“The feminine traits of money are receiving, enjoying, sharing, making dreams come true.”
As Personalidades do Dinheiro (Money’s Personalities)
Contrary to the “save, invest, save, invest again” approach, I believe our relationship with money must go much further than that! Saving is important, but money should be the means, not the end. The important thing is not to have it, but to understand the goal for which you need it.
With this in mind, I’ve prepared a series of posts on this topic just for you! We will talk about financial planning in the context of our realities, our characteristics, and our dreams. Being financially organized takes work, and, unfortunately, there isn’t a magic recipe I can give you, but I will share practical tips that can help you on this journey.
When it comes to financial planning, I like to think of it as organizing our money into five drawers. Every month, different percentages of our money need to go into these five drawers.
The Five Drawers
The first step is to learn which are these five drawers and then learn about our very first and most important one. The drawers are:
- God
- Gratitude
- Tomorrow
- Today
- Gifts
It’s payday and your salary has been deposited. What’s the first thing we need to do? Set aside the part that God asks of each one of us every month. This is the first drawer. Here, we will set aside 10% of our monthly income (the tithe).
The order of the drawers above isn’t random. The moment you receive your monthly income, it should be broken down in that order. The tithe must be the first amount that you will extract from your salary. This act will translate the first golden rule of taking care of our finances, which is to involve God in our financial planning.
The act of setting aside your tithe first puts into practice what we find in Luke 12:31, “seek his kingdom, and all these things shall be added to you.” Withdrawing a tenth and returning it to God before anything else will send the message to your brain that that part doesn’t belong to you.
This drawer is the most important one because God is the best Partner we can have when financial planning. God cares about your finances because He has a goal for every penny He has given you. Pray and talk to Him about it, “Lord, help me to plan. Help me to have wisdom when spending. Help me to save what I will need for the future that You have in store for me.”
Only He can give us wisdom not only on how to direct our money but also on how to save without forgetting what is truly important in life! But those are topics for our next articles.
See you at drawer number two!
4 thoughts on “She Gives, Saves, and Spends: God’s Drawer”
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But what about the second tithe that is supposed to ne devoted to offerings?
I’ve read that we are supposed to give 20-25% to God.
Great question and a very important thing to keep in mind!
This is from an article by Brother Silva that really helped me understand the second tithe. Please read the full article, as I am only including an excerpt:
“The tithe referred to in Deuteronomy 14 was also dedicated to the Lord, but was used differently. The worshiper himself could “eat” the second tithe before the Lord in the place of worship. The second tithe was used as an offering of community assistance in favor of the Levite, the stranger, the fatherless and the widow “which are within thy gates, shall come, and shall eat and be satisfied” (verse 29). And what is the blessing promised to the giver? . . . “that the Lord thy God may bless thee in all the work of thine hand which thou doest.””
Full article about the second tithe:
https://sdarm.org/news-events/news/2017-05-23/blessing-liberality
So, from what I understand, the second tithe should make its way into the next drawers where we will separate funds to help others, for our own use (for church events, for example), etc.
What do you understand?