if you're looking for
a good, solid, long term investment, fool pool. I would
check out the equities, mutual funds, and ETFs on our list.
We don't have any particular cryptocurrencies on our list. I
believe there's one company right now that is involved in
the trading of cryptocurrencies, and it's a hot It is
not in and of itself a cryptocurrency, so even that

(19:03):
is not cryptocurrency. Whether or not to sell it, I
think is up to you. I think it really is
up to you. I don't know your particular situation. You
might have been one of those people who bought, say bitcoin,
for example, back in twenty twenty one when it was
down and it's now near all time highs. I'm not
sure if that is you or not, but perhaps that is.
Maybe you've held it for a while, you're up in it.
You have then two potentially good options before you can

(19:24):
let it ride, or you can get out and sell
it and take the gains. I really think that that
is up to you, honestly, and that's part of where
the do it yourself part comes into this. The one
thing I would tell you, Joseph, is if you're going
to sell it, I would tell you try not to
time the market with it. If you have a conviction
to sell it, just sell it, you know, don't wait
until tomorrow to see, well, maybe it's going to go

(19:45):
up a little bit, or I'll try to get in
today because I'm worried that it's going to go down.
If you're convicted to sell it, just sell it, you know.
I think that would be the smart thing for you
to do. I think ultimately you seek the Lord with that.
It sounds to me, though, like the fact that you're
asking the question, at least your conscience is somewhat pricked
to give it a second look. I'm not saying that
your conscience is pricked where you're like, I must sell
this now, I must get out of it because it's

(20:06):
not wise. You might just be needing to take a
second look and to pray about it. And again, it's
not because cryptos not be our I, but because perhaps
it might not be the wisest investment choice for you.
That makes sense, Sam, Do you think I covered it?
I hope so.

Speaker 3 (20:18):
I think that's true, and I think the investment choice
is it's a little more complicated here since he already
owns it. When it comes to actually purchasing it. That's
where the wisdom comes in now for him. The wisdom
is going to be whether or not to sell it,
is now the right time or not?

Speaker 2 (20:32):
Yeah, yeah, I think that's exactly right.

Speaker 3 (20:34):
Joseph.

Speaker 2 (20:34):
Appreciate that question, man. I hope that that helped you there.
All right, folks, let's do a little chat run down.
You know, a lot of you have answered my question
that I asked earlier in the show. Is there ever
a time where you are not required to tithe? I'm
just going to share some of these answers and we'll
see a.

Speaker 3 (20:50):
Sneak peak the whistle for next segment's topic.

Speaker 2 (20:53):
Yeah. So Nelson is saying tithing. I agree in principle
we should always tithe. Unfortunately, right now to provide for
you know, a current family situation certain people, and Nelson's
even shared he's been in this as well. I have
had to drop to bare minimum tithing. Hopefully that is
a temporary spot there, Nelson, I appreciate you sharing that absolutely.
George from bethlen, North Carolina, saying, tithing between each person

(21:15):
and God. It's the only place in the Bible where
God invites us to test him. According to the Bible,
I cannot think of a time where we should not
so right. There two really good answers that fall maybe
on the opposite side of the spectrum. John saying somewhere
in the Bible are aren't we told that you need
to take care of your family first? John? That is
in the Bible, and we'll get to that.

Speaker 3 (21:34):
John might be reading notes.

Speaker 2 (21:35):
I think he got a copy of our notes.

Speaker 3 (21:38):
I really like Brian's here. I think it's all about
the heart. There are certainly times one may not be
able to tithe, and I believe God fully understands and
accepts that greed or self gratification over the tithe would
not be good for one's relationship with God though.

Speaker 2 (21:53):
Well, said Brian from Virginia. That's really good. Similar one
Sam Stephen from Oklahoma saying we're saved by grace. We
live in grace. God knows the heart. Pray, move on,
make changes. God will provide in his time. I guess well,
said guys, you know honestly. Eddie. Here's one more interesting one,
Eddie from Tennessee saying the minimum tithe is ten percent.
The Old Testament speaks of multiple ties up to thirty percent. Eddie,

(22:16):
I'm glad you brought that up. Sam and I were
talking about that before the show. We focus so heavily
on ten percent, but if you actually read the scriptures,
if we really wanted to go based on the Old
Testament law, it would be a lot more than ten percent,
be a lot more.

Speaker 3 (22:29):
And it wouldn't just be money.

Speaker 2 (22:31):
Yeah, that's that's exactly right. You're talking ten percent of
everything that you own, meaning ten percent of the sour
dough that my wife just made yesterday, ten percent of
the gasoline in your car, ten percent of this, that
and the other thing. The Bible speaks, Eddie says, of
being a cheerful giver with our tithes and offerings the
Lord owns and all. I think that we should interesting
stuff for sure. There. So, folks, we'll get to those comments. Boy,

(22:53):
you guys are sharing some great thoughts there. Part of
the reason I wanted to ask this question is simply
because I think it's more It's more complicated than just
a simple yes or no. It's more complicated than is
there ever an appropriate time not to tithe? The answer
is no, you should always tithe. I do think it's
more complicated than that. What it does not do is
it does not undercut what the Bible teaches. What I'm

(23:15):
trying to do is bring more clarity to this so that,
for example, if you're in a situation where you have
to make a choice, where you can make a sound
wise choice knowing that you're honoring God no matter which
way you go. So we'll talk about that on the
other side of this break, folks. If you have to
leave us, do hope you have a great rest of
the day. Again, we're also going to hear from Andy
Thrift later on in the show. He's going to share

(23:36):
some great thoughts about funding the Kingdom of God and
keeping that money out of the greedy, grubby pause of
Uncle Sam, and we'll back after this. Welcome back, folks.

(24:07):
Financial issues. The markets are keeping an eye on tomorrow's
FED rate decision as they just opened. The Dow Jones
slightly negative. The S and P five hundred is up
about zero point two percent, NASDAK up a half a
percent as we open this morning. Okay, let's get to
it here, Sam, the question of the hour. Many of
you shared your comments in the last segment. I appreciate

(24:27):
those a lot. Is there ever an appropriate time not
to tie? It was pretty funny because Nelson, our Lord
Father in the chat there said we didn't stir up
enough controversy over the segments on retirement. Yeah, that's true, Nelson,
talk about that. How about social Security? Also? You remember
that one we stirred up some controversy there about to
do the same thing here. But let me try my
best to answer this question.

Speaker 3 (24:48):
Listen, it's not fun listening to someone who is just
milk toast and says what you want to hear.

Speaker 2 (24:53):
If we agreed with everything, that would be a boring show. Okay,
that would be a boring show. No, we want to
have fun here.

Speaker 3 (25:00):
That's why SE's gonna right now say you should never tithe.
So I'm not kidding. He's not gonna say that's right.
Here's what I will say.

Speaker 2 (25:06):
Okay, I believe that tithing is a biblical command. I
do believe it looks different than it did in the
Old Covenant because we live under the New Covenant. But
I believe it's a biblical command. The purpose of tithing
is first of all, to remind us that everything belongs
to God to be generous, but also specifically the practical
purpose of it is to fund our spiritual leaders. So today,

(25:26):
the purpose of the tithe I believe, if you break
it down, is to pay the pastor's salary and to
keep the lights on in the church and other things
like that. Meaning the answer to the above question, is
there ever an appropriate time not to tithe? Is for you?
Probably not. However, there could be nuance in this when
it comes to the tithe. I can think of two
times where there would be some more nuance here to say, okay,

(25:50):
maybe not right now or holding off. You may come
across these in your life, you may already have. Here's
option one, seth.

Speaker 3 (25:58):
Can I clarify something When you're saying tithing? Are you
explicitly meaning ten percent? Or do you just mean that's
a good question giving in some way that's sacrificial? What
do you mean by what I.

Speaker 2 (26:09):
Mean by that? And I'm glad you said that, Sam,
because even the very word tithe comes from a tenth.
The tithe that we live under in the New Covenant
is not a numerical number. It's really not. You can
do ten percent. I think ten percent is a good benchmark.
But truthfully, my belief is that the amount that you
should tithe is whatever amount the Lord is laid on

(26:31):
your heart. And I would also throw in a dash
of any amount that makes you slightly uncomfortable.

Speaker 3 (26:35):
I was going to say, that's what C. S. Lewis said.
He was talking about the tithe in one of his
books and he said, well, you know, that's an Old
Testament idea, and really what we as Christians are called
to do is to be generous and giving. That's what
we're repeatedly called to do. And he says, what's the metric.
He's like, well, maybe the metrics should be that you
should be a tad uncomfortable with the money you're giving away.

Speaker 2 (26:55):
That's right, just a tad too. You know. It's not
like you're you're saying, Okay, here's the deal. I got
my paycheck, I'm giving seventy percent of it to my church.
What am I going to have left? If you're uncomfortable
or let me put it this way, if you're comfortable
at eight percent, you should probably give ten percent, right,
sam As that's unreasonable. If you're comfortable at ten percent,
try giving twelve percent yet comfortable or at least nine,

(27:16):
push yourself a little, put yourself a little bit nine percent. Absolutely,
So does that answer that that?

Speaker 6 (27:21):
That? Yeah?

Speaker 3 (27:21):
Thats up? Just I know people here tied, they immediately
think the ten percent, and it can derail the conversation.

Speaker 2 (27:28):
For many people, the number in your mind is going
to be ten percent, and that's fine. The truth is
ten percent. It actually works out for me. Ten percent
is that sweet spot where Okay, I'm a little bit
uncomfortable with this, but I'm gonna do it because I'm
trusting the Lord, so it tends to work out. I'm
guessing that's true for a lot of you as well.
So let me share with you two instances where I
think it could be an appropriate time not to tithe.
Option number one. In the extreme case, when the tithe

(27:51):
means you cannot feed your family, that's option one. Let
me be clear, I think this is extremely rare, but
I think it is possible. It's possible that you might
be left with the following choice. Do I, as a Christian,
either put food on the table for my loved ones,
or do I put money in the offering box and
trust that God is going to provide the food. I

(28:12):
don't think either option would necessarily be sinful, but I
do think wisdom would tell us that the answer should
be feed your family first. And the reason I say
that is because I believe in the words of one
Timothy five to eight, if a man does not provide
for the needs of his family, he has denied the
faith and his believer. As a man, especially your first ministry.

(28:33):
Your first ministry is to your family, your first extension
of the Great Commission. You know, Jesus commanded us to
go into all the world preach the gospel. But where
does that start, folks, That starts with your wife and
children as a man. I'm speaking to men specifically here,
but it applies to everyone. Great commission, great commandment is
to those in your old and your own household. Their
provision comes first. So if you are faced in a

(28:54):
situation where you cannot tithe be because you are feeding
your family, I think that's okay. I don't believe that's sinful.
I think the grace of God is there to cover
us when we can't tithe. Now let me say this
as well, though, I believe the reality of this situation
is profoundly rare. Profoundly rare. It must be I would say,

(29:15):
an absolute last resort. Meaning let's say you have a
budget and you're over budget again, and you're thinking, okay, well,
I can't tie this month, but you also have a
savings account, you also have a retirement account. That might
be a question where you have to ask, Okay, maybe
I need to draw on my savings and use that

(29:36):
to feed my family or something like that. And once again,
that's between you and the Lord to figure out. But
I want you to try to think about this, folks,
that this really is a very rare situation. This is
really a last resort. Most of us will probably not
be faced with this, even in the lower middle class.
Some of us will, though, And if you're faced with it,
I want to tell you there's grace there. Feed your
family first, Okay, feed your family first. That's example number one.

(30:01):
Example number two. I think this is much more common
if your church is not faithfully preaching the gospel. If
your church is not doing its job, I would say
that the believer is permitted, in tune with his Holy
spirit led conscience, to withhold the tithe from that church.
Sort of like when we put companies on br I
watch if your church gets put on personally for you,

(30:22):
it's sort of a watch where you're thinking, Okay, some
things are happening here that I'm not comfortable.

Speaker 3 (30:27):
With, and you're saying this is before you're willing to leave,
because my first thought would say, well, just get out
into a different church. But I get maybe you're investing
and you want to see if you can change things.

Speaker 2 (30:36):
You know, if you've been in this church for ten, twelve,
fifteen years, you love this church. They're your family, and
then something changes. The pastor starts preaching something erroneous.

Speaker 4 (30:45):
Uh.

Speaker 2 (30:45):
You see a gross mismanagement of money somewhere and you
think to yourself, I'm not comfortable with that. Here's what
you do. I think you have a conversation with someone,
You bring it to the elders, you bring it to
the pastor. If nothing come from that, because the hope
with that, Sam obviously, is that the leadership comes to
an understanding what they've done wrong, They repent, they restore it.

(31:06):
If nothing happens there, now what now? I think that's
when you go to the point of saying, Okay, I
need to find a home church where I can feel
comfortable tithing in. You no longer have a tithing issue,
you have a church issue. You have to find a
church that is faithful A good rule of thumb, folks,
If you don't feel comfortable tithing to a particular church,

(31:26):
you should not be a member there. If you don't
feel comfortable tithing to a particular church, why are you
going there? Why are you trusting your spiritual health to
a congregation that you don't feel comfortable giving your money
to because of this, that or the other thing. I
would tell you. Right then, the situation becomes, you can't

(31:48):
stay where you're at. Don't stay where you're at, and
you know, just enjoy the free bee. Okay, well I
can go to church and I don't have to tithe now. No,
you need to get your rear end and your family's
rear ends out of that church and find a faithful
church where you can immediate at least start tithing to again.
But seth, the donuts are so good and the coffee's great,
and I love the worship, and the pastor preaches a nice,
feel good sermon that doesn't convict me. That's exactly right.

(32:10):
If that's why you're going to church, folks, again, you
need to get your priorities right here.

Speaker 3 (32:15):
Okay, I will say that's a joke, but there is
also something to the donuts, the coffee, the air conditioning
and all that. For the tithe too, is that you
also just don't want to be a mooch of a
building's teaching, coffee, all the services are providing you. So
there is the spiritual component, then there's just the practical
component of life. Is where else would you just continually
show up for free and take all their stuff and

(32:36):
not give anything back?

Speaker 2 (32:37):
Exactly. That's a really good point there, Sam. So those
are the two examples I can think of, Folks. You
got any more, you're welcome to share them in the chat.
Outside of those two, I can't think of any other
nuance around the commandion.

Speaker 3 (32:47):
And I knew someone whose sister was very sick and
she had to spend quite a bit of money supporting her,
giving her money, and our pastor for a time said,
don't worry about tithing. Consider that sort of your tithe.

Speaker 2 (32:58):
And even in that, Sam, I would put that under
the umbrella of category number one.

Speaker 3 (33:02):
Sure, yeah, it's an alternate version of that.

Speaker 2 (33:05):
That's exactly right. Yeah, good stuff. Well hope that made sense, folks.
If we stirred up controversying in the chat, I'll check
it out during the AG report. Here comes the AG
and then we've got more financial issues coming up right
after this.

Speaker 3 (33:16):
This is Craig, however, with your financial issues.

Speaker 4 (33:19):
Egg update for July twenty ninth, Corner's lower yesterday is
a big crop, feels closer and closer to being realized.
Traders were aggressive cellars in spite of weekly export inspections
that came in above the top end of what the
trade was looking for. The crop progress report shows silking
at seventy six percent with twenty six percent of the
crop in the dose stage, and we did see conditions
fall by one percent down to seventy three percent good

(33:41):
to excellent. That was in line with the average trade
estimates and five percent better than last year at this point.
December corn finished the day at nickel lower at four
dollars and fourteen cents per bushel.

Speaker 3 (33:50):
Si means for lower.

Speaker 4 (33:51):
As the weather continues to be near perfect, the corn
belt is on pace of its wettest July since nineteen
ninety three. For the week, we saw good to excellent
ratings improved two percent to seventy percent good to excellent.

Speaker 3 (34:02):
Yours was similar.

Speaker 4 (34:03):
Good excellent conditions on this date have averaged three and
a half percent above trend line yields we had November
beans nine and a half cents lower at ten eleven
and a half. Weed was weighed down by weaker corn
prices and a stronger US dollar. Weekly export inspections were disappointing.
That also created headwinds for the wheat market. We had
Minneapolis September weeed three and a quarter cents lower at
five eighty one and a half. Kansas City dropped by

(34:26):
a half a cent to close at five twenty six.
In Chicago was a half cent higher at five thirty
eight and a half. Cotton futures continued their aimless sideways wandering.
We had December futures finishing the day eleven points higher
at sixty eight thirty four. Livestock futures were stronger to
start the week. October live cattle rose by one dollars
sixty two and a half cents, closed again two hundred

(34:46):
and twenty four dollars seventy seven and a half cents
per hundredweight. September feeder cattle were two dollars and thirty
five cents higher as they closed at three hundred and
thirty four dollars and fifty five cents per one hundred
and We had October leenhok futures twenty seven and a
half cents stronger dollars eighty seven and a half cents
per one HUNDREDWEIGHTLAS assume no future started the week with
a little bit of a balance. The closing bell August

(35:07):
Futures was seventeen points higher, ending the day at seventeen forty.
This has been Craig Holguard with your financial issues.

Speaker 3 (35:13):
Agg update.

Speaker 1 (35:14):
We'll be right.

Speaker 4 (35:15):
Back with more financial issues after this.

Speaker 3 (35:29):
The opinions and recommendations expressed on this program do not
necessarily represent the opinions of the station or any of
the program's sponsors. Additionally, all products or services offered by
the program sponsors may not be known by the program.

Speaker 2 (35:46):
Welcome back, folks, good to be here with you today.
We're having a good time here on the show. Hey,
I have a special guest joining me on the program today,
Andy Thrift. Andy is a certified financial planner. He's also
the chartered Advisor of Philanthropy with Market Street Advisors here
in the Philadelphia area. I'm so excited to have Andy
on here. Let me quickly give a disclaimer, just like
with when we have Shanna on, just so we can

(36:07):
keep our compliance people happy here. But let me just
say that strategies, concepts discussed or for educational purposes only,
and investing carries an inherent element of risk, which you
all know that by now, of course, no guarantee of
financial success or specific investment results. Andy, we got that
out of the way and we survive. Brother. Welcome, welcome
to the show.

Speaker 6 (36:26):
We're compliant. Thanks so much for having me, Seth. Great
to be here.

Speaker 2 (36:29):
Absolutely absolutely, Andy, Yeah, we're so. We're so delighted and
blessed to get to have you. So let's let's kick
it off here. We we kind of have this notion
of wanting to fund the Kingdom of God as Christians.
I think that's so important, But there is also kind
of this I think at the same time, there's this
poll for us with our money that we need to

(36:52):
in some ways fund Uncle Sam as well. Can you
speak to this for just a moment, Andy, what do
you mean by the idea of funding the Kingdom of
God versus fun? Uncle Sam?

Speaker 6 (37:01):
Absolutely? So. I predominantly work with retirees, and sometimes when
I come across believers, a lot of the people I
work with are believers. Is there following just a standard protocol?
Take your IRA four one K four to three D.
It's it's all the same thing. By the way, pre
tax retirement dollars. Defer that as long as possible, because

(37:22):
because we get deferred taxation, isn't that great? Take other
assets to live on, and then unfortunately people are healthy,
we're living for longer. They turn seventy three or seventy five,
that you know, depending on the age and day of birth.
And then they have to start taking distributions from those accounts,

(37:43):
and they they sneak into higher tax brackets than they
ever believe. And Uncle Sam is cheering them along along
the way. And then if they're paying attention, we call
her Aunt Irma. They at Irma write you a letter
of November and says, hey, you're one of the rich people. Great,
you get to pay more for medicare as well. And

(38:05):
I think people are unknowingly contributing far more than they
should to our wonderful country via the irs, via these distributions.

Speaker 2 (38:16):
Gosh, Uncle Sam and Irma, you can't escape them, ken
you Andy, It's well, it's really rushing.

Speaker 6 (38:22):
It's a great time for strategy, which is why I
so respect what you guys are doing. Just educating people.

Speaker 2 (38:27):
I love it absolutely, absolutely, Andy, Why don't we get
into that just a bit here? What would you say?
And you know, once again, I know some of us
might be tax strategy, so of course contacting a tax
professional would be good, but in your experience, what would
be some good practical ways just for maybe people to
start thinking about how they can keep as much of
their their money they're harder and money that they that

(38:47):
Uncle Sam legally steals, that they can keep as much
of it from that in themselves, but really so that
they can use it to bless the kingdom of God?
How do we do this?

Speaker 6 (38:57):
Yeah, great question. Set One of the things we say
to people all the time is the man or woman
who wins is not the one that pays the least
amount of tax in a tax year. It's the person
who pays the least amount of tax over the course
of their life. So often when we go into retirement,
all of a sudden, we're not paying fight attacks. We're
not paying often state tax if we live in a

(39:19):
state that doesn't tax distributions, and we love our tax
return and it's you know, four maybe five percent, and
we're cheering along when we see these tax returns. We
very gently remind people we have squandered an opportunity to
get money out of some pre tax retirement accounts into

(39:40):
a wroth ira and pay such a little amount of
tax on that. But often people are like, wait, I
actually have an email, seth. I'll say this briefly from
one of my clients where we did this. We did
a wroth conversion. We took money from a pre tax ira,
put it into a wroth ira, and I literally have
an email. I should have it framed in my office
whereas said to my client, you're getting killed on taxes,

(40:04):
and of course we responded, you know, professionally a little
bit to say, my goal is the exact opposite of
my client is the least amount of tax over lifetime.
Did he have to pay a little bit of tax
this year to set up that successful future? Yes he did.

Speaker 2 (40:19):
You know that's such a good point there to andy
of the Well, you know, first of all, the fact
that you are paying taxes is indicative of something that
is good, meaning you succeeded. I do think that's unfortunately
the way that our country works with this stuff is
you know, you get punished more for succeeding. Doesn't really
seem right to me, but it is it can be

(40:39):
something that is you know, encouraging also. And then secondly,
what you just mentioned there, making that payment up front
to be able to to be blessed later, I think
is so so huge. And that's really kind of what
I want to get to with this next question here,
talking about generosity while we're still living. I would love
for you to share with our listeners some tax savvy

(40:59):
ways believers can increase their giving now. So like, for example,
I'm relatively young, I'm contributing to my retirement funds. I
have not built up the massive amount of wealth that
some older folks have. But how can I increase my
giving now as well?

Speaker 6 (41:13):
Sure? Sure, yeah, a couple of strategy these that we do.
One makes sense regardless of your age. They're called donor
advice funds. And then another one makes sense when we're
in our seventies and eighties and nineties and we can
we can give, we can gift money out of an IRA.
Probably heard the term before, a lot of your listeners
are familiar. If not, look it up or we can
help you understand a little bit more So, QCDS qualified

(41:35):
charitable distribution from an IRA instead of taking a distribution
that we have to take from our IRA while we're
living and then giving it to our church. We can
send it straight to our church. Pay attention to everybody,
and IRMA doesn't see it amazing when we send money
directly from our IRA to a nonprofit, doesn't hit our

(41:56):
tax return, doesn't affect our medic our premiums wonderful. When
we are younger, or perhaps we have a really significant
investment account on qualified accounts another name for that, and
we want to be generous, we should really look up
and really do a deep dive on the great strategies.
What's called donor advised funds. When we do donor advise
funds to make math super super simple. If there is

(42:18):
a particular time in our life, maybe we're exiting a
company where we had company stock, or we have we
happen to purchase Nvidia five years ago, and oh, I
just noticed in my account it's up to you know,
a really large number. If we gift away a highly
appreciated stock must be a long term highly appreciated stock.
We do not need to pay the tax on that

(42:40):
great and save ourselves twenty three point eight percent twenty
percent long term capital game bracket. That's that's that's one
for wealthing people three point eight percent and investment income tax.
We didn't have to pay twenty three point eight percent,
and we have the double benefit of one hundred percent
of that gift is written off via our schedule. A. Okay,
that was very using. That was insider talk, but very simply.

(43:03):
Many of the people that I work with, when they
give away one hundred thousand dollars or a million dollars,
it costs them about fifty percent, to which they say, wow,
that means I can give away more, and then I
have a lot of fun with this seth What I
actually say is, well, we're going to put the money
into a donor advice fund. We're actually not going to

(43:25):
give it all away this year to certain charity that
I know you're passionate about. We're going to put it
in a holding vehicle called a donor advice fund, and
we're we're going to grow that for you. And one
of my most fun conversations I have with families is
a couple of years later, I say, oh, by the way,
fun things is before you leave the next forty two
thousand dollars you give away, isn't even your money. It's

(43:49):
just the reasonable conservative return in your donor advice fund.
And that way is so there's so many tax benits
that benefits upfront, set so many along the way. The
idea of creating kind of your own endowment fund for
funding the Kingdom of God. That is not for people
worth three billion. It can be for people that make

(44:10):
sixty grand a year and they can tuck away money
in a donor advise fund, give away the interest each year,
get a great tax benefit, but most importantly fund the
Kingdom of God and not fund Uncle Sam's pockets.

Speaker 2 (44:23):
Andy, that's so well said. Let's bring it back, you
know a little bit now as we have, you know,
just a little bit of time left here. How would
you advise Christians to view the concept of a state planning?
It's different than unbelievers. This is something that gets me
really excited.

Speaker 6 (44:36):
It completely is something I heard recently on a podcast
about generosity, which was outstanding. I'll go kind of to
spots on this step. Firstly, we've got verses I don't
have a memorized or know exactly where they are. By
the way, it used to be a pastor for twelve years,
love the spiritual component of what you guys do. But
the concept of giving our children's children an inheritance that

(44:58):
is biblical. There's no debating that. Now what we should
debate is, and I'm stealing this from another podcast, I
would just encourage your listeners, let's give your children a
leg up. Let's not give them two legs out on
the couch. So we should be very shrewd and careful

(45:19):
and protecting to make sure we are helping and not
hurting our children by giving them wealth. So there, I mean,
we stole the grit from them. We stole the ability
to push through hard bosses in their twenties. Right. So
there's a piece of I think we should be careful
on the amount of money that we give to our
children and even grand children. And then a second piece

(45:41):
that I just you know, I just thoroughly enjoy is
can we be tech savvy on that? Can we do
rough conversions? Can we get a step up a basis
in a non qualified account? Can we have maybe a
third of our money left over by the time we
pass away in an IRA? Here's my recommendation for the
beneficiary on that. Your church, do you know how much

(46:01):
tax someone will pay? Zero your church won't pay a
dime of tax if they are the beneficiary of you're IRA.
If you're saying, hey, I got you know, a million,
two million dollars in there, why don't you make your
donor advice fund the beneficiary your IRA. And the last
quick thing is to remind you ofset This is tremendous.
This is from National Christian Foundation, which I'm sure you

(46:22):
guys are you know, very very familiar with. Some people
are nervous if I do that. There's gonna be so
much money in this donor advice fund. I mean, are
my kid's gonna give it to the right places? Is
it gonna fund the Kingdom of God? Is it gonna
maybe fund some things that my child who went a
little bit off the ranch is excited about. But is
a five to one and three? But isn't the Kingdom
of God? When you create a donor advice fund and

(46:44):
you say, hey, I want to make sure my passing andy,
I'm so sorry to have to do this, brother, I'm
gonna have to cut you off here, but we need
to have you another time.

Speaker 5 (46:53):
Man.

Speaker 2 (46:53):
I appreciate you so much, absolutely, and thank you so
much for joining us.

Speaker 6 (46:58):
Folks.

Speaker 2 (46:58):
We're gonna have Andy on at a later time to
continue this conversation. For now, remember it's all his, the lords.
Let's be found good in paiful stewards.

Speaker 1 (47:04):
With all of it.

Speaker 2 (47:05):
God bless you all seen next time.

Speaker 1 (47:07):
If we ever forget that we're one nation under God,
then we will be a nation gone under Thank you
for