Should AI Help Manage Your Money?

0:00Have you ever wished someone could take the stress and guesswork out of budgeting? That's exactly what the Faith Fyap was built for. Faith Fy uses your real spending history to build a personalized plan from day one. And as you categorize transactions, it learns your patterns. Automatically simplifying future budgeting so you spend less time managing and more time living. But the Faith Fyap doesn't stop with the numbers. Each daily, weekly, and monthly rhythm invites you to engage scripture, reflect on God's provision, and connect your financial decisions with your faith. And because Faith Fy integrates articles, studies, devotionals, podcasts, and community support, you're never walking this journey alone. Try Faith Fyap Pro Free for 30 days. And for a limited time, get 25% off a pro subscription at faithfy.com slash app. Artificial intelligence can help you build a budget, explain an investment, or compare financial options in seconds.

1:00But how much should you trust it with your money? I am Rob West. AI is quickly becoming part of everyday life, including the way we manage our finances. And like any tool, it can be used wisely or unwisely. So how should Christians think about AI and money? We'll talk about that today, and then it's on to your calls in 800-525-7000. That's 800-525-7000. This is Faith in Finance, Biblical Wisdom for Your Financial Decisions. When new technology arrives, we can be tempted toward one of two extremes. We can either embrace it without much thought, or we can become suspicious of it and want nothing to do with it. But as stewards, we should ask a better question. How can we use this tool wisely and faithfully? AI can already be remarkably helpful with financial information. You can ask it to explain the difference between a Roth IRA and a traditional IRA,

2:00to find a complicated financial term. Suggest categories for a spending plan, compare debt payoff strategies, or help you prepare questions for a financial professional. Use that way, AI can be a valuable research assistant. But there's an important difference between having information and exercising wisdom. Proverbs 14-15 says, the simple believes everything. But the prudent gives thought to his steps. That's a helpful principle in an age of artificial intelligence. AI can gather, organize, summarize, and analyze information remarkably quickly. But having more information doesn't remove our responsibility to consider carefully what's true and how we should respond. Biblical wisdom is more than knowing facts. It's applying truth faithfully before God. And that requires something no technology can provide, spiritual discernment. AI might help you calculate whether you can afford a larger home, but it can't determine whether buying it reflects

3:02wise stewardship or simply a desire for more. It can compare to investment strategies, but it can't decide what faithfulness should look like in your particular circumstances. It can calculate how much room you have to give, but it can't worship God through generosity. That doesn't make AI bad. It simply means we need to keep the tool in its proper place. And a few practical guardrails can help us do that. First, verify important financial information. AI can sound confident even when the information is incomplete, outdated, or even wrong. The more significant the decision, the more important it is to confirm what you're seeing with reliable sources or a qualified professional. Second, protect your privacy. Be cautious about entering account numbers, social security numbers, passwords, tax documents, or other sensitive financial information into an AI system. And remember that criminals can use AI too. Voice cloning, convincing fake images and videos and personalized scams

4:06are becoming easier to create. If you receive an unexpected request involving money, even if it appears to come from someone you know, verify it through another trusted channel before acting. But perhaps the most important guardrail is this. Don't surrender your responsibility to think. AI promises efficiency, and that can be useful. But efficiency isn't always the highest good. Some financial decisions require prayer, patience, conversation, wise counsel, and time. That's especially true when money intersects with marriage, family, generosity, fear, competing priorities, or the question of how much is enough. AI can help you reach a goal more efficiently, but you still have to decide whether it's the right goal. A wise financial professional like a certified kingdom advisor can understand family dynamics that don't fit neatly into a spreadsheet. Ask questions you may not have considered and walk with you through decisions over time.

5:08And a professional who understands biblical stewardship can help you think beyond simply maximizing wealth toward faithfully managing what God has entrusted to you. To start working with a CKA in your area, go to find acka.com. And this is something we're thinking about carefully at FaithFi as well. In the future, the FaithFi app will include optional AI features designed to make certain parts of money management easier. For example, AI could streamline routine tasks or use your past spending patterns to suggest starting a budget. Of course, users will be able to choose whether to turn those features on or off. Either way, the principle remains the same. The technology serves the steward, not the other way around. By the way, if you want to check out the FaithFi app, just go to faithfi.com slash app that's faithfi.com slash app. Back with your questions after this. Stick around.

6:13Managing money isn't just a financial decision. It's a discipleship journey. And the FaithFi app is the only app built to guide both your money and your heart. With meaningful check-ins, automated budgeting, personalized insights, and biblical wisdom woven into every step. FaithFi helps you build habits that last. Join more than 70,000 believers pursuing clarity and peace as faithful stewards. Start your 30-day free trial today at faithfi.com slash app. Are you looking to maximize your charitable impact this season? The National Christian Foundation has a smart solution. It's called a giving fund, and it helps you give more strategically. Grow your balance tax-free and amplify your charitable impact. If you want a donor-advised fund that aligns with your values, open a giving fund today and start making a bigger difference for the causes you love. Learn how at faithfi.com forward slash ncf. Hey, thanks for joining us today on Faith and Finance. I'm Rob West. We want to dive into your

7:22questions today. Calls are already coming in. We do have room for a few more. 800-525-7000. Let's do that now. We're going to begin in Ohio, Trisha. Go right ahead. Hi, Rob. I'm time listener, first time caller. My question is I have an irrevocable trust, which I put my house and all my assets. My car and whatever. Thank you, Councilor. I owe 60,000 on my house still. I'm 72. And I have a $50,000 life insurance policy. I'm just wondering, is my daughter going to have to pay any taxes on that $50,000 life insurance policy? Yeah, it's a great question. If she is the named beneficiary of that policy, Trisha, then in a normal situation, no, she would not owe federal income tax on the $50,000 death benefit. Life insurance proceeds paid because of the insurance death are excluded from the beneficiaries

8:28taxable income. And in this case, the beneficiary being your daughter. So if you pass away, the insurance company pays her a $50,000 lump sum. She receives the full $50,000 income tax free at a federal level. Okay. All right. That's what I was wondering about. I'm trying to make sure she didn't have to go through probate. So I got to trust for her. Hmm. Okay. Yeah. Now let's talk about that. So the beneficiary designation bypasses probate. So with that life insurance, those proceeds, they're going to come directly to her. They do not go through probate. Similarly, a retirement account that has her as a named beneficiary would also bypass probate. The things that would go through probate or things that don't have a name beneficiary or are not in a trust. Now, given that you have a trust, anything else that you have as a part of your state, including a piece of real estate, could be titled in the name of the trust

9:30so that it, like the life insurance, would bypass probate as well and privately and based on your trust documents, passed directly to your named errors at your passing. Okay. Wonderful. That's what I was hoping for. All right. You're welcome. Trisha. Call anytime. Let's go to Oregon. Tom, how can I help? Yeah. Hey, thanks for taking my call. So basically, I retired from school district and I'm working again, but when I did that part of the process was to do the whole retirement thing and the purrs and all that. And so I get a monthly small amount, 800 dollars from my retirement. And then when they told me they said, when you get to 58 and a half, you can take a lump sum, paste, and bills off. So I did that. And then when I did my taxes this last year, they said,

10:34I owe 27,000 dollars. And it's like they double charged my taxes or something. I mean, my gross income was 250,000 dollars in my 403B wasn't even that much. And so I don't, you know, and so they, when I went to the IRS, they said, oh, you got to go through a company. And so I went through optimum attacks. And they said, oh, well, we'll do an investigation. And now they've come back and said, well, yeah, we'll, we'll represent you, but it's going to cost you $5,000. And we can't guarantee that we're going to be able to change any of that. And I want to be able to take care of this the best way possible. Yeah. Really helpful. And I'm so sorry to hear that. I mean, let me explain first of all what happened. And maybe you, you understand this now. But age 59 and a half eliminates the 10% early withdrawal penalty. It does not make a traditional retirement plan withdrawal income tax free. So if the lump sum was a pre-tax retirement account and you withdrew it

11:37rather than rolling it to another qualified retirement account, then the taxable amount becomes ordinary income for that year. So if the $27,000 withdrawal created a taxable income, or you said, what was the amount you took out? What was the lump sum? The lump sum was 36. And then I took 50 after that. Okay. So a total of 86,000? Yes. Okay. Yeah. And so that sounds a little high. I mean, at the 22% bracket, that would be roughly 19,000 before any kind of deductions to offset that. But nevertheless, could you have a $27,000 IRS tax bill potentially, depending on what your other income was in your marginal tax rate? But essentially where you go from here, regardless of whether that's correct or not, and it probably is, I wouldn't start with a $5,000 company. You know, you could pay it in full, if you have the ability to do so. You could do a short-term payment plan, which they say is,

12:42six months or less. There's no setup fee. The interest in penalties continue, but it does give you the ability to pay it over six months. And that's really easy. I mean, you could do that through the online chat feature with the IRS or just call them. Then beyond that, there's a long-term installment agreement. And that's usually within $50,000 threshold, which you're in. And then there's offers and compromises. So there's plenty you can do on your own, absolutely free. If you need somebody to help, I can refer you to a CPA who specializes in this, at least to consider another option. But I wouldn't default to paying that $5,000 fee. Stay on the line. We'll get you connected with somebody and we appreciate your call. To Virginia, hi, Louise. Thanks for calling. Go ahead. Thank you for taking my call, brother. Thanks, Lord. My question is very simple. Equity has been in this house for 18 years. And I'm thinking about selling it. But I'm hearing about equity

13:44in the home. So what number one is equity? Number two, how do I use that for my community or can I? Yes. Yes. Well, the equity, Miss Louise, is the difference between what the value of the home is and what you owe on it. So let me just give you a real simple example. Let's say the home is worth $200,000. And you have a mortgage of $100,000. Then the difference between those two is your equity. And that would be in my example, $100,000, because the $100,000 in equity plus the $100,000 you own the mortgage equals the value of the home, which just simply means if you were to sell the home, which the home is an asset. And that just simply means it's something of value. So stocks or assets, cash is an asset. A home is an asset because it has value. And when you sell that asset, your home, and pay off the mortgage, so you sell it for $200,000, you pay off

14:48the mortgage of $100,000, the equity is what's left $100,000. So the reason you want to increase the equity is you're increasing the amount you have available to you in that asset that's not encumbered by debt. And over time, the goal would be for you to have no debt. So your equity is equal to the value. Because if you have no mortgage, then if the home's worth $200,000, then you have $200,000 in equity, which means if you sell the home, you get the full $200,000 to go buy your next home or to do anything else you want. So the goal is to increase equity over time, which means you're moving closer and closer to full ownership of the property without any debt involved. And the reason you would want to do that is because now you have an asset that's unencumbered, which means it's free to do anything you want with it when it's sold, whether you turn around and invest it in stocks and bonds or buy another piece of real estate. Does that make sense? Yes, thank you so

15:49very much. That's what I was looking for. All right, very good. Thank you for your call. You'd sell like a sweep. A wonderful lady and we're delighted you were on the program today. Back with much more just around the corner. Stick around. Money always seems to ask for more. More income. More savings. More security. But what if the better question is, how much is enough? This Faith 5 Field Guide isn't just a book to read. It's a practical guide that helps you prayerfully answer that question for your own life. One step at a time. Order your copy of how much money is enough today at faithfi.com slash shop. Faith in Finance is grateful for support from even-tied investments, a faith-based asset manager pursuing investing that makes the world rejoice. Even-tied invests from a biblical world view,

16:55helping values aligned investors pursue integrity, impact, and performance through their portfolios. More information is available about how you can align your faith with your investments at faithfi.com slash even-tied. That's faithfi.com slash even-tied. Great to have you with us today on Faith in Finance. We're taking your calls at 800-525-7000. Let's see, Texas is where Darrell is located. Go ahead, sir. Hey, yes, sir. Thank you for taking my call. I've got a question. So I started around Social Security at 62 and I just turned 65 and they started taking Medicare out of my Social Security, but I have VA here. And so when I called in the Social Security Administration, they stated to me that they don't consider VA a legit let-help here. And so they took the money out anyway, which I don't understand. And I called back and they keep telling me the same thing,

17:59which doesn't like to sense to me because millions of vets are on VA health here. Yeah, yeah. It's a good question. So when you turn 65 and you're already receiving so security, you're automatically enrolled in A and B. Part A is free. B has the monthly premium, and they automatically deduct it unless the person opts out. Now, VA care does not replace Medicare. The VA encourages veterans to keep Part B because it's not guaranteed in every situation. And so it gives you, Medicare is going to give you the ability to receive care outside of VA. But if you don't want Medicare Part B, you can request to drop it. But again, it's generally not recommended from the VA because if you change your mind later, you would face late enrollment penalties for the rest of your life. And you may have some gaps outside in your coverage outside

18:59of VA. So you just need to look at that before you make that decision. Okay. So what exactly is Part B? Part B on the Medicare? Yeah, that covers the doctors' visits in outpatient medical care. So that's doctor visits, specialist visits, outpatients tests, MRIs and X-rays, some preventative care. If you needed medical equipment, those kinds of things. Okay. Okay. Well, I appreciate you taking my call and explaining that for me. Absolutely. Listen, I'm grateful for your service to our country and we appreciate you being a part of the program. Call anytime. Lord bless you. Let's go to Waterloo, Illinois. Brittany, how can I help? Hi. Yes, it's been on my heart a lot lately just about being good stewards of our money. And so when I heard this, I wanted to call in to ask this particular question. And that is, Jesus told us not to store up earthly treasures. And so how can we be wise in, is there a certain

20:03percentage or a mount that we should be spending on things of that nature like vacations or home renovations and things like that? Yeah, I love that question, Brittany, because clearly you want to honor the Lord with what He's entrusted to you. And that should be the heart posture each of us has. We actually just produced what we call faith-five field guides, which is in addition to our studies where we go deep into a passage of scripture and our devotionals, the field guides are really meant to tackle a very specific question where our faith intersects with our financial journey. And our first field guide is right on this topic of answering the question, how much money is enough. And I'm going to send you that field guide is our gift to you just to be able to have you wrestle through this. But let me say the Bible doesn't give us a specific percentage for how much we should spend on non-essential things. And rather, this is something I think we prayerfully determine with the Lord as we submit our budget and what He has provided to us. We want to be

21:07wise with our money. So that means we avoid debt when possible and we give generously to our local church and causes on the heart of God. And we faithfully steward what He's entrusted to us. At the same time, we don't want to communicate that it's wrong to enjoy God's creation. Both Ecclesiastes and First Timothy make it clear, God gives us good things to enjoy. He's the author of delight and beauty. And I think using his resources and trusted to us for a dinner to celebrate and enjoy family and deepen relationships or to take a trip together and then build memories together are all beautiful examples of how money is a good gift for our enjoyment. I think the concern comes in if there is one when spending on non-essentials replaces generous giving or faithfully paying down debt or reasonable and responsible stewardship. But there's nothing inherently wrong with spending money on things we simply enjoy. So where does that leave us? Well,

22:08I think ultimately what that means is this is something we have to approach prayerfully. And if married together with your spouse, we need to be asking the Lord, Lord, what does faithful stewardship look like for me? And I don't think there's a decision that's right for everyone that's ultimately between you and the Lord. And part of this comes down to how you use what he has provided for you for his glory. You know, is it ultimately just more accumulation of toys or we actually, using God's money both to enjoy but also to create opportunities to love and serve others in a more meaningful way? And you know, I think that's something we all have to wrestle through. And it's why at its core, I think money management is spiritual formation because we're actively working out through our budget and our plans and our spending. What's most important to us because it's one of the clearest barometers into what's going on in our lives spiritually, the way we handle God's money.

23:10But let me stop there and just get your thoughts. Yes, no, I completely agree. I think for me, as a stay at home mom, I certainly want to be a good wife in the sense of I'm being a good steward of the money that my husband brings in. And I think all women, if we're honest, we love to, you know, make our homes look, you know, cozy. And I think there's a place in our heart exactly like you said where how far are we taking that? And to what? And it's just been on my heart so much recently about, am I being a good steward of the money that my husband brings in? And that's really why I was really I had to ask because it has been, I feel the Lord is just really wanting me to really reexamine that and to spend more time into that because I completely agree with you. We should absolutely be giving to the local church and other organizations that are glorifying

24:14God and I do agree with everything that God gives us. We can like you said, the light and spending time as a family. It's just really hard as a stay at home mom to know where is that cut off for just things that really don't matter. Yeah, let me just put a bow on this by saying, I still appreciate what you're saying. And here's what I would say, you know, I would back up and before you even get to how much should I spend on decorations for the house, which again, there's nothing wrong with that making the home beautiful and welcoming and inviting in a place of respite and to enjoy the family is a good thing. But I think it starts with at a higher level, what are our goals? What are we trying to accomplish? How much do we want to be able to give? What's the appropriate amount for us to live on for our lifestyle and allow that to be informed by your values and priorities as a Christ follower through prayer? And then once you decide what's available for lifestyle, then at that point, it's just a matter of creating a plan and dividing it up, limited resources among unlimited

25:15opportunities. Thanks for your call. It's a great question. Thanks to my team today, Pat, Jim, Taylor, and Devon couldn't do it without him. We'll see you next time. God bless you. Bye-bye. Faith and Finance is provided by FaithFive and listeners like you.