Get More from Your Groceries

You can save almost 1/3 of your grocery budget that all you have to do is nothing around West truth is, Americans are pretty comes to food freshness.

Something even looks a little old that goes right in the trash or garbage disposal is about that first today that it's on your calls at 800-525-7000 800-525-7000.

This is moneywise live biblical for your financial decisions, study a couple you feel that Americans waste almost 32% of the groceries. They buy now that seems a bit high to me but there's no doubt that we throw out a lot of food. As believers we never want to waste food and Jesus himself set the example.

John 612 reads and when they had eaten their fill. He told the disciples gather up the leftover fragments that nothing may be lost now for sure. Sometimes food really does go bad, but how much of it could be used just by rethinking what out of date really means according to the USDA, the average family of four spends about $900 a month in groceries that doesn't include eating out. If you could save just 10% of that by wasting less food. Well, you'd be more than $1000 ahead at the end of the year. Now how do you do that well. It starts with a better understanding of expiration dates. What do sell by Best Buy dates actually mean the definitions I'll give exclude infant formula and baby foods.

By the way when you see best if used by or before. Well, it means the date when the product has the best quality or flavor. It's not referring to safety.

So those foods can be consumed after those dates, a use by date means the last day the item is at its best. In most cases, you still have time to use it. You might also see a sell by date on a package. In most states. That's just a suggestion and the item can still be sold after that date, often at a reduced price. A freeze by date is another recommendation from the USDA, not a hard and fast rule and it simply means the date by which the item should be frozen to maintain optimum quality. What this means.

Again, with the exception of baby products is that none of these labels is an indication of the safety of food items. How then do you know when an item is safe while the USDA's Food safety and inspection service says that foods that are past their best if used by date, but not showing signs of spoilage should be okay to use but that depends on the individual item in the temperature word stored.

Another possible exception to this is eggs.

Some states prohibit sell by dates on eggs and some require more restrictive expiration dates. In any case, it's probably best not to use eggs after any type of end date. So how long should items last once you get them home. Well here are some examples with common foods from the USDA fresh eggs in the shell should last 3 to 5 weeks in the fridge. Figure 7 days for bacon more a month in the freezer raw hamburger 1 to 2 days. Refrigerated, or 3 to 4 months in the freezer stakes are at their peak for 3 to 5 days refrigerated in 6 to 12 months of frozen figure 3 to 4 days for cooked fish in the fridge or 4 to 6 months in the freezer raw chicken and turkey hearsay for one to two days in the fridge. But 9 to 12 months in the freezer and finally fresh shrimp, scallops, or squid 1 to 2 days. Refrigerated, or 3 to 6 months frozen now. Would you believe that there are some foods that never go bad, or at least take a very long time to spoil. Well, it's true, honey is a great example. It has antimicrobial properties and if it sealed and stored in a cool place, out of sunlight, you could leave it to errors in your will. I think they found some in the ancient pyramids that still looked good canned goods. Also last indefinitely as long as the can doesn't have rust dancer swelling. It should be okay since the USDA package foods like cereal are also well past their Best Buy dates, although they can develop in the long flight factory sealed maple syrup will also last indefinitely once it's open, you should keep in so is itself a preservative usually comes with a use by date of five years after that, it may pick up a bad taste dried beans are good for 10 years if stored in a cool place again. Out of sunlight, but they should be in factory packaging or seal buckets with reduced oxygen levels and finally home Saturday one year shelf life frozen six months and dry location should be an airtight well. We hope this information helps down on waste your calls or text 800-525-7000 right back moneywise, live in wisdom for your financial decisions on Rob West euros. So glad you're alone with us today.

We started by talking about how you can cut costs specifically in the grocery area well world looking for ways to cut costs, especially now, given the inflation were experiencing and a lot of that is being felt at the grocery store if you're struggling under increase costs and you got some credit card debt that seems to be overwhelmingly just remind you one of our underwriters and trusted partners is Christian credit can they offer a debt management program that can get you out of debt up to 80% faster while honoring your debt in full.

This is a Christian ministry staffed by believers and we get just wonderful feedback from the work that they do. Debt management is my preferred way for you to get out of credit card debt. If it's beyond the point where you can't do it yourself you just not making progress, the snowball method is not working. Perhaps you know you've amassed more than three or $5000 and you just aren't getting it going in the right direction. Debt management can be a great way to do that one fixed monthly payment that fits in your budget with reduced interest rates and you'll get that debt paid off in no time@christiancreditcan.org is the place to go looking for to take your calls and questions today on anything financial. The calls are coming in, but we got some lines open.

Perhaps one of those is just for you, whether it's investing or saving. Maybe it's giving your budget, your lifestyle, whatever it might be would love to hear from you the number to call is 800-525-7000 Gev ET taking your calls today 800-525-7000 were to begin in Princeton New Jersey. Sarah, thank you for calling the redhead.

I can't wrap my head any nine years old might Not Hear. She Held Her Primary Record Entry and Make It Right Now. She Had $300,000 Cash from the Sale and She Also Had a Patient and Talk Educate Date Executed Hill Laycock Epic at the Question Is What You Get Back Late That Hundred Thousand Dollars without Diminishing Tray If Possible, Kill or Find It A Bit. Something Happened in the Future Similar. Thank You for That Question. Sarah and Lily Just Confirms That She Doesn't Need Any Portion of This Today to Live on. She's Able to Live on the Pension and Social Security in Terms of Covering Her Monthly Obligations Correct Okay so This Would Be Money for down the Road and I Guess the Question Then Is the Level of Risk You're Willing to Assume. Obviously You're Not Wanting to Take A Lot Of Risk.

Certainly, I Wouldn't Want to Think You'd Be Aggressive in This Portfolio May Not Even Want to Be Moderate, but I Guess the Question I Would Have Is, Are You Willing to Assume Some Risk in Exchange for a Better Return over the Long Term and Here's What I Mean by That. If You Were to Invest in the Stock and Bond Portfolio with the Majority of It in Income Producing Investments Were Talking about Real Estate Investment Trust Dividend Paying Stocks of Short Duration Fixed Income Bonds Things That Are Not in Anywhere near the Aggressive End of the Spectrum, but They Are at the Risk of the Stock or Bond Market and As Interest Rate Set up the Bond Prices May Fall a Bit and As the Stock Market Has Been Quite Volatile. As of Late. And Let's Say We Had a Recession a Year or Two from Now, but If You're Looking out 10 or 20 Years. I Realize She's Older but at the Same Time with the Lord Terry's and She's in Good Health. This Money Needs to Last a Long Time and with Inflation the Way That It Is the Way We Outpace That so She Doesn't Lose Lose Earning Power on This Money or Spending Power Is to Invest It. You've Always Got to Work on Finding the Balance between between Risk and Reward. The More Rural Reward or Return You're Looking to Get the More Risk You're Willing to Take.

So It's All about Finding the Balance to Take As Little Risk As Possible for an Appropriate Level of Return so Give Me a Sense of How Your Thinking about That Program Tonight Get What You Make Having a Farming out How Old You Are Mine and They Kept at Anything More Yell in My Mother That He Could and I Don't If I Did It Correctly 30% of Any Faith That a More Accurate Investment Banking 70%.

Maybe Cant Do Not Think He or Something A Lot More More Than Just to Take into Account What You Know. I Doubt It Gain Anything by Now. Yeah, I Think Is Right and What Is Her Age 7979 Okay Yeah so If You Do, and That's Just the Conventional Kind of Device Where You'd Say, Used To Be 100 Minus Your Age. People Are Living Longer, so A Lot Of Folks Will Use 110 Now so Yeah Hundred and 10-79, Roughly 30% in Stocks and Then the Other 70%. You Would Typically Put in Fixed Income Type Investment so Bonds, CDs, Bank Products, Which Haven't Been Paying a Whole Lot Although That's Going to Improve As Rates Go up, and I Think That's Probably the Right Approach.

I Think the Key Would Be Just to Recognize That Even with That Conservative Approach in Any Given Quarter of the Markets down Significantly upon Prices Are Falling.

You Can Open Your Statement and She Could Be down 10 or 15%, but You'd Have To Look at It over the Long Haul Saying Were Invested Properly Were Not Overly Aggressive Were Taking the Long View and We Think This Is Going to Do Well. Over Time, As Long As You Could Get to That Place and Recognize That You're Going to Have Some Paper Losses Which Means Their Unrealized Is Not a Realized Loss until You Sell It, Then I Would Think That Would Be the Right Approach and I Use an Investment Advisor to Help You Build and Manage That Portfolio. You I'd Look for a Certified Kingdom Advisor There New Jersey on Our Website Moneywise.org Just Click Find the CK. I Wouldn't Try to Do That Yourself. I Get Some Professional Advice. The Only Other Approach There That You Could Take While Not the Only One, but a More Conventional Approach That Somebody Might Take in This Situation Is with an Insurance Product What's Called an Annuity.

I'm Not a Big Fan of Annuities, but It Is a Way to Transfer the Risk to an Insurance Company in Exchange for a Stated Return like a Fixed Income Annuity Would Give You a Guaranteed Rate of Return. Now You're Going to Tie up That Money and You Have To Pay Surrender Penalties to Get It Back so She Needed It Because She Needed Some Major Medical Expenses or Something like That. That's One of the Reasons I'm Not a Fan of That Approach Because I'd Rather You Have Access to the Money While It's Invested If She Needs It, but I Think You Could Consider Both of Those Choices. And Again I'd Had to Our Website and Find a Certified Kingdom Advisor Perhaps Two or Three to Interview and Then Pick the One That Is the Best Matches That Sounded like Yes Ma'am. So Glad You Called Today.

God Bless You Folks Working to Pause for a Break Here, but We Come Back. Well, Every Line Is Full. We Have Some Great Questions Coming up One on Social Security Actually Couple of Them.

Some Folks Wanting to Talk about Budgeting and How They Get Their Finances in Place. Another One Emergency Fund of All Things That I Think Are Critical As We Think about How We Manage God's Money Wise Decisions This about Decision-Making in Light of Our Values and Our Priorities. What's Most Moneywise like Moneywise Is Your Financial Decision to Check out the Moneywise Website Recently with Some Great Articles There. I Know You Benefit from Content Partners I Believe Are Some of the Best in Leading Voices in Biblical Finance and All of Those Articles, Videos, and Podcasts Are There for You to Learn from Grow from. We Love for You to Check It out Moneywise.org and While You're There. Create a Free Moneywise Account and That Will Ensure You Receive Our Moneywise Weekly Wisdom Email It Goes out Each Thursday Morning and It's Chock-Full of the Biblical Financial Wisdom Again Moneywise.org and Create a Free Account Piloted Back to the Phones Today. Tom Is Next up in Greenville, Illinois, Tonga Right Answer. Hi My Call. I Have a Quick Question. We Were My Wife and I Was Employed for Almost 39 Years We Sold Our Business a Couple Years Ago I Drew My Social Security at Age 64 Be Turning 70 This Fall. My Wife Is Now 65. She Doesn't Get to Draw Full Social Security Coaching 66 1/2.

My Question Is We Actually Never Grew up Paycheck While We Were Self-Employed We File Jointly and We Had to Pay Social Security and When We Filed Our Taxes so She's Not Going to Be Eligible Now. She Never Grew up Paycheck so She's Got Some Social Security… Not Very Much Is She Going to Be Eligible to Draw What I Drew I like Half of Mine. How's That Work Yes so She Would Be Able to Earn the Spousal Benefits in Spouse Who's Never Worked under Social Security Is Going to Be Eligible for Benefits Once They Reach Age 62. You Can Take Reduced Benefits at Age 62, Typically about 32 1/2% of Your Spouse's Full Benefit up to 50% of Your Spouse's Full Benefit If You Wait until Full Retirement Age 66 or 67. So Given That You Didn't Take a Paycheck but You Were Self-Employed, You Paid the Self-Employment Tax. The 12.4% Plus the 2.9 for Medicare Covering Both the Employee and the Employer Amount If That All Flowed through Your Tax Return, Then That Would Be Attributed to You in Your Work Record, Then That Would Be Her Opportunity Is to Perhaps Wait As Long As Possible, At Least until Full Retirement Age and Then Collect up to 50% of Yours As a Nonworking Spousal Benefit. Over the Years Work Alert Grew up to Paychex but You Know What She's Paid and so Security Is Going to Be Anywhere You Know Anywhere near What She Would Get by, so She Would Still Be Able Draw the Spousal Right That's Right and I Check with Social Security Ministration to See If You Know She Can Take the Higher of the Two.

If She Is Eligible for Benefits, She Would've Had to Have Worked for 10 Years to Get 40 Credits 40 Total Credits, One per Quarter for 10 Years in Order to Be Eligible, and Then Her Benefit Would Be Based on Her Highest 35 Years of Earnings. Obviously Many of Those Would Be at Zero, so She's Likely to Be Better off.

Even If She's Eligible for Her Own Benefits. She's Likely Can Be Better off Taking Half of Yours, and Shall Have the Choice Based on Which Is Higher. What It Worked out Well before I Called. I Called You to like What You Call Us First Time You Call Us Anytime Sir. He Appreciated God Bless You. Thanks for Listening.

Spokane, Washington, Chris, How Are You Today Sir, Thank You Very Much for Taking My Call.

Sure My Question Is I Have When I Retired a Monument Deferred Comp and I Thought I've Read That You Can and I Started Drawing Social Security.

I Heard That You Can Withdraw Approximately 15,000, and Income without It Affecting Your Social Security Benefit Yeah Well Money Typically Flows into a Deferred Comp Plan Free of Withheld Taxes and Then the Taxes Come out When the Income Is Eventually Withdrawn and It Generally Has To Be Paid Either When the Money Comes out or When It Becomes Vested and Is Available for the Employee to Use but Because the Tax Get Paid Gets Paid. The Income Is Applied to the Account Holder's Eligibility for Social Security and Will Be Used To Eventually Calculate Your Benefit Is so You Social Security Recipients or Those Who Receive Benefits. If You're Younger Than Full Retirement Age, You Can Earn up to $15,480 without Having Your Benefits Reduce. That's Probably the Number You're Looking at. But If You Earn over That You Would Withhold or They Would Withhold a Dollar for Every Two Dollars You Go over That 15, 480, but Here's the Thing Once You Reach Full Retirement Age. Not Only Do You Have that you'll eventually get that back in increased payments until they reimburse you for what ever was withheld okay so if i reach full retirement age in october of this year.

if i was to withdraw the money now they know that i pulled it out before i reach full retirement age. yes, of any window it's in the year of your benefits. so if if you take it out. younger than full retirement age, you might have a slight reduction but again soon as you reach full retirement age that would start coming back to you so i would be terribly concerned about it. i think you could check in with your cpa or accountant just to get the exact amount and the timing of all of that. the bottom line is any reduction would be temporary.

chris so i don't think you have a whole lot of issue there. i think the key is at what point is the right time for you to begin taking social security because the longer you wait the more that check grows literally every month, 1/12 of 8%. you're to see an increase in that benefit amount.

i hope that's helpful to you, sir. we appreciate you checking in with us and all the best to you in this next season of life to south bend, indiana.

michael, thank you for calling today. greg program hundred dollars in emergency savings, but i was wondering if it changed hundred out and place in the living, good question. i actually will tell you that you need to have 3 to 6 months expenses in your emergency savings and obviously that's more now than it was six months ago because of inflation 1500 comes in. if you have credit card credit card that you're paying high interest rather than you paying that high interest and focusing on your emergency fund. i just say 1500.

it's pretty much an arbitrary number but at least it gives you cushions of the unexpected times and it does you got something to fall back on the cut. the cycle of using those credit cards that's within 1500 comes into susan's credit card debts are paid off and i focus on getting 3 to 6 months expenses. michael will be right back was renewed with us today and moneywise lives we apply god's wisdom to your financial decisions for you to download the money wise out more than 26,000 of you already have were so excited about what were delivering to the after day, the cornerstone of which is our money management system for set up your spending plan and track your expenses using one of three approaches and confident one will be just the right approach for you. there's one for those of you who are hands off more directional you just want to connect your institutions download your transactions and see them automatically categorized so you can keep up with it, but you don't want to do much more than that.

then there's the planning tracker, you can set up your spending plan and track how you're doing against that. every month, and then it starts over the next month or the third way which is those of you who are really hands-on and detailed. we got the digital envelope system where you actually fund your envelopes automatically against your budget to your transactions download automatically categorized in each envelope so you and perhaps your spouse will know exactly where you stand in each one of your spending categories. what we call digital envelopes at any point during the month. you can even set up for some of them for savings goals and track your progress. it's all right there in the moneywise app downloaded today in your app store to search for moneywise biblical finance piloted back to the phones next up wanda in illinois want to go right ahead on taking my call. so i'm selling my car and i'm gonna get up and ferment after i passed alone so i can often find one drink like the vikings like light given off. sure, if you want to apply the principle of the tied one that we see in scripture you would give off of the increase. so it really doesn't matter what you do with the money. the increases based on that profit that you attain the challenges with a car you typically don't have to a profit because it's a depreciating asset. see you bought it for a certain amount and then you sell it for something much lower than that. and so therefore you don't have a really a profit unless the car was given to you and then you sold it at that point, you have an increase but tell me a bit more just about the situation and and why you believe you have a profit in the first place. morning all, you know, i think i'll 18,300 and i'm telling it for 23,000 time i'm coming out and yeah, that really is only related to the loan on it. not the original purchase price when you bought it originally. you paid more than you're gonna get for it. when you sell it right now correct. i saw a car as a depreciating asset.

unlike a home or an investment toward something that might appreciate in value where we buy it. let's say home for 300,000 in a couple years later in this hot real estate market.

we sell it for 400,000 doesn't matter whether we had a mortgage on it or we bought it for cash.

we sold it for 100,000 more than we bought it for. so that's our gain 100,000 that if we want to tithe on that would give the 10th. in the case of your car.

you don't have a profit because you bought it for some price you're going to sell it for some price lower than that regardless of whether the sale is above or below the loan that you have you still not made a profit because you're selling it for something less than what you originally paid for it, which is consistent with a car car is a depreciating asset.

so the end of the day, regardless of that loan amount you have lost money now. you had use of the car and that's why you did it but you did make a profit on it so only time you make a profit on a car would be if it was an antique something that appreciated in value. does that make sense to meet actually get to the car i need and i was going to turn it back on when i found out that the value of the car is worth more than my like to keep the car in the nine that make it really doesn't not in terms of you having a profit you're pretty much always going to have a loss on a car. now you had the use of and that's great but cars where out and we sell them for a lot less than what we pay for them in the fact that you have a lease doesn't really change that. so at the end of the day. there's really not a tithe here now. if out of this money and this asset that you're converting to cash by selling this this car you wanted to give unto the lord will that's great. and that would be an offering. i would say you give as the lord leads, i love that. but it's not a time because there's not an increase.

here okay i think okay and holly and derek that timmy i think it you're very welcome. i appreciate your giving spirit and thanks for sharing with us today.

god bless you to chicago, illinois hey raymond, thanks for your patience car that your ministry we have 100,000 in savings. in addition to our six month emergency fund and i have mortgage of 390,000. my question is should we utilize the hundred thousand two pay down the mortgage, or should we invest yeah yeah well that's always a tough one for me. i would typically prioritize paying down or paying off the mortgage and i think the question is over what period of time and are we depletion are we depleting too much of our cash reserves because there's something to be said about having cash reserves to fall back on now hundred thousand may be more than you need. and so then your question as well.

should we invested.

i suspect you have a fairly low interest rate. is that right 3.4% okay and how far are you from retirement.

let's say 60 or 61.

okay, so how much do you owe on the mortgage today 390,300 90,000 you have 100,000 so that the challenge here is obviously no even if you were to put 100% on this mortgage, you know you're still going to have that mortgage around for quite a while and so it's not like you get to the place where you can reduce your overall expenses because until that the mortgage is paid off completely or refinanced which is not a good option and in this market, with rates now over 5% yeah it's it probably doesn't make a lot of sense, but i do like the idea of you moving increasingly toward being debt-free in obviously can get a lot closer. it's obviously a risk and reward type of thing. there is the opportunity cost of you being able to invest this and get more than 3.4% after-tax. over time, although you have the risk of loss. at the same time as you and your wife talk about this raymond is there one option that really is more compelling to you. do you all have a sense that you'd like to be debt free as soon as possible and therefore that's more attractive or do you kinda like the idea of this working for you even though you could lose money from you.

we like the idea of being free and market that were staying with inflation or not. i just and there still would be somewhat of it that left as you pointed out that we like the idea of being debt-free really get closer, but not totally there and i think that's the key. i think the other thing is, are you on track with your retirement savings and are you saving enough in retirement accounts that you feel like you're headed toward your ultimate retirement savings goal through company-sponsored plans and other vehicles, and therefore this really is extra that could be used to get you closer to that debt-free market. if you're on track with your retirement. i'd say i prioritize the paying off the mortgage, but ultimately it's a decision you and your wife need to think carefully i could support either one of you have some peace of mind to grasp or independently, and then come back together.

thanks for joining us today and moneywise live just below phones marion chicago jerry annapolis sue in arlington heights to stay right there will be coming your way momentarily. the first it's, well, tuesday normally, bob dole joins us in the segment of the broadcast on mondays he was traveling yesterday but were grateful for his insights and market commentary each week. bob is chief investment officer across more global investments and bob good afternoon sir rob first quarter real gdp was a negative number little different than this time last year we had last year were fresh we have the strongest economy in united states and 34 years. good first quarter last year we did have a slowdown now. the bulls want to say i have to take their word for here. it was trading inventories that cause the weakness they are the most variable least predictable parts of gdp and they both came in weaker than expected so i wouldn't read a whole lot into that we can number up okay now all eyes right now on the federal reserve.

of course their meeting tomorrow will hear what's going to happen with interest rates. if in fact they raised rates 50 basis points, or half of 1% that would be pretty significant.

that doesn't happen very often does about your doesn't affect last time apple dropped 22 years ago and believe we had a lot of water basis points, but not 1/2 from that that just says and underscores more time how far behind the curve is so central bank is robbed.

give us a sense of the bob.

how would you rate the job. the set is doing right now and are they doing everything they can given the levers they have the pole or should they be doing more well given where they are. they're probably doing the right thing by going safety and i'm sure the press conference afterwards german power will have a hawkish told the criticism if i can be monday morning quarterback as they waited so long to get started. you remember we talked you and i back in the fall that inflation was a problem and they just kept using this transitory word think he was going to go away.

but that's water under the bridge. they have a lot of confidence to restore him.

now what it is they do you see a lot of volatility in the markets. much of that because this rhetoric around a potentially recession continues to seem like it's it's growing talk about the implications of a possible recession amid the job market were currently in right now will vary. in light of the dilemma and the reason i think recession probably but not yet. my guess is second half of next year, rob and their three reasons why not today. one you just set up job market.

we've never had a recession with a healthy job market to the health of the us consumer consumer still has trillions to the three of excess cash on the balance sheet stored up during coated in number three to corporate sectors in pretty good shape, cash flow, cash on the balance sheet, profit margins, chipping away at all that with with the inflation is going on here, but i think recession gets delayed until next year but doesn't prevent people from worried about it, then obviously you're prepared for a lot of volatility. this is certainly a market to be picking the right sectors to bn because not all stocks are created equal, especially right now. rob, as you know we succumbing to the year. this year we frustrate the bullet bears what we frustrated the bulls that would be nice for little out of frustrate the bears and have a bit of a rally here make people forget that in march we had a three week period when the stock market went well more than 10% and let's hope we get another one of those was going to take is because of the rising interest rates out the curve in the bond market that 10 year treasury touching 3%. that's up from one half on december 31. that's gonna slow down for stocks have a chance to have a recovery rally very good. we always appreciate your insights and will look forward to having you back again next we keep her seatbelt on. okay have a great week bye-bye god bless you my friend, those bob dole chief investment officer across mark. global investments you can learn more across more global.com.

by the way while you're there, sign up for his weekly dollars deliberations.

i know i rely on it each week to get my updates on the market and the economy piloted back to the phones sue has been waiting patiently in arlington heights, indiana sue you go read, here under my back down lately and 52, thinking about a lot of white happen. now he can't say to the house, turned under the house that was under his name only. sure sure well obviously you can retitle this property and that could be done with a real estate attorney also need to make sure you have a valid will that could handle that as well through the probate process. i have you all taken some time to update these documents and have you considered, perhaps a tenancy in common or joint ownership with right of survivorship, perhaps said you know that related to the deed of the home and only care about how tempting to think about.

yeah well i think it really is important for you to have all of these up-to-date you know if you have a valid will that that document will say who gets a person's property after that person dies in it to be valid, it has to be follow certain rules and so what i would do is visit with an estate planning attorney who can just look over everything and not only deal with making sure you have an up-to-date will, but that all of your assets are titled properly including your home making sure your beneficiary designations are up-to-date with any banking accounts or investment or brokerage accounts.

you can also tackle of some of the other nonfinancial type instruments as well like a healthcare surrogate, who will make decisions related to healthcare. if one of you is incapacitated. your living will.

your wishes about end-of-life decisions, even a durable power of attorney so somebody can act on your behalf legally. if you are incapacitated or your husband and so i think having all of these up-to-date and valid would be really important and it will give you some peace of mind related to the home specifically so sue i'd recommend you connect with godly estate planning attorney you could don't know of one, you could contact a certified kingdom advisor there in arlington heights and ask for a referral. all cicadas will have a estate planning attorney. they work with that they could refer you out to and you'll find the ck near you and you go to our website moneywise.org just click the button that says find the ck and all the best to you. we appreciate your call today. jerry and indianapolis current heads are very much appreciate you and your ministry. my question is, in my mid-70s. my wife and i own our home free and clear. we have separate accounts because my credit rating is poor due to tax problems and bankruptcy.

that's way beyond 10 years ago. my question is how can i begin at my age as i live within my income to raise my credit score so it up in a normal range in case it would need to borrow money for some reason yeah well jerry, i certainly understand how that can happen. the good news is, as you said this was a long time ago and the impact of that is much less than it obviously was 10 years ago. the problem you have now is is likely a lack of credit and so what you probably need to do is focus on how you can get some good on time credit being reported to you to your credit report now i don't want you for a minute to pay and even a nickel of interest, so i'm not talking about you taken out a loan or anything like that. i think the key would be for you to perhaps open a secured credit card either with your banker, you could go to bank rate.com or nerve wallet.com and find who has the best secured credit cards right now but essentially you put a few hundred dollars on deposit they'd issue you a credit card against that collateralized by that that deposit that you made and then you could start charging.

i'd use that for budgeted items only.

could be a very small recurring charge that you have every month. your 10 or 15 or $20.

you pay it off and then every month that that card would card issuer would report to the bureaus that your non-type a or will that's can establish you as having some positive current credit history that is going to help you rebuild that score. i think that's probably one of the best things you could do.

you know, other than if you have any negative information that's inaccurate. you paid some things. often it's not showing that you could dispute that, and get that up-to-date but everything is correct, you could use that secured credit card. the other approach would be to get credit for utility payments so experian just came out with something called experian boost be oot and essentially it scans for payments to streaming services, phone companies, utility bills, where you wouldn't typically get credit for that experian boost pulls that into your credit file and then now that begins to factor in your credit score so that would be one other option to consider. those make sense. that was one question about utilities. i do have a very long street with at least two companies, so i may do that so when i get a hold of my credit reporting agencies.

make sure there's errors, but i find that to be a very challenging van dyck have a hard time getting a hold of anybody at the credit bureaus.

yes, love the best way to do that is through the online system. so i think what i would do is request a copy of those credit reports@annualcreditreport.com and then on their website you will see how you can dispute that information and current affair credit fair credit reporting act. They have 30 days to either verify that it's right for deleted, so I if you're comfortable on the Internet. I probably do it that way. I think it's a little more efficient than trying to do a phone but I think cleaning up that credit report Experian boost in the secured credit card give you exactly what you're looking for Mary. I am so sorry when I can get to your question, I would hope call back tomorrow will try to get you first in line moneywise light is a partnership between the radio moneywise media. Thank you Robert, thank you for being here is welcome back tomorrow