Kevin Freeman talks about money from a Christian viewpoint on Pirate Money Radio

Kevin Freeman: You know, for most of my life, I've been in the money business in one form or another. My dad was a stockbroker. He had me looking at investments in my teens. He even gave our family our allowance in the form of shares of stock. I've been a financial advisor in one form or another for 43 years and have worked with some great people like John Templeton. Today, we're going to talk about money from a Christian viewpoint. And joining me in the discussion is my favorite person on the planet, my wife of nearly three decades, the fabulous Marnie.

Marnie Freeman: Marnie, thank you. Thank you for having me back. I love doing the show with you. But hold on, before we get started, I want to congratulate you on.

Kevin Freeman: Okay.

Marnie Freeman: On the 100th episode.

Kevin Freeman: That's true. It's on the episode of Pirate Money Radio.

Marnie Freeman: Congratulations.

Kevin Freeman: Thank you.

Marnie Freeman: Good job.

Kevin Freeman: Thank you. We're almost 400 on economic war Room, but our foray into radio, we're just at 100. So thank you.

Marnie Freeman: Yeah, you're welcome.

Kevin Freeman: All right. Marnie, I'm so glad you're here. how often do you think about money?

Marnie Freeman: I actually think about it quite often because it's always running through my head, I need to do this, I need to pay for that. How can I earn some more here? What can I sell? My mind is busy.

Kevin Freeman: The average American, and by the way, I can attest her mind is busy. She's thinking all the time. Sometimes at three in the morning, she's

Marnie Freeman: thinking, well, you know, another thing I think of a lot is too. And that's correct. It doesn't slow down. And I think that's for most women. But my mind is always going to where I can give. Where can I give?

Kevin Freeman: That's, You know, we learned that from friends, Charlie and Fran Lewis. How to have a giving plan. A lot of people have an income plan. A lot of people have a savings plan or an investment plan. But, they said it's important for Christians to have a giving plan. That's a great point. You know, there's a new study that came out from Empower that shows the average American spends four hours per day thinking about money.

Marnie Freeman: That's a lot. Okay, I don't think four hours about it, but that's a lot of time.

Kevin Freeman: Look@investopedia, ah.com. it says Americans spend an incredible amount of time thinking about money every day. You won't believe the numbers More than half of Americans said they think about paying bills and rising prices every day, making these the two most consuming financial worries in people's minds. Americans think about finances for about four hours every day, survey shows.

Marnie Freeman: When you're trying to make ends meet. Absolutely, yes.

Kevin Freeman: and we live in, you know, the Chinese curse. May you live in interesting times financially. We certainly live in interesting times, don't we?

Marnie Freeman: This is beyond interesting. I mean, we're seeing. Yes.

Kevin Freeman: Yeah. So Jesus taught us to think about money in many ways. I believe he uses money as a test to see what we truly love. And the two key one, money is a useful tool. I can attest to that. Every one of you listening, you know, money is useful. but number two, the love of money is a root of all sorts of evil.

Marnie Freeman: It doesn't say money is evil. It says the love of, just to clarify.

Kevin Freeman: And it doesn't say it's the root of all evil. Right, all sorts of evil.

Marnie Freeman: All sorts of evil.

Kevin Freeman: That's right. So don't love it. John Wesley, the great theologian, gave a great sermon on money. Here's what he said. He said, make all you can. that's good advice. Save all you can and give all you can.

Marnie Freeman: Give. Give all you can.

Kevin Freeman: That's right. That was your third point. Think about giving. Can it really be that simple, you think, make all you can. Save all you can, Give all you can.

Marnie Freeman: I think it can be that simple.

Kevin Freeman: That's the way you should think about it. So to better understand this, if people are thinking four hours a day on money, they're thinking about making all they can, saving all they can, giving all they can. Actually, I think they're probably thinking about worries. How do I pay my bills? what? You know this thing is going to come up.

Marnie Freeman: That's right.

Marnie welcomes Mark Manella to Pirate Money Radio

Kevin Freeman: All right. To dive deeper, Marnie, let's invite our friend Mark Manella from Financial Sense. We saw him recently at nrb. he's from Financial Issues. He's the host of Financial Issues, the lead analyst. he serves the host of Financial Issues, and Stewardship Ministries. Financial Issues, Stewardship Ministries. F I S M as the primary on air voice and a guiding hand behind the ministry's investment strategy, Mark helps believers navigate today's financial markets with clarity, discipline, and biblical conviction. With more than 35 years experience in investing and financial leadership, I've got him beat. maybe this is an old bio. Mark is widely recognized as a pioneer in biblically responsible investing bra. His work has consistently focused on helping individuals align their financial Decisions with their faith without sacrificing prudence, diligence, or long term perspective. Welcome, Mark, to Pirate Money Radio.

Kevan Freeman: Honored to be here. Kevan. Thank you so much and good to meet you, Marnie.

Marnie Freeman: Nice to meet you.

Kevin Freeman: You know, we saw you briefly at nrb, which was a fabulous, time that we had in Nashville, and you were there both, learning and sharing, I'm sure. Were you speaking at NRB this year?

Kevan Freeman: No, I was not speaking. I had a bunch of interviews, people wanting to interview me, regarding faith and finance, regarding how to utilize money in a way that honors God and, and I was very blessed by being able to do that as well as we, financial issues in general. We usually participate there, but this year we didn't for some reason. I don't know why. Next year obviously we'll be having our booth and maybe we'll be speaking next year.

Kevin Freeman: Oh, I think you should, we should pass that along to our friend Troy. But do you think the average American thinks four hours a day about God?

Kevan Freeman: Wow, that's an excellent question. Because when you talk about thinking about money for four hours, you know, I don't know if the average American does. Let's narrow the field down a little bit to how about the average Christian? Do you even think the average Christian does? Would be the question. we're supposed to pray without ceasing, which means being conscious of or aware awake that of God's presence in and of us all day long. But I wouldn't think the average, even Christian thinks about God four hours a day. Maybe that's why, maybe that's why God spoke so much about money in the Bible. You know, talking about money and possessions more than he talked about hell itself. So maybe he knew that our obsessions, our fears, our greed, all that would be so embedded in us that he needed to talk about that so we could refocus on the sources of everything good, which of course is our Father in heaven.

Kevin Freeman: you know, I think two things come from this morning. One of them is, you remember Phil Robertson's response when I went in to visit?

Marnie Freeman: Yes. Can I do it?

Kevin Freeman: Yeah.

Marnie Freeman: Economics, Economics. No, no, nothing about economics.

Kevin Freeman: There was a man named Phil Robertson who cared so much about God he didn't want to talk about money when we walk in. And economics is a study, the reason Christians have a problem with it. Economics is a study of, how to allocate scarce resources. But in a biblical sense, in the kingdom of God, there's no scarcity of resources. Ultimately, and it's a matter of do you put your trust in God or money?

Marnie Freeman: Right. But it's all opposite. God's kingdom is opposite in every direction, in every system we've created. It's a flip.

Kevan Freeman: MARNA M. Yeah. It's just like a mirror, isn't it? This side and that side, when you look in the mirror, that's God. And it's almost totally reversed. You know, he tells us not to worry, not to be concerned. He tells us that he loves us more than the birds of the field. And he feeds 50,000 birds every every day. Don't you think he'll take care of us? Who he cares more about, even more? We're supposed to be focusing on God's stuff. And, now, granted, he created everything, so even the physics of money are his. So he's helping us with that, though, by, speaking about it so much in the Bible. He helps us to realign our thoughts. I love that verse that says, do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. And in His Word, he talks about finance so much because he knows we need to renew our mind, to be focused on him and not worry about it. Not let the worries of the world come in. Not let the, deceit and the greed and the fear and all the things that are from the world come in. We need to focus on him and realize he saved us onto great works, which he laid down before the foundations of the earth. And if we just walk in those great works, no matter where we're at financially, whether it's in wealth or poverty, we're in the perfect place because we're walking hand in hand with our Father, and He knows exactly where we need to be.

Kevin Freeman: You know, that is so true. We think America is probably too obsessed with money. That's the problem. But I was reading in the Book of James recently, where James is telling the wealthy people among the Christians in the congregation, he says, you rich people, your riches should rot with you. Why? Because you withheld the wages from those who have mowed your fields. Well, why would they withhold wages? Because they had more trust and faith in the money. And they were worried that God couldn't provide for them, and so they were withholding. And he says, you know, don't do that. And you go all the way back to the Old Testament. Moses was saying, hey, you pay your laborers overnight. God cares how we handle our money. It's very important to him.

Marnie Freeman: Well, he created it.

Kevin Freeman: He created the money.

Marnie Freeman: That's Right.

Kevin Freeman: And what is the money, Marnie, in the Bible? Gold and silver.

Marnie Freeman: Silver. A little bit of copper.

Kevin Freeman: That's right. Gold, silver and copper. Just like the Olympic medals. We just had the Olympics. Gold, silver and copper. So, Mark, you work on something called biblically responsible investing. Be all right, I want to talk about that.

Pirate Money Radio explains three ways to use your money

But before the break, I want to talk about the three things you can do with your money. You can give it, you can spend it, or you can invest it. And at Pirate Money Radio, we work to explain solutions that support all three areas in a way that promotes liberty, security and values. Patriot Mobile, it's a mobile phone company. They support the Pirate Money radio program. Patriot Mobile uses US carriers, including AT&T, Verizon and T Mobile. It operates on both Apple and Android phones. More information about the economic war room. And Patriot Mobile is [email protected]. that's PirateMoneyRadio.com afr All right, we're going to have to take a break, but, Mark, when we come back, I want you to explain what BRI means. What does God want us to be faithful with our unrighteous Mammon, like Luke 16:11? What does that mean? What does it mean with your investing? What does it mean with your spending? Giving spending and investing? The three things you can do with it. So we will be right back with Mark Pinnell from Financial Sense talking about biblically responsible investing. We'll be right back.

Kevin Freeman: Biblically responsible investing is a biblical idea

Mike Carter: Welcome back to Pirate Money Radio with

Kevin Freeman: your host, Kevan Freeman, joined by the lovely Marnie Freeman. You look fabulous today. You always do. So glad to have you here. But, Marnie, you know, people come, they'll call at all hours, it seems like, and they'll have money questions and they'll be asking, because they know I've worked in the financial field all the time. and we have as our guest today a true expert from Financial Sense, Mark Manella. And he is sharing with us about bri. Mark, what is bri?

Kevan Freeman: Well, it stands for Biblical Responsible Investing. Pretty clear and pretty to the point. Originally, we used to call it values investing or moral investing. We had all sorts of names, but a lot of questions came out of that. For example, whose morals, whose values? And it's like, okay, yeah, we need to get this straightened out. So we adapted the term biblically responsible investment because the Bible has the answers to everything. And it'll define what that means. And what it really means is we have this thing called stewardship. It's how we live out the truth of our salvation. It's how we live out, realizing that we are saved by God and we are now his, and everything is His. And what we do with ourselves and everything either glorifies or rebels against God. So that includes what we do with our money, how we utilize it, and the froth of the money that God has entrusted to us and is what we invest. That's money we don't need for today. It's money we don't need for the immediacy. So that froth, we take that and we invest. And as a believer, everything we do should be to utilize God's resources for God's purposes, to his glory. That means if we have money, how we spend it should glorify Him. How we earn it should glorify him when it comes to money, the stewardship of money, which is a big slice of the stewardship pie. And when it comes to investing, we should honor him as well. We should utilize it in a way that glorifies Him. well, if we're invested in a company, let's say this company is involved in the abortion industry, we are actually becoming a partner in that company. Our ownership, when we buy into a stock, we become a partner. And as a partner, we're now participating in. In that abortion company. And most believers I know do not want to do that. Well, it goes much deeper than that. We might be investing in a, baby food company, but that company may be given money to Planned Parenthood or backing sexual immorality somehow, giving money to LGBTQ or something that offends, God or aches his heart. So when we invest in those things, we are compromising our relationship with God with the froth, the money we don't even need, when we could be utilizing it to glorify him by only investing in those things that don't compromise God's tenets of love, or at least are neutral on it, you know?

Kevin Freeman: Well, you know, investing is a biblically sponsored idea. You go to the parable of the talents they were literally investing, and God wants a return on his money. That's a part of stewardship. So if you have extra, God expects you to get a good return. But Marnie and I were just at Charis College in Woodland, Park, Colorado, and, you know, throughout Colorado, they've legalized marijuana. They're talking about legalizing prostitution, which is scary. but the notion is, is. Is, you know, would you want to be partner in either of those things?

Marnie Freeman: No. And I think a lot of times it's hidden, too, in, in within those companies. What they're investing in. So I think for, for Mark, he ferrets that out for his clients.

Kevin Freeman: Yeah, you need advisors to help you understand that, that, that really is important. And you know we have that mutual.

We're going to talk about art Ally's 25th anniversary celebration

I want to talk about art Allie, some Art Alley stories. Marnie, I want you to share and commiserate with you know, on here because I think Mark, you, you, you and Marnie both have had lots of experience with art Allie, you were at his, at his big party that he had there and at the Gaylord, I think it was in Orlando. Were you there, Mark?

Kevan Freeman: Oh, absolutely. This 25th year celebration. Yeah, I was on the original board of directors of the Timothy Plan mutual fund. Art and I go way back and pioneering the whole idea of investing with biblical integr integrity. We're good friends. In fact, I was just down there with him yesterday and the day before, broadcasting from the Timothy Plan studios. A, good man, a good friend and I just, I just love his heart for the Lord and honoring him.

Kevin Freeman: Well, everything, we're talking money here, but we're going to make it fun. In this next segment. We're 30 seconds away from a break, but we're going to talk some Art Alley stories because that's the best part of his 25th celebration. Mike Carter, the other co host of Pirate Money Radio and I were there and everybody got to tell some Art Allie stories and I got to be one of the keynote speakers of that. It's just a phenomenal thing. All right, well, we're talking money, we're talking financial sense and we're talking the Bible at Pirate Money Radio. Alright, we're going to cover this and more when we come m back right after this break.

Mike Carter: Pirate Money Radio helping you give, spend and invest in ways that align with liberty, security and values.

Kevin Freeman: I worked for John Templeton for 10 years

Welcome back with your host Kevan Freeman.

Kevin Freeman: And you know what I want to share. I went to work for John Templeton. He was a pioneer in global investing. And I worked 10 years in my career with John Templeton. He's a great man, truly great man. And I've also had the opportunity to get to know and work with Art Alley of the Timothy Plan. And he's a pioneer as well. Timothy Plan is like, Templeton was among the very first global investment funds that exist in the world. And Timothy Plan is among the very first biblically responsible investing funds. And on the board of Timothy Plan, is our guest today, Mark Minnelli who was on the early board, and he works very closely with Art in Helping pioneer this whole.

Art Alley opened his home to us when our daughter needed medical treatment

Bri and Marnie, I know you know Art Alley.

Marnie Freeman: Oh yes.

Kevin Freeman: And you've known him for years.

Marnie Freeman: Years.

Kevin Freeman: But he was generous and shared with you. And our daughter needed some medical treatments in Orlando. Tell your Art Allie story.

Marnie Freeman: Now. This is a great way of giving and Art has such a great heart. So we had to seek medical treatment for our daughter. And it was going to be two full weeks, eight hour days of treatment. And he opened up his home for us in Orlando. In Orlando. And we stayed with him. He got us a rental car. He did everything he could to help her succeed in her medical treatments. And it was truly astonishing. Now the other hand is he's such. He is hilarious. He picks on people and loves people and he's a joker. And when I stayed there, I was going through his fridge trying to find something to eat.

Kevin Freeman: This was before he married Marilyn. So we won't blame her for this.

Marnie Freeman: No, absolutely not. She would have had none of this. So I was going through his refrigerator, like I just wanted something to drink or whatever. And I'm finding stuff that's expired from like 2015. I am not kidding you, 2015. So I went through all of his cabinets, all of his cupboards, all of his refrigerator and dumped trash bags full of food.

Kevin Freeman: And to this day he says, don't let m. Let your wife come near my stuff. She threw away all this good food. I said hard. It was expired 10 years.

Kevan Freeman: Yeah, yeah.

Marnie Freeman: Oh my gosh.

Kevan Freeman: What he didn't tell you is probably hiding his gold in those things.

Marnie Freeman: Okay, this is, this is a good piece of information to have.

Kevin Freeman: You would have noticed gold is heavy. You would have noticed.

Marnie Freeman: Well, I appreciate him and Mark for what they're doing for Bri because I mean it's still fairly somewhat new on really purposing to invest for God's things, for his glory. Like Mark said. Mark, I like your mantra of, defund darkness and fund light.

Kevan Freeman: Defund the darkness? Yes, and fund the light. The whole idea is that as ah, stewards of God, we can utilize the resources he has entrusted to us and we can utilize them in the way that affects our society in a positive way, a godly way. We can use it. It whether we're conduits of that or even how we invest because a lot of people don't know our society is directed by large corporations. There's the ones who decide what movies get made, what commercials get played. M what are they going to emphasize in these TV shows? And so if you follow the money to the top Our society has been destroyed by DEI and all sorts of ugliness that has come in. And, that's because these corporations are forcing that, to happen. Well, if you stop investing in those corporations and start investing in ones that honor God and honor life and honor God, people. Honor people. Then all of a sudden corporations will wake up as money is being removed from their coffers and from their influence and going into godly things. And we'll start seeing our society change as well. We actually can impact society by the way we invest. We can do so without compromising our values and, or our returns.

Kevin Freeman: You know, I want to echo what you just said because BlackRock and Larry Fink, a few years ago, Larry Fink is.

Kevan Freeman: I didn't know you could use that kind of language on the radio.

Kevin Freeman: A few years ago, Larry Fink shows up at one of the CEO summit type things and it's. It was on cnbc and he flat out said, going to take the money people have invested in the BlackRock funds and we're going to use it to force DEI. And one of the applications was they actually had the NASDAQ telling corporations, you have to have so many people from all different backgrounds. And the corporation said, well, we want the most qualified person. We don't care if they're black, white, we don't care if male, female. We want the most qualified. Nope, we won't invest in you unless you conform to dei. And he got NASDAQ to pass a rule that you had to have so many minorities and so forth. Now that's been thrown out, out recently, but that's what we're talking about here. You either have to conform, you have to be pro abortion, you have to be pro, you know, pro environment and so many different things. It may not line up with your values. We're talking with Mark Manella, Financial Sense. When we come back, we're going to dive into how you align your money with your values when you're investing. We'll be right back.

Kevin Freeman talks with Mark Manella about investing in gold

Mike Carter: Welcome to Pirate Money Radio with your host, Kevan Freeman, helping you unpack the economic headlines and providing real money solutions.

Kevin Freeman: Yeah, And I'm here with Marnie, my best friend. You look lovely today, Miss Marnie. All right, we're talking with Mark Manella and we're talking about financial issues. Do you have any financial issues you want to ask questions of him?

Marnie Freeman: I have lots of financial issues. Depends on the day of the week.

Kevin Freeman: Yeah, we've got daughters and they're talking weddings. So that creates all sorts of financial issues.

Marnie Freeman: Okay. We might need help with that, Mark.

Kevan Freeman: You know, they used to say that the house was the biggest investment you'd ever make is in your home. But, I only had one daughter, two boys, and I think the biggest investment I ever had to make was in my daughter's wedding.

Kevin Freeman: We're just now closing out on college, right? Just going to pay off all of those student loans and just get finished with that, close that out. And, Hey, dad. And then the young men have come to me and talked to me and it's like, oh, I just want to talk to you, Mr. Freeman. Can we talk? You know, Wow. I was on the other side of that talking to your dad. I remember that well, it's a lot.

Marnie Freeman: It's a lot.

Kevan Freeman: It is. But this too will pass. Embrace it, Enjoy it. in my daughter's wedding, one of the things she wanted to do is have a videographer and do a pretty wedding video and during the wedding and post, you know, and put this all together into this 15 minute video. And I mean, the pricing was silly and I thought, you know, I'm not that kind of guy. I said, you know, I love you, but you'll have to take care of this on your own. And then my wife overrode me, but the video got done. And my daughter gives me this really nice box. I open up, it's got the, the DVR in. I put it in my, you know, and watch it. And I sat there, sat there and wept all the way through it. You know, don't skimp on this. This moment is a huge moment, is what I'm trying to say.

Kevin Freeman: When you have a TV show and a TV studio and you've got crew that does this, it's guaranteed. Mrs. Freeman's already overridden any thought that I had. It's going to be film start to finish. It's going to be a professional shoot, multi camera shoot with the best sound and everything because that's what comes with having the studio. And that will be at, personal expense because my partners are going to say, well, you know, you're going to. But nevertheless, I know it'll be done right.

Marnie Freeman: Oh, yes.

Kevin Freeman: And so I need your help, Mark. Where do I, how do I invest that I can pay for this?

Kevan Freeman: Well, if you, if you had invested in gold, which I'm sure you have been based on, your book pirate Money, and how much you're doing to make gold a legal tender here in the United States, my guess is you have invested. You saw some great returns in the last year.

Kevin Freeman: Yeah, I don't actually consider those investments. John Templeton taught me this early on. Investments are things that are productive. You can invest in land because it can produce food. You can put buildings on it. You can invest in stocks and bonds. I've always viewed gold and silver as money, and they've gone up a lot recently. But in my mind, over the last hundred years, what that really means is that the dollar has gone down in purchasing power from inflation, and that's what people are worried about. All right. Support for this program comes from Glint. It's a financial technology service offering a debit card and mobile app that enables users to access their gold holdings for everyday purchases. In other words, treating them like money. With Glint, users maintain ownership of allocated physical gold, which is stored in a managed vault. At the time of a transaction, gold is sold in real time to cover the purchase amount in local currency. Glint offers an alternative way to store and use the value. Combining gold and silver with modern payment infrastructure, Glint clients can monitor their gold balance, view transaction history, and manage their account through the Glint app, available on major mobile platforms. More details about how vaulted physical gold can be used as money are [email protected] Gold247 Again, that's glintpay.com Gold247 Glint providing access to gold for modern spending. Now, my hope is, as you point out, Mark, my hope is that the price of gold is kept up with the cost of weddings because those have gone dramatically higher, too.

Do people need financial advisors? What do you think

But let's talk about investing. Do people need financial advisors? What do you think?

Kevan Freeman: You know, some might, but the majority don't. And I know, Kevan, that, that sounds really weird. I own an investment advisory service for over, 30 years. It was one of the first registered investment advisories to invest only with biblical integrity, launched in 2000. I sold it a couple of years ago so that I could, do what I believe God called me to do, kind of like you're doing now, and, and be able to speak the truth about God and money. And what I really believe is most people can manage their investments, can manage their financial planning themselves. There's enough information out there. What we do at Financial Issues is we help them to do that. We do the deep dive research, we do the analysis for our partners, for our listeners. We go through all this kind of thing. We show them how to, how to set up a portfolio, how to do the asset allocation, how to redeem, when to redeem, how to look at different stocks we teach all that on our live broadcast Monday through Friday from 9 to 10am Eastern Time.

Kevin Freeman: Financial issues and where do people find that? And number one, and number two, the second question I have is, okay, if I'm on my own, how do I find out if Procter and Gamble is a good company or a bad company? How do I understand if they're doing good, biblical, responsible things or if they're doing, you know, things that are threats to my values? So first question, how do people follow you? Where do they find it? And second question is, how do I do that without advice?

Kevan Freeman: Well, like I said, Monday through Friday, from 9 to 10am Eastern Time, you could log into financialissues.org watch us live, or you could pick us up on any of the 500 or plus radio and television stations that are airing us any time of the day. After that, that show will be repeated. Of course, it's on all the social media as well. Facebook, you can go out, you can watch us live from there. You could, you could see it on anywhere social media.

Kevin Freeman: But the main website is financialissues.org that's the best place to go to find it.

Kevan Freeman: Absolutely. And on that site you'll find resources, you'll find educational videos. You can join in the live show, actually in our chat room there. And we're always keeping up with that. So there's a lot you can do. Financialissues.org is the first place to go. Sign up for a free newsletter which comes out weekly. You also can become a partner there if you want to. But we do the screening, but we use evaluator services as our primary screening service. The reason for that is I've been involved in this since the beginning and I've seen screening services come and go. And some of them are very shallow and some of them are very weak. Some only cover some of the issues. Evaluator services, what they do is they go deep and they go wide and they keep the facts. And they don't just ding somebody because there's a rumor that they did this or did that. They go and they find the facts. Otherwise you'd be like some of the other services that are just reading stuff on Internet and thinking they're ugly when they really weren't. It was just somebody accusing them and things like that. So we do it for you. Any of our recommendations on buys or holds on stocks or mutual funds, they're already cleared for you through us along with, we use a, system I call FTB Analysis. That's fundamentals, technical and biblical. We do the fundamental analysis, we do the technical analysis, and we do the biblical responsible investing screening. All for those who watch or participate in the show.

Marnie Freeman: That's really helpful. I love, just perusing your website, I love the topics you discuss, which is all, it's very broad. But then you dive deep in each topic, like politics, government tariffs, those type of things that can affect, their investments.

Kevin Freeman: Yeah, no, I think those are really important because people don't realize we have a bombing of Iran and the supreme leader of Iran gets killed. Does that impact your investments? Absolutely. In the short term. In the long run, does it. These are big questions. Does it change? And if you're not prepared to move, you could have a biblically responsible buggy whip company which would have been perfect to invest in for Biblically Responsible, but maybe not the best return for your investment. So you need a combination of those things. It sounds like you do that. So what do you think? Do you think people are better off with, ETFs or mutual funds or picking individual stocks? What are your thoughts on that?

Kevan Freeman: I think all the above are good choices depending on who you are and the size of your portfolio and what you're trying to do. ETFs obviously are exchange traded funds which are like mutual funds and they're a basket of goods or companies like a mutual fund. So they give you good diversification. I like ETFs a little bit more than mutual funds in the sense that you, you can buy and sell them on the spot. They're traded like a stock where a mutual fund, you have to wait till the end of day before it actually executes. I do like individual stocks as well, and bonds. so I think a combination makes a lot of sense on, financial issues. We actually do two different asset allocation models for different risk classes. One is we call our fund model which uses ETFs, mutual fund primarily. The other is called an all asset which uses everything, including individual stocks, bonds, REITs, alternatives, things like precious metal, gold, silver.

Kevin Freeman: All right, we're talking financial issues with Mark Manella and we're talking about basically how do you invest? How do you see that American dream? How are you being a good steward with God's money? What are you doing with it, Mark? When we come back, I want to talk about economic justice, about young people and a future that they can have in the American dream. Is capitalism a dirty word? We'll find out right after this break. We'll be right back.

Mark Manella: Young people in New York are embracing socialism

Mike Carter: Welcome back to Pirate Money. Radio with your host Kevan Freeman.

Kevin Freeman: Marnie and I are talking with Mark Manella from Financial Issues and we're talking about. Right before the break, I posed some rapid fire questions. Let's talk economic justice. Is there an on ramp to the American dream for young people? Why is capitalism a dirty word these days? Why are they embracing socialism?

Kevan Freeman: Mark?

Kevin Freeman: you know, it seems like America is the land of opportunity. But a lot of young people, especially in NewSong York, voted for, literally, I have to say it, I think he's a communist. I think he's a communist, he's an Islamist, so he's not a biblical responsible guy. And he's a globalist. He doesn't believe in the nation state or individual liberty or the American dream or any of that. So what are your thoughts when you see, Zoram Mamdani, elected mayor of NewSong York?

Kevan Freeman: It saddens my heart, especially for the younger people. They have been, they have been lied to, they've been manipulated. They've seen all these radio and television programs, entertainment programs that lift up socialism, lift up communism. And you know, that's just so sad because they don't tell the truth at all. They don't show the poverty, they don't show the hopelessness that's in there. You know, God created us to be productive. He created us to work. Before even sin entered the world, we were tending to the garden. He gave us work. We feel God's peace and joy by our accomplishment, in our ability to, the closer we get to our potential, the more we feel his joy. So I think that they've been misled, they've been manipulated. But also I think it is just the general sin, the laziness and the, you know, everybody thinks everything's owed to him these days because of the propaganda and the brainwashing that's gone on in our colleges and through our media. So it's very, very sad. The reality is, you don't feel peace, you don't feel joy, you don't feel any of that when you don't do anything. In fact, if you go to a socialist country, they have no hope. Even if they're being fed, even if they have shelter, even if everything's there. They don't have the hope and the joy that you have. Like you have under capitalism, under Christianity, under a godly capitalism, you don't have that hope and joy. In a society where you don't feel the productivity, you're non productive, you're being paid not to be productive. You know, that Makes you unproductive and makes you feel useless. There's no hope there. But when you have the ability to actually create and grow and help others, you start feeling the joy of what it means to be a steward. And that's the key, you know, and

Kevin Freeman: that is the key. But it's not just because you said we use the term godless communist. but there were godly communists that tried this. Marnie, do you remember, what happened with the Plymouth Colony and Governor Bradford?

Marnie Freeman: Governor Bradford, yes, exactly. I mean, it worked. well, the theory of it works. Socialism, communism, all the. The theory of it works. But when only a few worked and others got to partake of the labor, the fruit of the labor, they didn't work. So people just started not working.

Kevin Freeman: Yep. The young people said, why am I having to pay for this other guy over here who's older than I am and not producing as much? But they shared everything in common and they had a good intention. Ronald Reagan says that communism only works two places. In heaven where it's not needed, in hell where it's absolutely the law of the land. that's what creates Hel. But, but the idea of the Plymouth Colony was they thought we'll just share everything in common. And they were good godly people. It didn't work for them. How much worse is it going to be with ungodly people.

Marnie Freeman: That's right.

Kevan Freeman: Who have no hope whatsoever in eternal life or the power of God in their life, or his. His promises for them. So why should I work hard? And you know, all you do is fear every day. And it's like, well, that guy's not. It all comes down to the least common denominator. Everybody's going to do the absolute least they can do. And then when something goes wrong, society, they starve to death is what happens.

Mark Minnella: Anyone can find success in America

Kevin Freeman: All right, so young people are on an on ramp to not the American dream, but literally to a, hellish system if they're pursuing communism. But can you tell, can young people still succeed today because it's so unaffordable? And tell me, if people start saving and investing at a young age, can they find success in America? Mark?

Kevan Freeman: absolutely. Absolutely. Anyone can find success in America. That's what's so great about our country is this country was given to us by God. He decided there would be a United States of America. Our Constitution. Is it what was written out of God? I mean, I really believe that this nation offers the ability for everyone to succeed if they try, if they focus properly and they give their Best to what God has enabled them to do.

Kevin Freeman: All right, there's threats to America. They're rising. We're going to be talking about the threats to America and how we overcome them with biblical principles. And we're talking with Mark Minnella. We'll be right back after this break.

Mike Carter: Pirate Money Radio. Helping you give, spend and invest in ways that align with liberty, security and values. Welcome back with your host, Kevan Freeman.

Kevin Freeman: And I'm joined by Marnie Freeman and Mark Manella. And, Marnie, we were just talking before the break about, the biggest threats to America. I wonder if Art Allie views you as one of the biggest threats to his fortune.

Marnie Freeman: I'm one of the biggest threats to his refrigerator and cupboards for sure. But now, since Mark said he might be holding gold in there, I might need to go re clean out the refrigerator.

Kevin Freeman: Are you sure you didn't throw out in one of those trash bags that,

Marnie Freeman: I mean, I looked.

Kevin Freeman: You know, maybe it's hidden in inside one of those expired food things. People hold things like secret things in cans of Campbell soup. They're fake cans. Maybe he had something in that expired food.

Marnie Freeman: He said the little things of Bitcoin.

Kevin Freeman: A flash. I don't see Art Alley from Timothy owning Bitcoin.

Marnie Freeman: I do not.

Kevan Freeman: But.

Mark: Without a doubt, it's our debt, the deficit spending

Kevin Freeman: All right, so we were talking about threats, Mark, what do you see the biggest threats to the future of America?

Kevan Freeman: Oh, absolutely. Without a doubt, it's our debt, the national debt and the deficit spending. Those two things. I know people say, well, what about China? What about, inflation? What about. Well, inflation will be one of the characteristics that happen if we don't get our debt under control. We are like 30 foot from the edge of the waterfall right now with our debt at $38 trillion. If we don't get this under control, it will get to the point to where we'll have to start printing money left and right. That'll cause inflation. We'll lose our standing in the world as a world currency. We'll lose, the respect of every country. People will start selling off our bonds, won't buy our bonds, so we won't be able to finance our debt. So we'll have inflation hyperinflation. We'll see our economy crash. We need to get our debt under control. That is the number one risk. And granted, I really believe this administration is working towards that. I've seen the deficit coming down, actually, for people who are willing to look at the real numbers, not just what you're told on main media or mainstream media, but look at the real numbers. The deficit is coming down, but it needs to do more than come down. It has to get down to zero, and we need to reduce the debt. I believe our president and his administration are working hard to get that done. They had a year to get all the infrastructure in place, and now they're going forward, making sure that they're able to do this step by step.

Kevin Freeman: All right, I'm going to agree with you that that is the number one. But I'm going to share with you what I believe. I believe that there are four horsemen of the American Apocalypse. It's in my new book that will be out soon. I hope. communism, the red horse, Islam, the green horse, Globalism, the blue horse, and traders, cowards and fools, the yellow horse. And it's interesting. I have six trials by fire. Number one trial is our national debt. But I want to point out to you that all of those four horsemen were unleashed when we left sound money, when Nixon took us off the gold standard. So now we have a $40 trillion debt that leads to a tax on our currency from the red, the green, the blue, and the yellow, which is the second thing, is a tax on our currency. Then people say, well, our solution is central bank digital currency. That's the third trial by fire. The fourth trial by fire is that is creating a wealth gap. So the rich get richer, the poor get poorer. It's harder for people to keep their head above water. Which leads to the fifth trial by fire, which is demographics. So young people say, well, you know what? I can't get married at age 20. I have to wait until age 30. 100 years ago, young people got married at age 20. Today they get married. 29.6 is, the average age of marriage for a woman, and she'll wait 3.3 years before she'll have a baby. The net result, you know, 126 years ago, she would get married at age 20 and have a baby within a year and have six total kids. We've created a demographic problem. We're not reproducing ourselves. 1.6 is the average birth rate, which leads to the sixth trial by fire, which is mass immigration of people who don't share our values. All of those come. Mark, you're exactly right. They come from the national debt. That's where it started. And all of that got unleashed when we left sound money. So we're going to have to wrap up. We've got less than a minute. tell us again how people can follow financial issues and where they can learn ways that they can invest so that they can overcome the inflation problem and stay keep their heads above water. Where do they find you, Mark?

Kevan Freeman: join us every morning, every weekday morning from 9 to 10am Eastern time on financialissues.org financialissues.org or you can look it up, see if we're in a local TV or radio. We're on over 500 different radio and television stations, almost 600 now, so you can catch us there. And there's repeats obviously, throughout all social media. You can watch, you can run stream us and.

Kevin Freeman: All right, that wraps up Pirate Money Radio this week. Unless you're following us on AFR or one of our podcasts. In that case, you need to stay tuned. We've got one more segment if you're on AFR with the great Mark Minela.

Mark Manella says President Trump is making wise decisions on financial issues

Mike Carter: Welcome back to Pirate Money Radio with your host, Kevan Freeman.

Kevin Freeman: Yeah, I'm joined by Marnie and we're talking Mark Manella financial issues and we're talking about there's some big challenges. One of the challenges you mentioned right before the break was this huge national debt and that we're so many feet away from going over the waterfall, and it's a little bit scary, but you don't seem to be a person without hope. What gives you hope, Mark?

Kevan Freeman: Oh, no, I do have hope. First of all, my hope is in Lord. I, know our God. Yes, I've read the book and I know it's going to get worse over and over. But right now we have the hope in the Lord and he does say he cares for us. He promises these things so we can hope in the Lord and we can go forward. But there are things like right now, now when I see what's going on with this administration, how they are actually lowering costs. You mentioned affordability. You know, I did a quick real look here. Did you know that used cars and trucks since the peak in the Biden years are down 25%. Shipping freight is down to 80, down 85%. Lumber's down 60 to 70%. Gasoline's down 35 to 45%. Heating oil's down 30 to 40%. Even apparel is down 5 to 10%. We're seeing all this stuff being pulled back to being affordable. Now, granted, inflation, when the dollar drops in its value, things are going to cost more until the economy can pick up and get more products out there so that we don't have as many dollars chasing it as, you know, that's

Kevin Freeman: called the Cantillon Effect. I don't know if you studied this. But Richard Cantelon, Irish, French economist in, during the, 18th century, was writing about how, when you produce a lot of money, the people close to the King, they profit from it, but further away, they suffer from the inflation caused by it. And I think Biden was acting like King or his administration. I don't know if he was mentally all there, but he was acting like King. And the net result is his buddies seem to make out and the rest of Americans seem to suffer. And what you're saying is you think that President Trump is making some wise decisions with some of these financial. I hope Doge steps up and guts the bureaucracy, because we're spending way too much money, have so much waste, fraud, and abuse.

Kevan Freeman: You're doing a good job so far.

Kevin Freeman: Go ahead, Mauri.

Marnie Freeman: That's right. I say unleash people to be creative, to be able to spend, buy, sell, create, do the things that they need to do that God has called them to do.

Kevin Freeman: You know, that's what President Reagan. When I met President Reagan, I said, thank you for what you did for our economy. He said, all I did was get government. Pardon me, audience, but he said, get government the hell out of the way, so you good people could build an economy.

Marnie Freeman: Yeah.

Kevin Freeman: Wow.

Kevan Freeman: And that's perfect. That's exactly it. And they're doing that, too. We're seeing all the regulations being reviewed and many of them just going by the wayside now, left and right, thousands upon thousands of regulations that have kept people from being able to be productive, to be. To be created, to create new companies and to create new businesses.

Kevin and Marnie Freeman: Pray for America

Kevin Freeman: Okay, give us one scripture that to share with our audience that we'll have to wrap up.

Kevan Freeman: Matthew 10:16. Therefore, behold, I send you forth as sheep among wolves. Therefore be wise as a serpent, gentle as a dove. Being wise as a serpent means having the knowledge of how the world works. And gentle as a dove means applying that in a godly way that blesses God and blesses others.

Kevin Freeman: All right? So pray for America. Pray for the return to God's principles. Listen wherever you get your podcast. It's Kevan and Marnie Freeman, joined by Mark Minnella for Pirate Money Radio.

Money shapes daily choices—learn how to align earning, saving, spending, and giving with a Christian worldview without sacrificing discipline or returns. Kevin and Marnie Freeman mark the 100th show by exploring stewardship, generosity, and practical strategies to think less about worry and more about purpose. Guest Mark Minnella unpacks biblically responsible investing, screening companies for life- and values-affirming practices, and building portfolios using ETFs, stocks, bonds, and precious metals. Get clear, actionable guidance to fund the light, avoid compromise, and pursue the American Dream with integrity.