The Economics of the Cross

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Today's version moneywise.

Why Matthew 27, 22, 23 and Pilate said to them, what shall I do with Jesus. They all said, let him be crucified. Why, what evil has he done yes indeed it's Good Friday, a solemn day for believers when we acknowledge the sacrifice of Jesus on the cross today host Rob West points out that while the spiritual implications are enormous politics and yes even money played a role as well. I'm Steve Moore, the economics of the cross. That's next to Rob today were looking at a chapter in the book of the maker versus the takers of this book written by a good friend, economist Jerry Bowyer will that's right Stephen, we need to make clear that looking at the economics of the crucifixion in no way diminishes its spiritual importance, but as Jerry points out understanding the economic factors behind Jesus. Execution is valuable because it heightens our understanding of sin and forgiveness. God's purpose for the crucifixion was to save mankind from sin, but there were many other actors in this drama the priests and Herodian's and the occupying Romans for them.

Politics and money played a major role in the decision to murder Jesus because he threatened their monetary interests. Let's look first at the ruling class in Jerusalem. The Pharisees and the Sadducees. We tend to think that their only problem with Jesus was theological that he claimed to be the son of God made man which was blasphemy to them and because of that he should die, but was that their only motivation. No, although that was there public claim of the Scriptures imply that privately, though they had financial concerns as well.

As Jerry often points out, the ruling class in Jerusalem was based on a corrupt system of extracting money from the lower classes for temple sacrifices. After Jesus drove the moneychangers from the temple in Mark 11, we read and as he taught them. He said, is it not written, my house will be called a house of prayer for all nations but you made it a den of robbers.

The chief priests and the teachers of the law heard this and begin looking for a way to kill him, for they feared him because the whole crowd was amazed at his teaching, now Jesus was exposing their corrupt system and they feared he would put them into their affluent lifestyle. But politics played a role as well. You see the Judean ruling class also feared the great crowds that Jesus drew when he taught and their potential for a people they governed what was essentially a puppet state of the Roman Empire, which hated political upheaval, Herodian's had a good thing going and they worried that Rome would crack down on Israel and throw them out of power in John 11, we read then one of them named Caiaphas who was high priest that year spoke up.

You know nothing at all. You do not realize that it is better for you that one man die for the people, then, that the whole nation parish that certainly explains why the elites in Jerusalem wanted Jesus to die, but it doesn't tell us why Pilate went along with it, and chose to free the insurrectionist Barabbas over Jesus who would do nothing wrong yes and that's especially interesting because Pilate had a reputation for not giving into the elites in Jerusalem. He detested them and accounts outside the Bible tell us that he was a committed anti-semi, but as Jerry Bowyer points out in the maker versus the takers.

Pilate was in a precarious situation. He was under suspicion in Rome for possibly being part of an attempted coup against the Emperor Tiberius that had recently been put down. The Emperor had crushed his political enemies and roll many of whom were part of Rome's financial class and who also held vast real estate holdings of the result was an economic collapse similar to what we saw in 2008 that many of those wealthy Romans became poppers overnight and feared for their lives and it was among that financial class that the Roman governor Pilate had his main support.

So he was already on thin ice when the Jerusalem elites came to him, demanding that Jesus be executed. So an exasperated and fearful. Pilate simply washed his hands literally of the entire affair laying the blame on the Jews is exactly right.

In Matthew 27. It reads, then he released Barabbas for them, but after having Jesus scourged, he delivered him to be crucified. And while Jesus death is heartbreaking. On Sunday we celebrate his glorious resurrection and the unspeakable gift of his grace opened the gates of heaven.

Amen and amen so much Rob it's Good Friday and you're listening to moneywise live but today we're not lives so that phone number. Please don't call but to stick around. Lots of good information and we sure do appreciate you being with us today a very special day Good Friday he's Rob last, I'm Steve Moore and were here taking some calls that we have lined up well in advance. Let's begin. Middletown, Maryland Amy, thanks so much for your patience.

What's on your mind. I probably like insurance where in her mid-20s. They have a little girl home currently stuck in your wondering if you had any suggestions at a reputable company would be to look into what I love the way you thinking Amy congrats on your new home. Your little ones. It sounds like you have an exciting life and I love that you thinking about your role as provider and I think insurance is part of the way we do that to make sure we are providing for families because if your husband is the one whose outworking and you're at home, then we want to be sure we can replace his income.

If something were to happen to him, and as a starting point, 10 to 12 times.

His income would be a good rule of thumb, if you're working. We certainly want the same on you if you're not in your home with your little ones we want to think about. Perhaps a policy on you as well. And here's why.

If something were to happen to you and he's continuing to work to pay the bills and provide for your your children, then he's good have to put them in daycare full-time and that can be expensive and so that would provide that when we invest the proceeds of that life insurance that would provide some income to supplement those additional costs that wouldn't be a burden. Good news is Amy is a young family. You all can get term life insurance very inexpensively can get a 20 or 30 year policy and you really won't add a whole lot to your spending plan where to go to get it. Well, I would encourage you not to buy from someone who's a direct insurance company is just not my preferred approach. I'd rather you use either a local independent insurance agent who represents a number of insurance companies and can find the company that's the best fit for you. High rated company with the proper amount of insurance that to fit your budget and the other option would be to look at an independent online broker. I think you could go either way.

Now my preference is to work with somebody face-to-face so they can actually walk you through the process of doing a little bit of planning, making sure you understand exactly what you're getting, and what the right amount is for you all given your situation and perhaps any unusual situations you might have that need to be explored as a part of the planning process and then that person can go out and find the very best policy for you. You could begin the search online just to have a number of options to compare it to. And then if you don't have an insurance agent you could go to two places.

One is you can go to our website moneywise live.org and click find a professional look for a certified kingdom advisor in the insurance area. If you have one in your area, great. If not you could check at your local church and just ask for a referral to somebody from the church who specializes in this area and is an independent insurance agent and they would be able to assist you with some life insurance but you're asking the right questions and hopefully want to share with you is helpful to you and me were not against any specific insurance companies but we are suggesting that when you deal with age at an agent who only represents one company you don't always get the best price.

If you dealing with someone who represents multiple companies. There are lots more opportunities and quite frankly some competition going on that may ultimately help you get a better price right. Thanks, Amy rub. One thing we did mention for younger couples most often nine times out of 10. Term insurance typically the better option right it is because that way you Steve, you can make sure that you get the proper amount of coverage with the lowest impact financially on the family budget and then be sure your savings separately by putting money away not only in your emergency fund, but in a matched company-sponsored retirement plan or a Roth IRA, or both. Remember the goal there is 10 to 15%. If you do that throughout your working years, you'll get to a place when you're ready to retire and ask God for your next assignment. You'll be at a place where you don't need insurance because you are self-insured you have everything saved up. It's good to be able to fund your lifestyle. I like it ever glad that you're listening today to a special Good Friday addition of moneywise live. Let's continue Dexter, Missouri Susie, what you question today all. Right now I'm on pretty good and honest student loan debt going to college I had a little bit in a 401(k) that I just open it recently so I'm starting to learn to say that my credit is awful.

I want to try to get my debt and my credit right now and I just don't know where to start.

Okay well Susie you come to the right place first: I just encourage you, you know, I sense in your voice that to your you're frustrated you don't quite know where to turn. I realize the pressure that that can bring is that mounts up and I think the starting place is just to give that over the Lord and say regardless of whatever mistakes I've made in the past what I want to trust you implicitly thank you for your word which gives me principles that I can live by as I manage your money. As a steward of that and God, thank you that your my provider because he is not the government not to your employer, not your parents. Nobody else it's ultimately God who provides for you and our job is just to be found faithful with whatever he's given you, however much or however little day by day, be content with God's provision and make the very best decisions you can within the principles that he's provided in the good news is there's 2350 verses in the Scripture that tell us how to do it and I will help you apply some of those today. So let's start by talking about a few of the things you mentioned. Number one is you mentioned you have some student loans how much you have in the way student loans. Right now I have 23,001 my bachelors and Masters to get right and are you working while you're going to school a really good job.

I'm so far behind on everything to figure out how to get staining and hide them trying to get into doing that like I should anything paid up and straightened out and I can certainly elect Clark.

It's really appreciative of the student loans deferred are you paying on them actively. They are deferred. I paid a couple payments because I went past the net. Right now most of them are the effect that I probably about 20% or 15% of them are unsubsidized and I'm not paying on any of them because I deferred okay very good and that yummy credit card.

I have around 6000 in credit card debt, and then I've got about seven or 8000 and loan okay what took the loans of those that got him to try to build my credit and then my father died and I had to borrow more to help pay for the funeral rites I've got that. What about any savings. Do you have some savings of any kind. Right now I do not have anything other than my 401(k) okay are you actively contributing the 401(k). I put my company matches at the 5% so I put what my company matches in okay what is that amount that's going in there each month will end my paycheck varies somewhere between hundred and $50. I'm getting courage is much as I like you, funding retirement, inasmuch as I don't want to give up the match. That's not the priority place for that money in my opinion you're young, you'll have plenty of time to save.

We want to establish that discipline.

At some point but now is not the time. I think we need to get to the place where you have a balanced budget and where you're making some progress toward the very least, building up some emergency savings because that's long-term money and we need money in the short term, so I would suspend that 401(k) contribution right now if it were me.

The next thing I would do is take that money and automatically start applying that to savings.

We want to continue to pay the minimums on the credit cards and the loan that you have anything that is active and not deferred but we want to put the rest into your emergency savings open a savings account at you could do that it Marcus or you could do that capital one 360 or Ally Bank. Attach it to your checking account and get an automatic debit of $450 a month going in there. Once you get to $1500 let's cut that off that's going give your cushion so that if something else comes up. Let me change that when something else comes up unexpectedly. You've got that money to fall back on them were to look at the credit cards. Now let's take it aside here if you don't have a spending plan. We gotta do that before any of this and that's can involve you really tracking your expenses for 30 days so you get a good sense of what you're spending on both discretionary and the fixed expenses those things you get a bill for once you know what that budget looks like you got have a system to control it and that's where the moneywise app comes in. It's a digital envelope system. The old tried-and-true envelope system is the best way to control your money and I with our new moneywise app that you find in your app store. You can connected to your institutions download your transactions.

They get automatically categorized into your envelopes and here's the key at any one in the month you can open it up and see what's left in an envelope so when you reach the end of what's available in that envelope you can stop spending and working want to prioritize paying off those credit cards. Once the credit cards are gone.

Were going to build that savings up to three months expenses and you can really feel some progress being made here, then I would reinstitute that retirement account to take full advantage of the match as soon as the credit cards or pay off and then take the rest because were not paying the credit cards anymore. She should have a little left over and work and apply that to pay extra on the personal loan within the student loans want to start playing on those if you need help with all this get connected with one of our moneywise life coaches moneywise.

My daughter Susie working to send you a complimentary copy of Howard date.

Your money comes from stand line. This is moneywise live with Rob last time Steve Moore back with more after this. Today is my last name's sake and I think this is our second Friday together.

Since this again and obviously things seem to be getting better but they're not where we want them to be. But that doesn't mean that we are blessed by having Good Friday and Easter, and that continues until Christ returns. Well that's exactly right Steve. No matter where you are in the country. Whether you're in a place that still completely socially distancing. Or maybe your gathering with folks, and it's looking a bit like it did before the pandemic.

Remember, this is the most crucial day and weekend of the year for believers. It literally changed the world. Amen to that. Okay, rub with your permission will take some calls. Don't forget today's program is pretty recorded Fort Lauderdale, Florida Barbara, welcome to the program. What's on your mind appreciate you guys how to listen to me all the time I'm 70 years old and I'm want to work full-time for the rest of my life because that's my favorite place, but what I'm concerned about was the Medicare whether required to take Medicare since my company pays insurance from a full-time or am I not get a penalty for Medicare. I think related to the Medicare if you're over 65 and you receive coverage under a group health plan provided by an employer that you are actively working out you have the right most cases to delay Medicare enrollment until the job ends or the coverage ends, whichever occurs first. If that point you be entitled to a special enrollment.

About eight months to sign up for Medicare without risking the late penalties. Now if you are required to sign up and you don't then you will be left with little or no health coverage so it's really important to find out from your employer. Whether you need to enroll in Medicare and if you don't find out exactly how the employer coverage fits in with Medicare if you're told you don't get that decision in writing. So I think that's really the. The idea is to go back to your employer just to confirm all of this, but generally speaking, in your situation where you have coverage and you are working. You would be able to delay taking Medicare okay so my employer is a nonprofit and I have a 403B and I wanted to know if I am required at 70 1/2 to take that distribution.

Yes, so as of 43B plan participant, you have to take an annual required minimum distribution starting by April 1. After the calendar year you turn 70 1/2 and you can get that amount of from the IRS based on their tables. But you will absolutely have to take that RMD at that point, Barbara. We do appreciate your call. Thank you so very much an interesting call as most of our calls and questions are. Don't forget that if you miss hearing an answer, or if there's a question you've always been wondering about. But you just having trouble getting through on the phone lines you can find lots of our radio programs archived now in those radio archives over the past year. As you can imagine there are all sorts of questions and when you have free time you can go back and check those out yourself. Now how do I get to radio archives you ask.

Well it's easy just go to moneywise live.org moneywise live.org you find links to free resources, budget templates, things like that and also a list of all of our radio archives moneywise live.ORG Aurora, Illinois Devante, thanks for holding want to pass your car or something. What's going on very wonderful things I like all our weight dollars check that all I wanted my saving or just kick.

I am doing right now yeah do you have an emergency savings right now separate from this $300 you have extra yet.

I currently have about 35). So my saving part emergency okay and how many months expenses with that represent for you probably 203 months. Okay, let's try to get that up to three months expenses you have any other debt.

Besides the auto loan thought a lot okay and are you saving for retirement, not at the moment. Okay, so I would just pay the minimum on the auto loan. Let's make sure you have a good spending plan and then let's start putting 10 to 15% away for retirement and if you have anything left over, then let's add that to the auto loan at that point but you're moving in the right direction of Dante. We appreciate your call and hope that helps you. Thanks so much. This is moneywise live with Rob West back more of our Friday edition of moneywise live having a great day so far and that you and your family will have a wonderful weekend coming up as well to write back to our phones now Chattanooga, Tennessee hi Jill what's in your mind.

There is a hard parent retirement on and I'm trying to help him get in order. Yes, Joe. What is your main question that we can help with today just got a how do you come alongside him to help get things organized, or something else car now I owe the party and when he previously okay if you taken time to get a proper accounting of everything he owes to various people and put a budget together to see what it's actually going to take to make payments toward paying those off. In addition, any other living expenses. He has not started okay. I think that's the next place. First of all John delighted to hear that he has you in his life.

What a blessing for you to come alongside him.

I'm sure some of this is overwhelming, especially with your mom passing away a few years ago.

I think that is the starting point is to first of all, make a list of his assets. Any accounts that he has all the logins the websites just get a proper accounting of what's there and then figure out what he owes to anybody I'd pull a copy of each of the three credit reports from the three credit bureaus, Experian and Equifax and Trans Union.

He can do that an annual credit report.com. Make a list of those that there's an active payment you want to know what that is. If it's an old that you want to.

Once you have your budget in place. You want to contact each of those folks and out work out a repayment plan. Next you want to get a proper spending plan in place that says okay one of the expenses he has on a monthly basis. You probably need to track those for one or two months to make sure you have everything and then add in the payments to keep all the debts current and hopefully make some progress on them.

I think that's the beginning point. If you need some help with that. You could visit with our friends@christiancreditcounselors.org, or you could not connect with one of our money wise coaches will walk alongside you as you put all this information together and then I think if there's any unique questions or concerns that you have. After you've done that. Feel free to give us a call back and see if we can help.

Okay Joe Lord bless you. Thank you Joe. I appreciate that Spokane, Washington hello Robert what's in your mind hi guys, thank you for returning my call. Happy to when my mother passed away about 20 years ago I was given an inheritance of an air revocable trust in my name only, and my wife and I have used that trust for various distributions, most recently to pay off our mortgage so were now debt-free, so that's all good. The value of the trust now is such that it's insufficient for the trustee to continue administration and what they intend to do now is to terminate the trust and give me the distribution of what's left which is about $14,000 each year I get a K-1 fork income tax person purposes. When this final disbursement is given to me, will I have any other tax liabilities other than receiving the K-1 yeah well you can want to check with your tax preparer on that if there are taxes to be paid, they would be levied at the same rate as any other type of inherited assets. I'm not a CPA and so I think it's really critical when we talk about the taxes on inheritance, especially where there's an air revocable trust involved enough that you understand the full implications of that of course the K-1 is going to be recognized and Yorty understand that but in terms of anything else. I would really visit with a professional who can look at exactly the situation.

How was set up what you received and then let you know what kind of liability is there if you don't have a tax preparer CPA that you work with Robert, I'd encourage you to go to our website moneywise live.org you can look for a certified kingdom advisor in the tax and accounting area and whether you want to get somebody actually prepare the return or just help you navigate this specific issue either could be done in I'd feel more comfortable with you getting that kind of advice rather than weighing in without knowing all the details lost fine. Thanks very much and I'll take that into consideration. Okay Robert, thanks for listening and thanks for your call today.

We appreciate that. Thank you Robert, I am because trusts and wills can sometimes be a confusing topic how Michelle is on the line now and she's got something related to a trust or very good Michelle were so glad you called. How can we help today.

I call looking at retirement. All of that. All of this stuff and lick in a couple years will be retired. Our total act that would be under 100,000 overall child and everything that when a practice that trying to figure out which is better will why try and we currently have a well yeah yeah well you definitely need a will.

The question is whether you need a trust as well in the person who prepared your will could help you understand that the main difference between the will and the trust is that the will only goes into effect after you die, the trust can take effect as soon as you create it. So the will that you have that directs who will receive your property at your death and appoints the legal representative to carry out your wishes up the trust though because I mentioned, it can actually go into effect before death. It can be used to begin distributing property before death at death, or even beyond that and it's a way to have legal title held by another person, and then set a beneficiary of that, it's critical that you have the will, so I'm glad that you do the trust, you would be something that you may not need and that would be something that I think the estate planning attorney who put this together could help you with one of the benefits is that it passes outside of probate. So the court doesn't oversee the process, which can save time and money. It also doesn't become a part of the public record so it can remain private.

They can also be used for dependents who need money dispersed over a period of time. Those types of things we want to give special instructions so that the beneficiary can receive the proceeds at your discretion. But in in some cases none of those situations are real beneficial and so the cost of creating the trust is just unnecessary. So I would feel most comfortable there for you to go back to that estate planning attorney and say can you take a look at this verse and tell us whether we would benefit from a trust and then get some some legal counsel on that. If that's an old relationship you've not been back to that person and you want to look for somebody else you could get a recommendation from your church for a godly estate planning attorney. Perhaps that's a good time to review your will as well and your beneficiary designations on retirement accounts to make sure that those are current and up-to-date at the same time you talk about the trust Michelle a great question and were happy to hear that your least getting into this line of thinking and addressing wills and trusts still a majority of people in this country don't have wills, they know they need one. But for various reasons, they don't and that will hurt you in the long run. It's not good stewardship. Certainly this is moneywise live with Rob West, I'm Steve Moore and will come back and chat some more. After this back to moneywise live and because I have lots of blinking lights in my view. Let's take another phone call, Fort Payne, Alabama, and Sharon, welcome to the program. What's on your mind about health insurance and maybe where I'm from sheet reliable that's the question of the decade, cheap, reliable health insurance about a good answer for that. Well, actually I do. So it's not insurance, give you two choices one that we really like is an insurance health insurance alternative were big fans of Christian healthcare ministries. There are others like it and they're all similar, but a Christian healthcare ministries. For example, covers doctor and hospital visits, as well as physical therapy. It covers medicines that are prescribed for specific short-term treatments but not for long term maintenance medicines like blood pressure medication or insulin.

Most who use it. Find that their out-of-pocket expenses are a lot lower on an annual basis than getting comparable coverage through traditional health insurance is a part of the affordable care act and so that would be a place that I would go to look at is one alternative, you can find them@chministries.org and that you can read all the details. If you're looking for traditional health insurance Sharon I would start if you don't have access to a company-sponsored plan. I would start with an independent health insurance agent, so this would be an insurance agent whose independent represents a number of different companies probably all the big carriers and specializes in health insurance and can help you evaluate all of the different coverage options. It will probably not be cheap just because health insurance costs are not these days and a lot of people are finding out how expensive they are when they're not getting it under a subsidized company-sponsored plan and that's why Christian healthcare ministries is so attractive but I think either one of those options could serve you well.

CH ministries Christian healthcare ministries CH ministries.org or okay yes ma'am I Lord bless you. Thanks very much. Let's continue on the Arthur is in Akron, Ohio, and what's on your mind today are taking my call in every okay okay I'm calling about 65 next year and I'm on my comfortable pass 23 years and I don't know if I should sign up for Social Security or not, or transfer my company over to my son name they work for me now and have a college fund set up for them as well as myself. Having a moral one. K and NRA there only 10 and 12 okay, what is the help me understand a little bit what you're thinking here. I understand the question about whether or not you should file for Social Security, but will you ask about specifically related to the business right. What if I don't know when I should file for but is the best thing to do and if so would it be okay to sign my company over to my son name and have them pay me working for them now. Okay well there's there's a whole host of issues related to that, that you're going to want to look at valuation and tax considerations. Did you know are two that come to mind immediately that you'll need to consider also cash flow the business. Their ability to perhaps buy you out whether there's going to be no any estate that considerations the need to play in here so plus your charitable desires would be another factor.

So in terms of what is the right place to and time to transfer a family business to family members and then how to do it in a way that minimizes taxes and maximizes the benefits to all involved recognizing whether you wanted to get an income stream for the rest of your life for you whether you want them to buy you out or if you're just handing it down as an inheritance and we got to do with gift tax issues.

There's just a number of factors there to consider with regard to the Social Security that's really a function of whether or not you can wait once you reach full retirement age every year. Beyond that, until age 70 that you wait, you get to about an 8% increase in so it's like the government giving you a government guaranteed 8% return on your money as long as you have good health and the Lord Terry's you, we find that that makes a lot of sense financially. Just because you collect that larger check by 8% a year for the rest of your life and if you're still working and you don't need the money. That's where that can make a lot of sense.

Going back to the business. What I would do is visit with a financial planner who could help you think through all the implications related to taxes, estate planning and the needs that you have as well as your desires for your children and really do a deep dive into how that should be structured. I would also say I really encourage you to visit with the somebody who understands your values.

That's why we recommend a certified kingdom advisor because for instance if you are going to transfer the ownership of your business you want to factor in your charitable desires because you can actually portion of the business put it into a donor advised fund and create a really exciting tax-advantaged giving vehicle at the same time that can make a lot of sense.

So that's where some real planning can can occur in its far more complex we can get into your on the radio Robinwood splitting heirs get into this area of leaving an inheritance that is spiritual and the business side of things were that would it be helpful to Weatherby some great principles arrow. Steve is referring to Ron blue's book splitting errors where he unpacks the principles around inheritance and wealth transfer from a biblical perspective and there would be certainly some wonderful principles that you can apply to the situation, but some of these issues related to the business would not be covered and really would involve a financial planner and working 70 great great information. Thank you so much okay Arthur Lord bless you.

Thanks for: thanks Arthur. We appreciate that Alyssa quickly moved to Grand Rapids and Irma. We know you been holding Irish and you want to get rid of some credit cards or maybe I will. I write going to have okay got tired 74 years. All our work on that title V program and I have my credit card that I would keep one and you made to but I don't want it hindered my credit score, but here's something about you lot like that and I do have a heart that I can pay off probably not. I don't know what I should do, how I should go about sure Irma, are you carrying a beyond this one that you pay off next month do you carry any other balances you pay them off in full.

One credit card balance under $20 okay very good so the biggest issue that happens when you close a card that will, if it into affect you negatively is something called credit utilization which is basically means when you reduce the available credit, which is what can happen when you close the accounts because that money is no longer available to you that if you're carrying a balance. The balance you're carrying is a higher percentage of the total credit you have access to, and if he gets above 30%. That really could impact you negatively.

That's not going to be a factor here because you're not caring about, so if you take three of them off the table. You're not any higher percentage because you have no balances. The other issue is just the longevity of the couch that you have. The average length of the accounts, but most of the credit scoring models now.

I still factor in the age of the history of the account even though the account is closed.

So what I would do is just close to every six months so I'd probably close to now and then wait six months and do the third one.

Other than that I wouldn't have any concern over your credit if you saw minor drop in your credit score.

It would bounce back within a couple of months. Irma we wish you the best.

Thanks very much Laura, we know you been holding were almost out of time. Give it to us quickly. If you can, well working on paying off your mortgage and would like to do that with the next 10 years before we retire.

We have enough surplus that we could make considerable monthly payment and I don't know whether it's to our advantage to just keep putting that money back and then pay it in a couple times a year like we have been or if it's better for us to set an extra amount each month and just make that payment intelligent part of the mortgage and yeah Laura love this idea as long as you have your emergency fund in place you're on track with your other savings goals. I think starting to really focus on reducing that mortgage is a great idea. If you have the money to do it you build it in your plan. There is no reason to wait, you have no benefit of the of sending a larger amount twice a year versus sending as much as you can with your regularly scheduled payment because as soon as you pay toward principal as long as they're applying it that way and you want to check with your mortgage servicer to make sure you send it in such a way that they're applying it immediately. But as long as they are. That's money that you're not paying interest on for the life of the loan and the quicker you reduce that principle, the quicker you reducing the overall amount of interest that you're paying.

So I would go ahead and send it monthly and I would just make sure you contact your servicer to find out how they want you to do it so it can be applied to the principal of the mortgage. Yes Rob but over the years. How many people have we spoken to who regretted paying off the mortgage early on account of 00 and that's the correct answer and without just a few seconds left here today is Good Friday day of death the day of sorrow but also leading to a wonderful day Easter a day of redemption. Which brings us not only spiritual freedom, freedom of abundant life and the freedom from financial bondage.

We can praise God for all of that, we sure can.

Steve, this is the day where we know that Sunday is coming and that Jesus has conquered death, and that in that we have life payment devilish. Thanks so much. This program only lies live is a partnership between Moody radio and moneywise mediate my thanks to our production staff today doing wonderful work for Rob last time Steve Moore hoping you and yours have a wonderful remainder of the day, then join us again next time