Saving Your Money Series

If anyone does not provide for his relatives, and especially for his immediate family, he has denied the faith and is worse than an unbeliever.

I Timothy 5:8

Saving so I won’t be a drain on my kids when I retire is a good thing. Saving so I can be free to “retire” to devote more time to serve Christ is a good thing. Saving so I can invest my savings in the kingdom someday is a good thing.

My friend, Gordon Heffern was past President of Society Bank, now Key Bank. He once told me, “I don’t want my kids waiting around for me to die to get my money. I’ll help with their education and a down payment on a house. After that, I’m giving the biggest portion of my wealth to the Lord’s work! So, he and several other leaders in NE Ohio, including our own Dwight Short, started HIS Foundation. It’s designed to be a place to invest your money and direct it to support those causes of Christ that are most important to you.

Listen, we ought to save so that there’s a surplus when we die. And then, we can put the church, God’s work, in our wills! Who said you have to give it all to your kids when you die? Around here, we talk about …

The 10-10-80 plan:

Sharing 10%. One tenth goes to support God’s work.

A tenth… belongs to the LORD and must be set apart to him as holy.

Leviticus 27:30 (NLT)

Give to God’s work. Give to the local church, the local storehouse. If I do that, the rest will be blessed. If I don’t, Malachi 3 says, the rest will be under a curse. I choose blessing. Sharing 10%.

Saving 10%. One tenth goes to your savings.

You worked hard for your paycheck. Pay yourself by putting some earnings into savings! This is not to be vacation fund money. It’s not a “mad-money fund.” This is to be put it somewhere so you will earn some interest. Too many people work until retirement and spend everything that they ever earned. They enter into their last years with nothing. They spent it all. How tragic. Don’t let that happen to you. Pay yourself!

Spending 80%. The rest goes for your living expenses.

You already honored God and paid yourself. Now, spend! Use the rest of the money God gives you with wisdom. Enjoy the 80%. I love to be generous with my kids. I want to see them enjoy what I give them. I think God is like that, too.

See the spiritual side of saving.

2. Create a cash-cushion.

The wealth of the rich is their fortress; the poverty of the poor is their calamity.

Proverbs 10:15 (NASB)

If you are in a nation at war, you want to be in a fortified city. That’s the way to be safe from an enemy army.

Well, we all have enemies who want to bring us down financially. We need a fortress. And wealth saved up can be that for us.

Now, I know that God is our ultimate fortress and our defender. But He has given us the ability to earn. And if we work diligently, give cheerfully and spend wisely, then we’ll often find that we have a surplus from God that will be our fortress.

Here’s the idea: Create a cash-cushion as a defense. Save so you can support yourself and your family in tough times.

… money is protection…