Biblical Personal Finance Principles I Live By

A week or two ago, my boss came to me with an assignment to write an opinion piece about my faith and personal finance over Slack.

Although he couldn't see me, this was my reaction:

Source: Giphy

Frankly speaking, I was filled with trepidation about writing this piece as I am not sure if it has its place here on Seedly.

Neither do I want to come across as too preachy.

But despite the trepidation, I am going forward in faith to write this piece about my faith as a Christian and the biblical personal finance principles I live by.

I hope that this piece will be insightful for your personal finance journey.

Disclaimer: The views expressed are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of Seedly.

A Little About Me

To contextualise this piece, here's a little about myself.

As a Christian (a Methodist, to be exact), I am someone who believes in Jesus Christ and follows his teachings and strives to have my behaviour and heart reflect him.

I am also a writer at Seedly and have been at this job for the past two and a half years.

And I have the privilege to say that I love what I do at Seedly to help people make better personal finance decisions and not let money control them.

With that said, here are some of the Biblical personal finances I live by.

On Contentment

To start things off, the first and most important teaching from the Bible that defines my relationship with money is this verse:

Ecclesiastes 5:10: Whoever loves money never has enough; whoever loves wealth is never satisfied with their income. This too is meaningless.

As a Christian, my hope is in God, and I am striving toward being content in him.

But if you are not a Christian, I believe that there is an important lesson to take away from this verse too.

Undoubtedly, money is important, and as the Chinese saying goes 钱不是万能的没钱是万万不能的 which translates to money is not all-powerful, but without money, you cannot do many things.

Also, this 2018 study published by Purdue University in the field of happiness research found that there is an income satiation point:

As part of Southeast Asia, the income satiation point for the average person in Singapore is an annual income of ~S$93,000 (US$70,000). This means that when people earned more than $93,000 (above the $6,999 income bracket), their happiness levels tapered off.

As such, the study suggests that any increase in income beyond this income satiation point does not have too great an effect on the person’s ability to lead a comfortable life.

In other words, for the average person, more income increases overall life satisfaction but with diminishing marginal returns.

Although I am not going to say no to more money, what I believe is that an obsession or love for money would not make you happy or fully satisfied.

If you do not learn to be content with what you have, chances are you will always be pushing for that higher-paying job or trying to get as much money as you can.

I believe that this would leave you unhappy and unsatisfied as you would always want more.

On Tithing and Being More Generous

This leads to my next point on Tithing.

As a Chrisitan, I give 10 per cent of my income to the Church each month. This involves giving my money to my Church as well as giving to charity.

This was something I struggled with for the longest time as I thought about the opportunity cost of giving up my hard-earned money.

But, as a Christian, I am called to give God a tenth of what I earn:

Deuteronomy 14:22-23: Be sure to set aside a tenth of all that your fields produce each year. Eat the tithe of your grain, new wine and olive oil, and the firstborn of your herds and flocks in the presence of the Lord your God at the place he will choose as a dwelling for his Name so that you may learn to revere the Lord your God always.

As such, when I tithe as a Christian, I am showing God that I am putting him first in my life even though I believe that God does not need my money as the whole earth is his (Exodus 19:5).

As such, by tithing and being a good steward of what God has entrusted to me, I have learned to become more unselfish with my money.

Because of that, I am more careful with my finances which has helped me become a better friend, family member and employee.

Even if you are not a Christian, you can probably take away the importance of being generous.

On Avoiding Unnecessary Debt

Last but not least, we have the issue of debt.

The bible describes debt in a rather straightforward manner:

Proverbs 22:7: The rich rule over the poor, and the borrower is slave to the lender.

In other words, debt is a form of enslavement.

That's not all. A 2014 article in Health has complied studies that explore the physical and mental effects of downsides of having high levels of debt.

Physically, studies found that being saddled with debt is linked to high blood pressure, lowered immunity and other physical ailments like headaches, back pain, and ulcers.

Mentally, high levels of debt are associated with anxiety, depression and relationship problems.

But, not all debt is bad.

There is bad debt and good debt.

Bad Debt

Generally, bad debt is taking up loans to spend on something that decreases in value after it has been bought or solely for consumption.

Examples include credit card debt incurred for frivolous spending or vehicle loans that will not increase your financial value in the future.

To clarify, I am not saying that it's bad to take up a loan to buy a car.

Having a car may be a need for those with young families, aged family members or for work.

Good Debt

Basically, good debt is anything that increases your future value or net worth.

Debt such as taking out a mortgage or taking a loan for education is considered good debt, this is because although it may cost you money now, it will benefit you in the long run.

If I were to take up any debt, my priority would be to clear it as soon as possible to avoid this type of enslavement.

Conclusion

At the end of the day, to me is just a useful tool. It can be used to take care of myself, my family and those in need. This is why having good stewardship of your money and not letting your money control you is important.

Whatever goals you might have in life, I believe that managing your finances well can pave the way to achieving those goals.

Also, instead of obsessing over how much we own and how we can earn more, I believe that it is important to be content and grateful for what we have.

One more thing.

Thanks for reading this piece!

I would love to hear how your religion has sculpted your relationship with money and your personal finances, so do leave your comments down below.