I’m a firm believer following Christian money management principles are critical to stay out of debt, save for the future and advancing towards true financial freedom. Careless spending, debt accumulation, and a lack of savings impacts your ability to make forward progress on your journey.
As a reminder, helping people achieve true financial freedom, from the Crown Money Map, was adopted as the One Money Design mission. Christian money management involves following God’s financial principles which I believe are the best way to advance towards the final destination on the journey: a fully funded retirement and the freedom to be more generous with time and money.
Did you know even little spending decisions can have big impacts on your financial future? Developing bad habits can steer us off course. So, it’s important to keep some of the basics in mind and do our best to consistently following them.
That’s why these 6 tips will help you get started on the right path this year. If you’re just learning about Christian money management or need to revisit some practical money management basics, you’ll find these tips helpful:
Learn What the Bible Says About Money
Christian money management involves learning basic Biblical financial principles, or what the Bible says about money, to help you manage money according to God’s economy and not yours. You can download my free special report full of principles about stewardship, debt, saving, investing, giving and more to get a great overview.
So then, men ought to regard us as servants of Christ and as those entrusted with the secret things of God. Now it is required that those who have been given a trust must prove faithful (1 Corinthians 4: 1-2).
Financial Statement
Know your current financial state at all times. You can do this by comparing assets to liabilities using a financial statement. Doing so once per year will help you measure your overall financial progress.
Follow a Spending Plan
Make sure you follow a budget, or spending plan, in which you manage to each month. You need to review your budget often and make adjustments where needed.
Review Your Spending
Always be on the look out for problems. This involves reviewing your spending at the end of each month and identify areas you may be consistently overspending. If that’s the case, take steps to control spending by using cash or doing a spending fast to retrain your thinking! Of course, it’s helpful to track your expenses using money management software like Mvelopes.
Avoid Credit Cards
Insure that your spending doesn’t exceed your income each month. Sounds simple, but it’s true. It’s the most basic rule of personal money management that is critical to follow. If you end up with a credit card balance at the end of the month, your income didn’t meet expenses. Take steps to get out of credit card debt quickly if you find this to be the case.
Slash Expenses
Be willing to step out of your comfort zone and slash expenses to meet your goals. While you need to insure income meets expenses, you need to also make sure you have room in your plan for saving, investing and giving. So, make sure expenses don’t crowd out other goals too! If required, take some ratical steps to cut back on expenditures.
These money management tips aren’t that difficult, but having the discipline to follow them each month can be challenging. Keep in mind the benefit and goal of reaching your final destination on the Money Map. If you follow these simple guidelines, you’ll find debt eventually becomes a thing of the past and yes, you may even find you have more disposable income for entertainment each month because you’re managing money better.
What do you think of these money management tips?
Photo by o5com.
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