Teach Your Kids About Money from a Biblical Perspective (Even if You are Not Very Good with Money)

Teaching your kids about money might be a scary topic. I know it was for me and at times still is. I mean, I have made plenty of mistakes with money, how was I qualified to teach this to my kids? What I have learned is that God is merciful and gracious and we learn most from our mistakes. God can use those mistakes to teach our kids as well and make beauty from ashes. If you ever felt like you are not good with money, here are some tried and true ways to teach your kids about money from a biblical perspective and start applying these principles to your own life as well.

Teaching Your Kids About Money – Evaluate Your Own Money Story

Before you dive right into teaching your children about money, it is important to evaluate your own history with money. Examine your own attitudes and feelings towards money and the why behind it. This helps us be aware of our own perceptions, biases and feelings towards money which can shed light to why we made certain choices, decisions and mistakes.

Once you start to become aware of your history and story with money, it is time to own up to your mistakes and failures, as well as celebrate your wins and successes. We may not be entirely to blame for our financial situation, but we certainly have a part to play. We need to own whatever part we played in messing up, whether it was something we did directly or indirectly.

For me personally, I had to own up to the fact that while I tended to be more of the saver, which is a good thing, this also meant I had more of a tendency to control. I also had codependency issues, ones that I am still working through to this day.

Really spend some time meditating and journaling about these questions.

• What kind of history do you have with money? What is your money story?
• What did your parents teach you about money?
• What were their attitudes towards it? What kinds of things did they say about money?
• What events happened in your life to shape your views of money?
• What were some of the mistakes you made with money?
• What were some of the successes with money?

We learn from our successes and failures, and in fact, learn most from our mistakes. Don’t stay stuck in a victim mentality. Accept the things you can’t change (other people, their decisions, their feelings) and own the things you can change (your own decisions, feelings and attitudes). Start with one thing you can change.

For the longest time, I was stuck in a victim mentality, feeling like bad things were happening to me and that my situation was unique from anyone else. While there certainly were circumstances beyond my control, I learned and realized I needed to look at what I could change.

Is there one small step or thing you can do? Pray about it and ask the Lord to show you the next right step. Seek His will for you and ask Him for the strength, courage and for Him to walk beside you as you do that next right step.

One small step for me, that is changing the trajectory of our finances, was to take 5 minutes a day to record everything we were spending. That’s it. The simple step of just taking 5 minutes/day to record our spending every day, slowly snowballed into other changes and steps and is transforming our finances.

Teaching your Kids About Money – What Does the Bible Say About Money?

Now that you are aware of your own story, history and views of money, it is important to view money from the truthful lens and perspective of the Bible. If we want to teach our children everything including money, from a biblical perspective, then we need to know what the Bible says about money.

We want to please God in every area of our lives and money is important! In fact, money is mentioned in more than 2000 verses! God knew that money would be an important tool and part of our lives. He wants us to be wise, good stewards and have a healthy view of this tool. There are so many biblical principles about money, below are just a few to get you started.

3 Biblical Principles About Money

Everything Belongs to God

Behold, to the Lord your God belong heaven and the heaven of heavens, the earth with all that is in it.

Deut 10:14

God is the Creator of all things and all things come from Him. When we focus on this truth and remember the money and resources He provides for us are His not ours, we become better stewards of what He gives us.

Think of it this way. If your church entrusted you to manage the tithe money and told you to use it where you think appropriate, would you go out and buy more clothes for yourself, decor for your home or the newest tech gadgets? Of course not. You would probably pray about where God wanted you to use that money, what ministry, what the church’s needs are and what would most likely further His kingdom.

There’s nothing wrong with buying things for ourselves, but the main point is, why are we more careful with how we would spend the church’s money? Because it is not our money, and we have been given the responsibility to be good stewards of it.

Well, guess what? The money in our bank accounts is not our money either. It’s God’s money and He has provided it to us. He is the One who has provided us with jobs and abilities to work. He is the One who is sovereign over all and able to bless us to be fruitful. He is the One who provides abundantly for us.

So why then do we treat it as our own? We often and easily forget this principle. That everything belongs to God and we are to be His stewards with what He gives us.

Give Generously

Each one must give as he has decided in his heart, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver.

2 Cor 9:7

God has entrusted us with His money, not to hang on to it tightly, but to give generously. This is an area I am constantly praying for growth in. As humans, our sin nature is to be selfish. We think, when I have this certain amount, then I can be generous and give more.

But the truth is, once we do accumulate more money, most of us just become more selfish instead of more generous. Pray and decide in your heart what you can give right now where you are at. Do it with joy and cheer as you get to give to God’s purposes and plans. Pray to God for help in overcoming selfishness, pride, greed, covetousness and any other sinful attitude or thoughts you struggle with.

Be Content With What you Have

It is not a sin to want things or buy things, but once we start coveting others or stop being thankful for all God has given us, this becomes sin.

Verses About Contentment:

5 Keep your lives free from the love of money and be content with what you have, because God has said, “Never will I leave you; never will I forsake you.

Heb 13:5

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

Ecc 5:10

Not that I am speaking of being in need, for I have learned in whatever situation I am to be content. ¹² I know how to be brought low, and I know how to abound. In any and every circumstance, I have learned the secret of facing plenty and hunger, abundance and need. ¹³ I can do all things through him who strengthens me.

Phil 4:11-13

If you want to teach our children biblically about money, start applying these principles in your own life. As you are walking through them talk out loud to your children and show them examples of it in your life.

Teaching Kids About Money – Give Them Practice with Money (AKA Chore Money)

There seems to be a lot of debate if parents should give their children chore money or not. Here are a couple of different methods that you can try and see what works best for your family.

What we do in our family – Our children have a set of chores for am, afternoon and evening. When they accomplish those set of chores they mark it on their chore chart and at the end of the week we add up all completed chores and they get paid accordingly. (Right now they get $.10/chore which usually ends up to $1.50/week).

Just as with anything in life, you can’t just learn from hearing or seeing, although we do learn some from that. But we learn most from doing. Your kids have to put money into action and have practice with their own money to learn, fail and grow from.

Another good solution I’ve seen from families, is expecting basic requirements because that is part of being a team and family and then giving chore money for extra chores.

Here is a great articles about paying kids extra chore money from Money Saving Mom.

However you decide to do it, just make sure there is a way they understand when they work hard and do it with a good attitude, they receive a compensation. That’s how it is in the real world so give them so real world application.

Teach Kids About Money – Teach Them to Give, Save and Spend

Everytime you give them chore money, show them how to divide it into 3 categories of Give, Save and Spend. There are some really cute piggy banks that have separate compartments for this. Or you could DIY a cute box, jars or piggy bank.

This doesn’t have to be perfect and we are super simple and just put it in separate envelopes or plastic baggies. This is the first “budget” you give your child. Have them take their own giving money to church weekly, bi weekly or monthly and have them put it in the offering.

Teach your children that savings is for bigger items. Once they reach your bank’s minimum requirements, take them to your bank and have them open a savings account. Ask the banker to explain to your children about savings accounts.

For spending, you can set some limits. I teach my children if they want something at the store, they need to plan a budget for it before they leave and know what they plan on buying so they are not buying impulsively and randomly.

When your kids see something they like at the store, have them make a “wish list.” Tell them they can save for those things on their wish list and then the next time they go they have a plan of what they want to buy. This gives kids a chance to save for items they really want and also realize which items they don’t want anymore. This is also a great list to refer back to for birthdays and holidays.

Teaching Kids About Money – Set a Budget Wherever you Go

Whether you are buying food for your kids in the fast food line or they are buying their own toy, set a budget for what you plan to spend. This is one of the best and greatest methods to help kids plan for their spending and learn to be intentional with money.

Talk out loud to your kids about money as you do this. Kids learn best when they see the example and hear the teaching that goes with it and then they have practical application of it.

Examples of setting a budget include:

• When you go to store – tell your kids what the budget is for food, and have them help add things up in the calculator
• When you buy them their own food from store – we buy lunchables for kids’ lunch and I would let them pick out the lunchable they wanted and give them a $2 budget/per kid.
• When you eat out – tell them the budget for eating out. If its $20 and there are 5 of you, let them know each person gets $4 to spend. This includes fast food, sit down restaurants, dessert, etc
• When you go to a fun event – for example at a pumpkin patch, each of my children got $4 worth of ride tickets. They were the ones who held their tickets and choose the ride they wanted. It was fun to see them go look at each ride and see how many tickets each ride cost. They really weighed the cost of each one and figured out if they went on rides that cost less tickets, they could ride more things.

Have them hold their own cash whenever possible. This helps teach the value and gives them responsibility and accountability for it. Believe me, they will learn to hang on to that cash! Also, have them practice paying for their own items by handing their money to the cash register employee.

Let them learn, make mistakes and practice as much as possible. You are training disciples to follow Jesus in every area of their life, including finances.

Allow God to work in you and mold you as you teach your children right where you are at. Teaching children about money doesn’t have to be overwhelming. We need to examine our own lives first, and teach in everyday opportunities.

Teaching kids about money isn’t an extra thing you have to do. Money lessons and practice are all around us. Start applying biblical principles and teach your kids to give, save and spend. Give your children as much hands on practice with money as possible. You will be well on your way to raising disciples who love the Lord and are wise with His resources.