Why Should I Drain My Savings To Pay Off Debt? | Sorry We Missed Your Call

Brought to you by Chm, a biblically based alternative to health insurance. Learn more at chmin ministries.org/budget. We're going to try something new that we've not done well anytime in the recent memory. Uh we may never have done it before. It's possible. So uh you guys call I don't know if you've done it. Well, it's possible. I've done a lot of things. Our personalities have. You did it. This is your first. Yes. I've not done it. Welcome to the welcome to the segment, Dave. Oh, okay. So, this is something that's happened while I wasn't working. Okay. Um, so you Anyway, we're people call and leave voicemails and so let's play one of them. My name is Jared. I have been looking into the baby steps and I know one of the things is to sell everything quickly as you can get yourself out of debt, which I do totally understand. I I have about 16,000 saved up and I also do have debt and I was wondering like why does it feel better to have that safety net of the 16 than pay off the amount of debt even though I totally understand numbers wise that the debt is costing me more than the savings is keeping me in savings. Thank you. appreciate your time. Yeah, that's a good question. It does feel better to have the 16,000 and have the debt. It because you you have the illusion of security. You have the illusion that you're you're safe. And it's an illusion because over a 20-year period of time, you're not safe because you're broke and in debt. But you've got this sense that in the in the moment if something happened and that because it's true. If you had a $5,000, you know, car car engine blow up and you've got only got $1,000, you're not safe. But the but what you also don't realize is that because you're carrying all this debt, you're not safe. That's right. Yeah. But your emotions because you're a saver, Jared, uh tell you that uh as a saver, I'm safer if I have savings than But but if you were looking at the other way and said, "Oh, the debt scares me more than the illusion of the savings." Yeah. Then you're going to pay it off. Until then, you're going to sit there in that. So, um, yeah, we always teach to just pay down to $1,000 and start your baby steps. Baby step one's $1,000. Anything above that that's not retirement goes at your debts in baby step two, listing them smallest to largest and attacking them in that order. Yeah. And what's interesting is usually with especially savers, so I get this Jared on the end that again you don't feel the risk of the debt, but if something were to happen, there's other people coming to knock on your door and that doesn't feel safe either, right? So like if if you're not able to pay these things, it's scarier to have your, you know, your financial piece, if you will, in other people's hands and in other people's situations. And so being free from all of that by being out of debt and then building back the emergency fund actually gives you a level of deeper security. Uh but I don't think people think about that as much that you know the difference is you haven't experienced the risk. So like with me it's a no-brainer because I have been foreclosed on. I have been sued. I have had people take money out of my account that sued me and won before we went broke before we filed bankruptcy. In the process of two and a half years of fighting that, we were foreclosed on multiple times. We were scared several times that they were going to repo our car that night, walk out in the driveway, and you it's anybody's guess if it's going to be there. Um, then you start to go, "Oh, wait a minute. I don't feel safe, right, forever. For the rest of my life, I don't feel safe with that." And so that it's an that's what I mean by it's an illusion. I' I've got that benefit of that experience cuz whatever sense I had that that was okay was completely stripped away by the extreme experience we went through. Okay, play the next one. James, we had a question about titan. Is tithing specifically supposed to be used for the church? Or if we are in a church that is currently declining, is it okay for archive to be donated to Christian organizations such as a pro-life organization or something of that sort? I just wanted to kind of find out what you believe is a biblically sound answer to that question. Thank you. Yeah, good question. Well, um I studied the Bible through the lens of an evangelical Christian, which means someone who believe believes the Bible um on instructional things like this. Literally, evangelicals for the last 500 years have taught and backed it up biblically that the tithe goes to the local church. A tenth of your income. Tithe, the word in Hebrew means tenth. Doesn't mean 5%. If you want to give 5% that's fine. Uh the tithe is not a salvation issue. You're not going to God doesn't love tithers more than non-tithers. Nothing. And tithers don't automatically get into heaven. That's not that's not what this is. It's a baseline instruction from your heavenly father that teaches us to give to our faith community 10% of our income first. And the model is the Old Testament storehouse. in the Old Testament storehouse took care of the widows and the orphans and the Levites. The Levites were the pastors. And so the preachers get paid well, not overly paid. The minister of music, the children's minister gets paid well, but not overly paid. They never get overly paid. And um you know, the bills get paid. We keep the lights on in the house of worship with the first tenth of our income. Anything other than that tenth is an offering and it can go anywhere. So, it's tithes and offerings. Then, I would just say that if you're uncomfortable giving your money to the church because it's in decline, I'm uncomfortable trusting the spiritual welfare of my family more. I'm more worried about the if you're more. Yeah. But if it's just a sweet church that there's not a lot of givers and they're like, "Well, we're not going to be able to keep it open." But they're but they're great Bible teachers. Do you know what I mean? Like, there is I don't know. There's a part of me that I'm like, what if it is a great church and they're just it's not in decline. But what if the all the people who know and we don't know where Seth lives, right? I do not I do not know the church. But and they So all that to say, we've worked with 50,000 churches in America. We love churches. We love pastors. That's not the question. It could be. But the the question, but usually if there's a decline, you say your church is too much in decline to give to, I worry that it's too much in decline to trust your spiritual health of your family, too. Um, that would bother me. That's the answer. I mean, I if I can't trust them with my money, I don't need to trust them with my family. No. So, it's not a tr It's not that they're doing anything immoral, but I wasn't talking about immoral, but if but you say I can't trust them with my money. I'm just saying they're not doing well because maybe they don't have a lot of givers. I don't know. I always hate making that statement. Wait a minute. Listen. Churches Churches. Here's the thing. Churches that do well don't have a shortage of givers. That's a strong statement. No, they don't. It's an accurate statement. I don't know. I'm not I'm not Okay, we'll argue about it. That's fine. I don't know. You'll be You'll be wrong. It's okay. I think you And then I'll find the stat and bring it on next time I'm on the air. This is the father. Good. Good luck with that. Good luck with that. Chm isn't health insurance. It's a health cost sharing ministry. Check it out for yourself at chmin ministries.org/budget. /budget.