Cash in or roll over? What’s the smart move for your maturing CD?

Ralph
00:00:00

Do you ever feel stuck when making a financial decision? Maybe you've got a maturing CD. The bank is asking you what to do next. And you're wondering, "Do I cash this out and take the money, or roll it over and hope for a better deal?" And let me ask you this. What if you make the wrong move? What if there's a better option out there that you are missing? That frustration, that fear of making the wrong decision, can leave you feeling paralyzed. But here's the good news. You don't have to stay stuck. Today I'm going to help you cut through the confusion and figure out whether to cash in or roll over your maturing CD. And here's my promise.

By the end of this episode, you'll have a clear plan that puts you back in control of your money. And most importantly, and this is important. You'll see how to honor God in this decision. So let me ask you. "What's the smart move for your maturing CD?" Stick around, because together, we're going to figure it out.

Podcast Announcer
00:00:52

In a world where crushing debt keeps you trapped, where living paycheck to paycheck has become your new normal, and where the dream of retirement seems impossibly out of reach, there's hope. Join financial evangelist Ralph Estep Jr. A man who's walked through the fire of financial failure and emerged stronger on the other side.

Welcome to Ask Ralph, the show where real world experience meets biblical truth to break the bondage of financial despair.

Get ready to take control of your money, break free from the financial stress and align your resources with God's purpose for your life. This is Ask Ralph with Ralph Estep Jr.

Ralph
00:01:34

Welcome to the Ask Ralph show.

I'm Ralph, your trusted guide to mastering your finances from that Christian perspective. Everyday, we tackle real life questions about faith and finances, all designed to help you achieve financial freedom and grow deeper in your walk with Christ. I'm so glad you're here today. I'm so happy you chose to spend a little time with me. Now, before we get into today's topic, let's talk about yesterday's show.

We tackled the topic of tax relief. Yeah, it wasn't very relieving. That's for sure. I shared why some so-called solutions can actually make the situation worse and how to avoid those traps all together. I guess you could say I went on a Ralph rant. If you missed it, I'm going to encourage you to check it out. You can also, if you missed it, you can go to askralph.com.

It's one of those episodes that'll have you rethink everything you thought you knew about taxes. Trust me, you don't want to miss it. But for now, let's turn our attention to today's question. Because I know this is one that's so many of you are wrestling with. It's a tough decision.

Today's question comes from Kevin, who sent me this heartfelt message. "Hi Ralph, I've been rolling over CDs for years because it seems safe. But now, with interest rates changing so much, I'm not sure if rolling over is the best choice anymore. I've also heard about investments, but honestly, I'm afraid to take risks. I feel stuck. Like I'm not making my money work for me, but I don't know what else to do. What should I do with my maturing CD?"
Well Kevin, that is a great question. And thank you for your honesty. A lot of people don't want to admit that they're in over their head. So first, let me say this. You're not alone in this decision.

So many people that I've worked with and sending questions to the show, feeling exactly the same way. So I've got some good answers for you today. You know, Kevin this feeling of being stuck, of not knowing where to play it safe or take a risk, it can be overwhelming.

And if we're honest, a lot of that comes from fear. It's that fear of making the wrong decision. We're so paralyzed by that you know, do we make the wrong choice? We've got our fear of leaving money on the table and I think that's what you're alluding to. And also Kevin, let's be honest.

You've got that fear of stepping into the unknown and getting into things you don't really understand as far as it relates to investments. But here's the truth. And I want you to hear this. You don't have to stay stuck. God has given us wisdom. He's given us tools and He's given us principles to guide us. And I'm here to help you apply those tools to your finances. Now, before I get into your answer and your question, Kevin, let me remind you that the questions are the heartbeat of the show.

Just like the question you sent in today. So if you've got questions about finance or faith, I want to hear from you. Just head over to justaskralph.com and you can send your question in there and who knows, you might hear it featured in an upcoming episode and don't forget, every Tuesday night at 7:00 PM

I host a live show where you can ask your questions in real time. A lot of people have asked me, how do I get to that Ralph? Well, you can join us by going to
askralphpodcast.com/live. Cause I'd love to see you there and it's really that simple.

Well, you know Kevin, I want to start by grounding ourselves today in scripture.
I want to get into God's word because I believe every financial decision we make should be rooted in biblical wisdom. I think that's where we need to start. So today's verse is from Proverbs chapter 27 verses 23 and 24. And it says this. "Be sure you know the condition of your flocks, give careful attention to your herds; for riches do not endure forever,
and a crown is not secure for all generations." And I think about that on the way over here this morning to record. A road past the pasture. Now, got my black Angus cows out there and I pay attention to the herd cause right now, putting herd in a bitter cold situation. The cow's waters are frozen.

So we're having to give them water a couple of times a day. So you got to pay attention to that. And this verse reminds us that stewardship matters. So whether it's a flock of sheep or a financial investment, just like you have Kevin like a CD, we're called to manage our resources with diligence and care. And God gives us the tools to do that.
And here's something I'm grateful for today. You know I mentioned a couple weeks ago that

I'm going to start every show with a gratitude statement. Cause I think we all need to find gratefulness in our lives. So here's what I'm grateful for today. I'm grateful that God has given us the ability to manage what He's entrusted to us, whether that's a small amount or a large amount. I'm reminded that every financial decision we make is an opportunity to honor Him and reflect our trust in His provision. Isn't that a beautiful way to start today.

All right, Kevin, let's get into today's discussion and let's really get to the point of what you're asking. Because you've got this pain in decision. And Kevin I've been in your shoes. Years ago, I had a CD maturing just like you and I felt completely stuck. And think about this, you know, this is what I do for a living. And I thought to myself on the one hand, you know, rolling it over that, that's safe. It's in the bank.

I know what the interest rates going to be. I don't have to worry about the volatility of the stock market. You know, I can pretty much count on that money being there at the end of the CD term. But then I also knew on the other hand, my money wasn't working hard enough for me. Because the truth of the matter is I want to talk about that a little bit later in the show, but CDs aren't necessarily the best investment if you're looking to get a large return. So, what was I experiencing? I was experiencing fear, that fear of making the wrong choice. And it kept me paralyzed for far too long. And I feel like Kevin you're probably in that same position. But here's what I've learned. Being a good steward doesn't always mean playing it safe.

Now, a lot of people don't, they're going to say, oh boy, you're really going off on the deep end today, Ralph. Yes, but being a good steward doesn't mean you have to play it safe. You just had to play it smart. See sometimes it means taking the time to evaluate your options. And Kevin, I think that's what I hear in your question today.

You want to evaluate those options. And the second part of that is being willing to step out in faith. So let's start by understanding just what we're talking about. If you don't understand what a CD is, a CD is not complicated. It's a Certificate of Deposit. It's a low risk investment where you deposit for money for a fixed term and in exchange for that, you get a guaranteed interest rate. Simple example. You agree to give your bank or credit union or other financial institution a thousand dollars. And in return they say to you, okay, you're going to give us that thousand dollars. We're going to pay you 5% interest over a 12 month period.

That will be a one-year term CD. So at the end of that one year, your thousand dollars would be worth a thousand dollars plus 5%. So big picture Kevin, and I'm going to get into some more details. You really have three options.

So when your CD matures, you got three options. Number one, you can cash it in. What I mean by that you withdraw the funds, take them, and use them elsewhere. Put them into your savings account, put them into your checking account. Do whatever you wish with them. That's option number one, withdraw the funds. Option number two. You can roll it over.
That's what I started the show talking about. You can renew the CD for a new term. Maybe that one year CD has matured and now they're paying five and a half percent. Maybe we're in the other direction, only paying 4%. So you have that option to let it roll over. And then a lot of banks and credit unions allow you to this third thing. And that's what they call auto renew. And that's where the banks often just renew it automatically if you don't act. And I'm not sure that's always the best choice. Because again, you may have some decisions to make where you could get a better return on your investment.

Which leads me to a discussion about a few different options, Kevin. You might want to consider. I want to first talk about CD laddering and I had a client in about a week ago and we were talking to this and he said, Ralph, what are you talking about? What does a ladder have to do with CD? So let me explain. CD laddering. It's a strategy where you invest in multiple CDs.

You got, you know, let's say five CDs. And what you do is you stagger their maturity dates. So instead of locking all your money into a single long-term CD, like we talked about that one year CD at 5%. You spread it over multiple CDs with different terms, for example. Let's use that same thousand dollar example, but let's say you had $5,000 to work with. What you would do is you would divide your investment into equal portions. So let's say you had $10,000 work. Let's just make it simple. $10,000 to work with. And you cut that into five components. Where you basically have $2,000 to each component. And then what you do is you take those $2,000 each and you purchase CDs with different maturity terms.

For example, maybe you buy a CD that's a one-year. That's one $2,000 CD. Then you buy a two year CD. That's another $2,000 CD. You get the idea and three and four and five. And then see, as each CD matures, you reinvest it in another long-term CD. So that one year CD goes to five years. That two year CD, once it matures is now down to one goes to five years and you continue that ladder. Well you might be asking, well, what's the point of that?
Well see, here's the deal. That strategy allows you to take advantage of higher interest rates in the longterm. You're not locking that money in for five years. And you still have access to some of your money at regular intervals. So let's talk about why that's a good strategy. We'll talk about the pros of CD laddering.

First thing. This is the biggest one. Liquidity. See, with CDs maturing at different times, a portion of your money becomes available regularly. For example, you can set it up so that every year or every few months you got that money coming your way and it helps you avoid locking up all your funds. You also, number two might get higher potential returns because re-investing maturing CDs in longer-term options sometimes you can get better interest rates over time. It's also risk reinvestment cause CDs and I talked about this when I said it's a very safe investment. They're insured by the FDIC. That's the governmental unit that regulates this. If it's a credit union the NCUA, and they're basically insured at the $250,000 per account.

So it's really safe if you're one of these folks, that's risk averse. And we'll talk about that in a few minutes. That's a great way to do it. Another great thing about laddering CDs is flexibility because when a CD matures you can decide whether you want to invest. You go back to that same decision, even if you've laddered your CDs, each time one comes up for you know once it's matured, you can decide.

Okay. Maybe I don't want to put another one out there for five years. Maybe you've got an expense coming up. Maybe you've got a child getting ready to go to college and you need that money. You've structured your liquidity. So to come out when you need it, so you can reinvest it, you can cash it out.

Or maybe you take the dive and go in a different direction. The big benefit to laddering CDs is protection against rate fluctuations because here's the deal. Like I said a few minutes ago. If interest rates rise you'll have maturing CDs to reinvest at higher rates. So if you've got that, if you lock it in for five years and then the market interest rates go up, you've got this bummer investment where everybody else is getting higher rates. And if they fall, you still got the benefit of high rates locked in with those longer-term CDs. Now of course with anything, there are some cons to this.

So let's talk about for a few minutes, the cons of CD laddering. Number one, overall, you got to understand this from the jump. You're going to have lower returns compared to other investments. That's just what they are. CDs are safe. They are very safe. But in truth, their returns are typically lower than stocks. They're lower than bonds, they're lower than mutual funds. So big picture and this doesn't have anything to do with laddering per se.

But CDs in general. So this is a disadvantage in rising inflation environments because you don't have that flexibility. You don't have that other investment that can help you. Number two thing. Unfortunately, unlike stocks or real estate CDs don't compound or grow significantly over time. They pay a simple fixed interest rate. Like I talked about with that simple example. Thousand dollars CD 5%, that's what you're going to get. And that kind of really limits your growth potential. As I alluded to, if you don't ladder them, you've got inflation risks, because see if inflation outpaces your CDs interest rate. If inflation, and we've seen this last few years, if inflation becomes a problem, and your CDs don't mature in enough time for you to benefit from that, then you effectively, you're purchasing power of your money has decreased. Because you've got this money locked up in this CD that's paying a below market interest rate, and honestly you can't get out of it. Now, there are some ways in which leads me to the fourth thing here. And if you do try to access, if you need to access your money, I did a show about this a couple of weeks ago. If you do needed to do it before the CD matures, you're going to face penalties. And what that will effectively do is remove the amount of interest that you earned. So that's something you need to consider.

Those four things are very important. So you might be asking Ralph. Okay. Then who is a CD laddering ideal for? And here's my view. I think people with low risk tolerance. They want a predictable return on their money. I think that's a perfect candidate for CD ladder. I think it's great for those who want to balance liquidity needs or long-term savings. You know, they want to have that money available to access it as they need it. Like if you've got a project ahead or, you know, you're going to need that money in six months, you're going to need that money in 12 months. And another thing I think it's great for individuals nearing retirement who want that consistent, safe income.

Listen, I've got a ton of clients that do not want to risk their money in the market. So they've decided to buy these CDs because in their view they say, Ralph, you know, it's a guaranteed, it's a surefire winner. I don't have to worry about that market risk because I don't have a lot of time because I'm getting ready to move into retirement. So that really handles the CD thing, but Kevin, you're asking me another question is what other things could I invest in?

So let's talk about some of those options. The first one is a high yield savings account. So what that is, it's just a savings account, but usually it pays a higher interest rates than what the traditional savings accounts pay. And now a lot of times your credit union offered them. The bank offered them.

There's a ton of online resources for that and alternative banks. And if you look at today's blog post, and I'll just remind everybody as I'm, as I'm talking right now, every day, when I record the show, I do record a blog cause I write a blog post that goes a little deeper and gets into some more discussion and some references and alternatives.

So I'm gonna encourage you to check that out and you go to askralphpodcast.com/blog. So you could consider a high yield savings account. Now you're not locking that money in for a certain period of time. Most institutions are going to give you access to that money, but you can only take so much out at a time.

So you might say Ralph, okay, what is the benefit of that? Well, the benefit of this is that liquidity. You don't have those intervals. You don't have that CD laddering effect. If you need the money tomorrow, you can go take the money out. The other benefit to it is again, these are FDIC insured. They're at the bank.

They're at the credit union. As long as you, and I may do a caveat here for a second. As long as you're doing it with a bank or a credit union that is FDIC insured. Now, you got to pay attention to that. So look for the badge on their website or contact them and make sure, but see, those are the real two benefits to the money market accounts.

You can access your money at any time and it's low risk because again, they're FDIC insured. Now, as with anything, there are some cons to that. Again, returns are still lower than inflation in many cases, it doesn't, they don't keep up with the inflation and those rates can fluctuate because banks or credit unions are going to make those decisions about how much they want to pay on those high yield savings accounts. Well, then you can move to a second thing and that's a money market account.

You may have heard that term. What are they? Well, a money market account is basically a hybrid. It's a hybrid between a savings account and a checking account. Generally offer higher interest rates, slightly higher interest rates. But again, you've got limited check
writing privileges. So you can only write so many checks a quarter, so many checks a month.

It depends on your institution, but again, It's a money market account. So you've got access to that, which is why I say the first pro to that is liquidity. It's easier to access those funds. You're not going to pay out early withdrawal penalty like you did with a CD.

Again, it's FDIC insured, but again, we go back to those cons because it's a bank, because it's regulated, because it's insured by the FDIC. Your returns are going to be lower. But again, that's the balance. And a lot of times with banks or credit unions are going to be a minimum balance requirement.

So you may have to have 5,000, 10,000, whatever that looks like for your particular institution. So, those are really the two big banking products. You know, you can keep the CD and renew it. You can go to that high interest savings account and go to that money market. Now, if you really want to take a step out and you can look at the bond market, so let's talk about what they are.

So bonds are fixed in income securities, where we're basically you're lending money to a government. Or you're lending money to a company. And in exchange for that, I mean, you're basically the lender. In exchange for lending that money, you get regular interest payments and the return of your principal
when that bond matures. There are all kinds of bonds. There's government bonds, there's corporate bonds. There's what they call municipal bonds or munies. And basically what you're doing is you're acting as the creditor, you're saying to this government agency or this corporation, Hey, you guys need the bar money.

I've got money. Let's make a deal. The benefit to these, the pro of these are they usually have higher returns in CDs, and it depends on the bond. It's predictable income. You know, they're going to pay you at certain intervals this much. Here's the rate of that. Now here's the problem with that. Because now we're moving into things that aren't FDIC insured.

I want to be very clear about this. Bonds are not risk-free. Now you could say Ralph, but wait a second, you said there's government bonds. There's municipal bonds. Yes. Correct. And in my practical view, I don't think you have to worry about those going default. I don't think because listen. If the government can't pay their bonds, we've got bigger issues. But the thing you need to consider now, if you're going to do those with corporate bonds, they can default, you know, a corporation could go belly up.

They could go bankrupt. And the other problem of bonds is their value may drop if we're going to straight tries because you've bought this bond. The company or the municipality or the government is saying to you, okay. Ralph, we're going to pay you 7% interest. Well, if all of a sudden interest rates in the market go up that same risk we were talking about with CDs. Those bonds.

They don't just automatically increase the value of that. And I did a show a couple of weeks ago about a bond that does I saw I'll put that in the show notes. You can check that out. But that's the thing you need to understand. They don't have that investment rate risk alternative. Now, if you don't like the bond idea and you want to go a little farther out on that diving board, you could consider dividend paying stocks.

So what are these? Now instead of lending the company money, what you're doing now is you're buying a portion of the company. You're a stockholder. You've seen these on the TV. They stockholder meetings and you basically give them money. You buy that stock and in general, you don't buy from them, but you buy it on a market. And they pay you a regular dividend to investors, but you're an owner. And you own the, even if it's a small share of that, the benefit to that is it's more income and those value can go up.

If the business takes off and you've heard about these companies, their stock prices doubled, their stock prices tripled, you know, you've got potential for that dividend income, and you've got that appreciation. You know, you can hold that stock and at some point say, Hey. For example, I got this apple stock and this apple stock is soaring.

You know, I bought it for a $20 a share. Now it's a hundred dollars a share. Well, that's what we call capital appreciation. So you could then sell that and make money. And that dividends, if you're retired or you need that consistent cashflow, you can count on those dividends to pay you at whatever those intervals are. Now with that comes a big con and you need to understand this.

This is not FDIC insured. If somebody says to you. Oh, you know, we offer stock investments and they're insured. They're lying to your face. Run in the other direction. Because here's the thing. Stock prices will and can fluctuate, meaning your principal is at risk. You could potentially lose every dollar you've invested.

There's none of that backstop of that $250,000. So you gotta be aware of that when you're going into it. So those are the two things that once you move beyond the bank, you can look at those bonds. You can look at those stocks. Now, one of the big things that a lot of my clients invest in is real estate. Because here's the thing. You could invest in real estate for maybe you want to get a rental property.

Maybe you want to buy some what we call speculation property, where it could go up in value. Again, we're talking about bigger dollars now. You're not going to take that thousand dollars CD and roll it into a flip for a house. But I just wanted to put all the cards on the table. So you could do this. Now here's the thing you need to understand. In general, real estate tends to appreciate over time. And that will give you opportunities for monthly income through that rental income.

I've got a lot of clients that do this. They have rental properties. And basically the way they say it to me is Ralph, somebody every month pays my mortgage payment for me. They collect the rent and everything's great. Now there's some downsides to that. Of course now, because all of a sudden, now you've got to have a lot more capital up front.

So you're locking your money into this property. And again, you got to have the stomach for being a landlord because you're going to have ongoing maintenance. You're going to have management of that. You're going to have people that skip out in the middle of the night, you get people to destroy your home. Listen, to be honest with you,
my wife, and I had this discussion a few times. She said, Ralph, why don't we get into rental properties? And I said, well, you really have to have the stomach for that. Now I've got some clients that are very effective with those and they really get, they do well with those. But that's a decision you have to make. Now number one, I'm going to put on my list
here is what they call index funds or ETFs.

Now we're really getting out into the jungle of different investments. So let's talk about what they are. So investment funds, these are investment funds. So again, these are not individual stocks, they're not bonds, but these are funds. So this is somebody who's managing a group of investment. And they, they generally have their performance based on some kind of stock market index.

Like we'll say like the New York stock exchange or S&P 500. So they're a group of stocks. Somebody is managing this. But it's not a single stock. So that's one of the benefits today. It diversifies your, it reduces your risk because you're not putting all your eggs in that one basket.

Like I talked about a few minutes ago, you're not just buying apple stock. You're buying stock in hundreds of companies, potentially, maybe thousands of companies. The other benefit to these are they have low fees, you know, actively managed funds. And I'm not going to go down that wormhole because we can spend an hour talking about that. Generally these ETFs have lower fees. So those are two good things.

Now here's the downside to this. There's no guaranteed returns. And again, those market down hurts can lead to a loss of principle or a loss of your entire investment. So now I've given you a lot. You might be saying Ralph, Kevin, you're probably thinking, what do I do now? So I'm going to answer the simple question is that, and that is how do you navigate these alternative investments without fearing because everybody is, we talked about this at the beginning. You have that fear. You're like, I don't know what to do. I am not a risk taker. I'm not a person that understands the markets. You know, it was a stretch for me to buy the CD. Usually I just parked the money in my checking account, I keep a little on my savings account. So Ralph, how do I make this decision?

I think the first thing you need to do is you need to understand your risk tolerance. If you work with a broker. It's the first name they're going to ask you. And you got to ask yourself this question. How much risk am I willing to take? Because if you're risk averse, then you want to consider safer options, like those bonds or money market accounts, those high yield savings, or just roll that CD over. But maybe you're younger and you know you like to play the market.

You can handle that volatility. Then you may want to look at those stocks. Look at those index funds. Maybe you really want to throw the dice and go buy that real estate. Second thing I'm gonna encourage you to do. Start small. You don't have to invest everything at once. One of the things I tell clients and people that I work with all the time is start with something simple.

Maybe you just want to take $500 and put it into an index when kind of like your fun money. Now, $500 not a little bit of money, but it's a way to kind of, you know, test the waters. You know, think about you, you go to a friend's house for a pool party, right? You're staying by the pool and everybody's running around and nobody wants to put their feet in the water and test it out because you don't know if it's going to be cold. Well, you can do the same thing with this investment.

You know, just take a couple of hundred dollars or $500. Put it in an index fund and see how you like it or do the same thing with the bond. You could test the waters to make sure that you're going to be comfortable in this. Third thing, and this is crucial. You got to get educated. You got to learn about each of these investment types.
You can't just rely on somebody like me to just listen to. I got great resources.

But, you know, use resources like books or podcasts or online courses. Check out this car. There's some tools called online. You can find called morning star. There's an Investopedia. And I mentioned these in a blog post. Again, that's at askralphpodcast.com/blog. And you can compare these investments and decide which is best for you. Number four thing. Seek wise counsel. You're listening to me today. I'm going to encourage you work with a trusted financial advisor who understands your goals and understand your risk tolerance.
That's really important. And somebody that aligns with your values because we're not living in this vacuum. This is a faith based show. You want to find somebody that understands it.

Maybe you don't want to be investing in things that you consider to go against your values. And here's the big thing with that.
If you're going to find somebody to help you. My pro tip for today. Look for someone who will educate you. Someone who will spend the time to explain these things to you. You don't just want somebody to sell you products. That's a bad plan and I'm going to pick on the banks here for a second. My experience with banks is I'll have a client to go in there and the bank's looking to sell them a product. But that's not what you're looking for.

You're looking for a solution. So if you're going to find some way, make sure there's someone that will educate you and not just sell you products. Big picture thing. You want to diversify your portfolio. If you're getting to the point where you've got some more money to invest, you don't want to put all your eggs in one basket. A great rule of thumb.

Maybe put 50% in stocks, 30% in bonds and maybe 20% in high yield savings. That way you're not putting it all in one big bucket. Another thing. You got to do this. You got to pray about this. Pray over your financial decisions and trust God to guide you. You got to trust God with your finances. Remember like Proverbs 3, verses 5 and 6 say trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding. In all your ways, submit to Him and

He will make your path straight. So start with that. And then last but not least, number seven thing. I know I've given you a long list here, so you can check out the show notes if you forgot any of these. You got to keep a long-term perspective. Money is not going to grow overnight.

If it is, you're in the wrong investment, because you are taking so much risk by doing. If you have these get rich quick overnight schemes, run in the other direction. Because investments like stocks and real estate, they fluctuate in the short term. But generally if you look at charts and a lot of and you know, people will say to you, oh, look at this chart. It's grew from here to here. Over the longterm that's true. So you've got to stay focused on your goals. Don't be that person that's so fearful that you just can't make a decision. And remember this, Kevin, I'm speaking directly to you. There is no one size fits all strategy for investing. So, whether you choose the ladder CDs, maybe you're going to take the risk and do some bonds.

You're going to dive into one of those index funds. The key is to align your choices with your goals, your values, and God's principles for stewardship. But if you take small thoughtful steps, trust me, Kevin, you can overcome fear and build a financial future that honors God and provides for your needs.

So, let me give you three action steps to make a smart choice. Number one thing. Evaluate your goals. Ask yourself this simple question. What do I need this money for? If it's a short term goal, cashing in that CD. So I'm coming right back to your question, Kevin. If it's a short term goal, cashing in might be the best option.

If you've got a short-term goal then do that. If you've got a longer-term goal, you're willing to risk and take that longer-term view, then you can look at those other options that could yield better returns. Second thing. You got to research current rates. You need to know what's going on here because rates fluctuate. And some banks now are offering short term CDs that aren't great. Because they're seeing what's going on in the economy. So you need to understand what's out there in the market. Number three, consider alternatives. You know, we talked about these, the high yield savings accounts, those money market accounts, or even paying off high interest debt, which I didn't even talk, discuss today. So take, let me take 30 seconds and talk about that. One of the things you might want to consider while you're looking at rolling over to CD is if you know, I've had clients say to me this, you're going to crack up when I tell you this. They'll say, oh, Ralph, I got this great CD.

It's paying 7% interest. And I said, that's fantastic. I said, but don't you still have some credit card debt? Yeah. Yeah. I wont talk about that. Okay, but you're paying 14 or 18 or 22% on your credit cards and you're having a dance because you've all of a sudden put money into this CD that's paying a higher interest rate, so you're losing money.
So if you're in that same position before you do anything, Kevin, and you didn't mention that in your question today, Kevin, but if you've got any high interest debt, rather than rolling over that CD or investment, pay off your debt. And number four. And I always go back to this. Pray for wisdom. Listen. I don't know exactly where to turn here. I'm not sure what to do.

But don't just sit in the nest, you know, don't expect, well, God, just going to rain down upon you this great thing. You got to go find trusted financial advisors. Find somebody who shares your Christian values.

Now, I know we've covered a lot today, but I want to leave you with three reflection questions. You know, I always want to put these towards the end of the show so we can really think about what we've covered today. First one, ask yourself this question. What are my financial goals, and how does my CD fit into them? You know, are you looking for that
short-term safety? Are you looking for that longterm growth? Really simple. What are your financial goals, and how does my CD fit into them? Second question. And this is a tough one.

Am I letting fear hold me back from making a wise decision? Is that fear of not knowing what to expect, is that fear of making that wrong decision? I've said to people time and time again, sometimes you just have to make a decision. You know, being paralyzed with fear, it's holding you back.

Just make a decision, make a wise decision. You know, find those people to help you, surround yourself with education, surround yourself with people that can help you. And third reflection question for today. How can I trust God more fully in my financial planning? Because if you're living in that fear, my guess is you're not trusting God enough. And I'm not here to judge you.

Listen, these are tough discussions, tough decisions to make. But ask yourself, how can I trust God more fully in my financial planning decisions? So Kevin and anyone else facing this decision, I really hope today's episode has given you clarity and confidence.
I know I gave you a lot of stuff to ponder and to chew on, but remember. You can make a wise God honoring decision about your maturing CD. You can do this. And if this episode has helped you, share with someone who might need it, send them to askralph.com and say to them, Hey, I got a great show for you to listen to. And this is something new. If you'd like to support the show, I just set up with this.

You can head over to askralphpodcast.com/support. Again, that's askralphpodcast.com/support. We just started with a company it's called Buy Me a Coffee. Now this is not somebody who's going to deliver coffee to my office. Cause honestly I don't like coffee. But it's a virtual coffee. It's a way to support the show. You can throw a couple bucks our way. You can even, while you're there, you can buy the cup of coffee. It's a great way to keep this ministry. And I do really feel like what I'm doing daily is a ministry. And by supporting the show, you can keep it going and help others find financial freedom.

So again, that's at askralphpodcast.com/support. And I really appreciate if you would consider that. Now listen, and don't forget tomorrow's show. There's more to come tomorrow. Tomorrow, we're going to talk about this question. Home sweet home or is it? I'm going to give you the questions every first time buyers got to ask. And as I close today, remember, my passion is to help you achieve financial success.
I want to see you live out your dreams, and I want to see you grow in your faith. And I know together, we can master your finances from a Christian perspective. So stay financially savvy and may God bless you abundantly.

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