Personal Finance 101
for the Christian Home
RESOURCES AND BUDGETING
Suggested Resources for the
Christian Home Personal Finances
• Christian books
• Secular books
• The Bible
Resources: Christian Books
Resources: Christian Books
Resources: Christian Books
Resources: Secular Books +
Opdyke’s Cardinal Rule of Love and Money:
Never join your finances outside of marriage.
Debt Facts according to Opdyke
• Conflicts over spending inflict the most
damage on a marriage during the first year
• Debt - one of the most difficult hurdles
• Root of money fights
Six Questions Every
Prospective Married Couple
Must Ask Each Other
• Q1: Do you have a basic understanding of
money?
• Bankrupt couples only understand
spending
• Evidence of “understanding money”
Six Questions Every
Prospective Married Couple
Must Ask Each Other
• Q2: What Is Your Money History?
• Q5: What Are Your Financial Assets and Debts?
• Q6: How Do You Use Debt?
• How much debt do you each have?
• What type of debt?
• Q7: Will we operate from 1 checkbook or 3?
Opdyke’s Suggestion for a
Debt Philosophy
“We agree together to purposefully live below
our means, not to pursue material wants
without the money to afford them, never to use
emergency savings for consumer purchases,
and to take on debt only when it benefits the
family’s long-term goals or needs.”
Resources: The BIBLE
Labor is Good: We work to provide for our
families and shun get-rich-quick schemes
Psalm 128.2—For thou shalt eat the labor of thine hands:
happy shalt thou be, and it shall be well with thee.
I Tim. 5.8—But if any provide not for his own, and
specially for those of his own house, he hath denied the
faith, and is worse than an infidel.
Debt is Servitude: We pay our debts and
carefully weigh the costs of incurring more
Proverb 22.7—The rich ruleth over the poor, and the
borrower is servant to the lender.
Ecclesiastes 5.4b-5—[P]ay that which thou hast vowed.
Better is it that thou shouldest not vow, than that thou
shouldest vow and not pay.
Life is a Stewardship: We give in response to
God’s generosity and choose to live simply
Acts 20.35b—[R]emember the words of the Lord Jesus,
how he said, It is more blessed to give than to receive.
Ecclesiastes 5.13—There is a sore evil which I have seen
under the sun, namely, riches kept for the owners
thereof to their hurt.
Three Critical Ingredients in Any
Successful Family Budget
• A monthly budget
• IN—net payroll checks, average
draws
• OUT—every pay period, every
month, Budget Busters
• A payday method
• Staying on track between paydays
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Member: American and Wisconsin Institutes of Certified Public Accountants