Hi Friends,
This is a post I’ve always wanted to write but wasn’t sure how exactly to go about it. In my other life, I briefly blogged about personal finance and worked as a financial lawyer. Knowing this, you may agree that money is a topic I understand.
But it goes beyond this, as a woman (especially as a Christian woman), I have realized that talking about money can be difficult. This includes sharing my money wins and struggles.
In some ways, it may seem like you’re boasting when it’s good or a failure when it’s bad.
For instance, in the last few weeks, it has been particularly hard to control my spending. I was not proud of this but had to accept that it was happening and find out what I could do about it.
This meant going back to the drawing board, back to the basics of money management but with the added benefit of considering my role as a Christian woman in today’s world.
I also realized that there may be others going through similar struggles. For you, it may not be excessive spending but more about earning more, saving more or giving.
If so, do check out these three things every Christian woman should know about money.
Three things every Christian woman should know about money
I believe that our finances are an important aspect of our lives, which means we have to understand and manage it well.
So, I’m super glad to share these three things every Christian woman should know about money.
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Our Relationship with Money
This is a good time to mention that building a healthy relationship with our money is a key component to living a great life as a Christian woman.
We can do this by understanding and maintaining the place of money in our lives. Money is generally defined as a means of exchange, for determining the value of a good or service.
This means money is a resource, a tool that can be used solve problems but will not solve all our problems neither is it the only tool we need. This also means that it is not our source of happiness.
“Those who love money will never have enough. How absurd to think that wealth brings true happiness!”
Ecclesiastes 5.10
I couldn’t have said this better. The Bible is clear that going after money as your key to happiness or a problem free life will be a fruitless journey and will lead us down a path of destruction.
“No one can serve two masters. For you will hate one and love the other, or be devoted to one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and money.”
Luke 16:13
Let’s look at this practically:
Is money usually the most important factor when we make life decisions? Do we first consider the financial implication of anything we do before anything else?
Do we look at our bank account first before we proceed or more importantly, do we limit God by our bank account?
These are hard questions but necessary in checking our relationship with money.
Turning our focus solely to getting rich and maintaining these riches may mean compromising on our values, making excuses for doing the wrong things and forgetting the things that matter.
“…some people, eager for money, have wandered from the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs.”
1 Tim 6:10
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What it takes to manage your money
By managing money, I mean being in control of our spending and making sure our money is spent on the things that matter to us.
‘Money spent without purpose, is a step farther from your purpose.’
So, how are you doing with your spending? Would you call yourself an over spender, frugal or somewhere in between?
You probably have a smile on your face right now or you just sighed. I know I’m not the only one who’s struggled with spending J
There are two major aspects to controlling our spending:
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Exercising self-control
“you must gain control over your money or the lack of it will forever control you.”
Dave Ramsey
The fact that you have a certain amount of money in your wallet or account doesn’t mean you have free rein to spend it all. The need for checks and balances matter when it comes to money management. Here are a few helpful tips:
- Create a budget or money plan with a list of your expected expenses.
- Where possible, avoid places or people that encourage you to spend. If this is not possible, find out the particular triggers that make you spend and confront these.
“Beware of little expenses; a small leak will sink a great ship.”
Benjamin Franklin
3. Practice delayed gratification – this is our ability to hold off on an immediate but short lived reward for a later more meaningful reward. An example could be to save money now to spend on a more important item later.
4. Before you buy or spend, ask yourself if you really need it, this brings us to the second point.
2. Knowing our needs vs. wants
While there seems to be a ‘general rule’ as to what would constitute a need –food, shelter and clothing– this is still subjective. It will depend on so many external factors including income level, location, gender, employment amongst others.
This also means that our particular needs are unique to each of us and our spending pattern has to be in line with this.
Our needs should always come before our wants but we also have to be certain that these wants are not camouflaged as needs.
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About earning, saving, investing and giving
In the post about the qualities of an empowered woman, I briefly mentioned what I call the four principles of money. I believe every Christian woman needs to be aware of these and use them effectively. These are:
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Earning
Earning is our means of generating income. This could be through a job, creating a product or providing a service.
This is usually a sensitive area as there are those who believe Christians shouldn’t be looking to work for pay or earn an income.
But is this really biblical? Is it okay to expect income from what we do even if it is for the kingdom of God.
I believe so, “…You shall not muzzle an ox when it treads the grain and “the labourer deserves his wages.” 1 Timothy 5:18
But it should also be as you’re led. Primarily, our focus shouldn’t be on earning money for money’s sake. It should be tied to our purpose and life as Christians.
2. Saving
This is our ability to set aside money now to be used ‘purposefully’ at a later time.
“Don’t save what is left after spending; spend what is left after saving.”
Warren Buffet
It is something we should do whether in little or in plenty and will usually depend on our goals, our income and expenses. Studies have shown that people who tied their savings to a particular action or goal were able to save more.
3. Investing
This is usually the next step from saving. It is the act of putting money or capital in a business or endeavour with the expectation of gaining extra income or profit.
Here are a few helpful tips for investing effectively:
i. Knowing your game plan
“the plans of the diligent leads to profit as surely as haste leads to poverty.
Proverbs 21:5
ii. Working with your income
iii. Understanding your risk appetite
“Wealth gained hastily will dwindle but whoever gathers little by little will increase it.
Proverbs 13:11
iv. Making the most of your time
v. And doing some research about the possible investment options
4. Giving
I believe that giving isn’t something we do once in a while but should be a way of life. As children of a generous God, it is a given that we should continue in his footsteps. Giving is also a way to walk in obedience.
When God has called us to give and we do, even when it’s hard, it’s a sign of growth and moving our focus to God rather than ourselves. The Bible also mentions a few other benefits to giving.
“a generous person will prosper; whoever refreshes others will be refreshed.”
Proverbs 11:25
More so, there are also social, emotional and economic benefits to giving. According to research, giving makes us happy, promotes good health and social connections.
What every Christian woman should know about money –
Our path to stewardship
What do you think about our role as Christian women? I believe one key thing to remember is to always check our relationship with our money to make sure it is not taking the place of God or turning us into money obsessed Christians. See 1 Timothy 6
More importantly, we need to realize that the money and property we have today are a gift from God. It wasn’t by our power or might but by his grace and favour.
This means that we do not own these things, but are merely stewards of all the Lord has given to us and shall be expected to give an account of how we spent these. See the Parable of the Talents in Matthew 25:14-30.
What would that report be? Will he say…
“Well done good and faithful servant. You have been faithful over little, I will set you over much. Enter into the joy of your master.”
Matthew 25:21
What other things do you believe we should know about money?
This is great. I’m still learning and getting better with my money habits. Have you ever taken Dave Ramsey’s Financial Peace course? It’s really good! I’d recommend it to anyone.
Thanks, Tosin. I’ve heard so much about this course. It’s great to know such a resourceful course is available to Christians.
It is so good!
Thank you. This article was a nice refresher.
It is a great course! I took it years ago! EveryDollar is a good budgeting app also. Have you seen his website? Lots of great tools!
I am trying to teach my kids the need vs. wants idea. They understand it really well. It is just remembering and applying it, which I feel many people struggle with young and old.
Very true, Cynthia. I definitely do not have it all figured out. Thanks for sharing your perspective.
I will be honest, this is a great post. I have been doing some major financial renovations in my life, via the Dave Ramsey Financial Peace University Program. It is a Christian program that has literally helped me with seeing money differently.
Your post is great. I am pinning it and tweeting it.
Hi Charlene, thank you so much for your kind words and for sharing. I’ve heard a lot about this course, good to know that a great resource is available to Christians.
I really resonate with several of these tips. I really do struggle with handling money well. It’s an area I want to improve in but give myself way too much slack most of the time.
Hi Kristin, you’re definitely not alone in this, so many of us do. You could try having an accountability partner and see if that helps. Hope you’re able to do better.
You’ve brought up some great points. Wise uses for our money isn’t talked about in a positive way enough in Christian communities. I would love us to discuss planning the future, investments, and budgeting more. I know that I have some healthy habits but can do better. Glad you brought up the topic and would love to see you share more of what you’ve learned since you’ve been on the financial law end.
Hi Shana, thanks for your comment and I agree with you, we need to discuss money concerns openly and a bit more. I created a free checklist to help with managing our money. Hope you get a chance to check it out.
My husband and I have seen major money changes come into our lives since reading Dave Ramsey books and taking his courses. Over the last 7 years, we have eliminated all debt (besides our house) and gotten on a strict budget that enables us to save, give, and invest. Besides that, we are also very close to paying off our house to be completely debt free! I can certainly attest to the fact that it is so important to put into effect the principles about finances that are found in the Word of God. They will seem contrary to the world’s way of handling finances but they are oh so powerful!
Congrats, Rosanna, that’s great to know. Wish you the very best on your journey to financial freedom
OMG! Thank you! Ive been looking for Bible verses about this very thing.
That’s great, Lynn! Glad you found it useful.
Great post! I especially loved this line: Do we look at our bank account first before we proceed or more importantly, do we limit God by our bank account?
I’ve heard a lot of this before but definitely needed this timely reminder. I have to share this! Thank you.
Love this—this will definitely help me with saving/investing my money correctly. Money can be such a touchy subject, but it’s so nice to have such great tips in this post!
Great tips! I struggle with knowing my needs from my wants. There are so many fun things that I think I “need.” Goodness! I need to be a better steward of the resources God has given me. Thanks for sharing!
These are great points! So hard to learn but so important.
These are great tips, Chioma!
Thanks, Melisa. Much appreciated.
Wow! I love this post! Money can play such a big factor in our lives and when it is mismanaged it can lead to such serious problems! Thanks for such a great article!
Thank you so much, Amber. I agree, our finances are a big part of our lives.
Loved this post! I especially like Ecclesiastes 5:10, which I had never really heard before. It is so true – it’s absurd to think that money will give us happiness but we often fall into that trap.
Thanks, Christy.I’m glad you found it useful.
Important information to consider, about a very important topic. I appreciate your ministry, offering encouragement for a sound mind based on scripture. I made a money management board for this!
but the tithing gotta come FIRST, and then everything else will fall into place 🙂
Thanks, Andrea, I don’t believe in tithing but that’s a discussion for another day. I believe Jesus Christ has called us to give and this is not restricted to a particular percentage. It is more about our relationship with Him and what we believe we are being led to give.
This was such a great post! Such important points made <3
Thanks a lot, Brandy. Glad you found it useful
This couldn’t have come at a better time. I’m currently struggling with money issues and your post has put things into perspective. Thank you for this and love the bible verses
Yay!Glad you liked it. You’re so welcome, Amber.
I love this . I blog over at Ladies Make Money online and I talk about saving and making money.
I especially love this quote
“Don’t save what is left after spending; spend what is left after saving.”
Must do this!
Hi Marie, thanks for reading. I really like that quote too and put into practice as often as possible.
Some people will also sit at home and expect manner to fall from heaven. You know that saying about ask and it shall be given unto you, seek and you shall find and knock and the door shall be opened unto you. They relax and hope that those online applications they’ve done, one will work out at least. After all, since they are graduates, they can’t stoop so low to do other jobs they may feel are below them and they keep waiting for that big job while the years go by.
Then we also get the saying, God loves a cheerful giver. We should learn when to draw a line on giving really because people tend to take advantage of that. Permit me to narrate one of my many experiences, because I have really had plenty. On this cool evening, hubby and I were craving some crackers and I strolled to a shop on our street to get one. On coming out of the shop a young guy stopped me to ask for T-fare back to his area, that he was a youth corper who came to look for someone in the area and when he got there, unfortunately the person had traveled without notifying him. I didn’t have any money left on me, so I went back into the shop and pleaded with the shop attendant to please have back the biscuits, that I needed to help that young boy in distress. The attendant understood and our biscuits transaction was undone. I gave the money to guy for his T-fare back. He thanked me and rained all sorts of blessings. Then for me to see the same guy not upto a week after my encounter with him asking for money again. So, when do we draw the line on giving and being or feeling stupid?
Great post. I love Dave Ramsey! My husband and I did his Financial Peace University. Great investment. I had a terrible spending habit back when I was in college and the desire to give more & please God in my finances helped me to make a change. I had to face reality and admit I have a problem. I also wanted to be a better steward of my money before I got married to someone. Budgeting became my best friend. I love the scripture that says money answers all things. Having money isn’t bad but the love of it is, and mismanaging it is.
Thank you so much, Tara, for your kind words and for sharing your experiences.
and SO important that we put God first with our money – in other words, make sure we are tithing to Him
God has been training us to be faithful stewards in the area with our tithes. He has come through with so much! ❤
Even though my husband and I are in a pretty good place financially (thanks to living on a budget, having a good income, and our good friend Dave Ramsey), I can still sometimes struggle with having a good relationship with money. We’re in the process of buying a house and we’ve saved up a decent amount for our downpayment. I’ve realized that I’ve come to trust in that money for my security. It’s hard to think about giving it up (even though I do want to get a house and realize the savings has to go if we want to buy). I’ve been realizing that I’ve been trusting in that money more than I’ve been trusting God to take care of us. I don’t think we’re ever set in our relationship with money. Whether we’re in a good financial position or a bad one, it’s important that we’re always checking ourselves when it comes to how we view money. I’m glad you put that as the top priority in this post because I think that’s really what matters most.
Great post ! Thank you for sharing!
You’re so welcome, Chiana. Glad you found it helpful