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Stewardship of money is an important aspect of our life. The Bible says that we're only to serve one master: God. We're to not treat money like a master. *1 This is not to say we should shun money like it is evil. It means we're not to have a love for money. We learn from Jesus that we're blessed if we help the poor, and the "easiest" way to help the poor is to donate money for their needs. Because of this, earning money should be an important thing in our lives because we can help the poor! We should work as hard as humanly possible to make money in a moral way such that we can help the poor. I think this is the case as long as we have people starving to death in this world for lack of food. Now assuming we're working as hard as possible, we will still only make a finite amount of money during our lives. So what becomes critical is the way we spend the money, and this is what this article will address. I think I have at least one strategy in this article that you may find no where else so I hope it is insightful.
The first topic and most obvious thing to address is the conflict between entertainment expenditures and necessities. If you have things you spend money on that produce nothing more than entertainment, you could suck it up and not waste money on it to save money to give to the poor. Personally, I don't buy as much beer as I used to. By not buying beer, I am forgoing a temporary high for helping the poor which results in eternal rewards. Another thing you could think about in this is: Is it moral to not buy media and instead pirate it? After all when you pirate the material, you are not wasting money on entertainment and instead you're helping people starving to death instead. It is important to think about so I'll cover it in another article.
The next obvious topic to be covered is your family needs vs. your giving to the poor. It is important to balance your giving to the poor in relation to your needs of your family for several reasons. Lets say you had a $100,000 in your savings. You decide to donate $90,000 to the poor. Then the next day one of your children gets sick and its going to cost $50,000 to get the surgery done. Because of your "mistake" in tithing, you are in a problem situation. I think it is very difficult to decide how much to give to the poor when you have a family. As a result, I say to really bias your funds to saving and supporting your family. God isn't going to be upset that you're looking out for your family.
Now the topic I really want to address because it will help many people in their walk is what should the unmarried person do. The unmarried person in their youth is in search of a spouse, but when they get older, they are less inclined to look for love. Everyone has a rough estimate of when they're too old to find a spouse. Because of this, we can make a plan for our life. The unmarried person may not be concerned with family life, but without a bankroll that person cannot go courting. And if the unmarried person does get married, they would want money to support their family. So here is the way I handle this. Save up all your money as if you're going to give it to the poor. If you get married, great, be a steward of your money to support your family. If you get too old and are uninterested in marriage, donate most of your money to starving people, and you'll get eternal rewards! It is a win/win situation here. The reason I say not to donate all your money in your youth is that it can hurt your ability to find a spouse, and that may be a bit too self sacrificing. The way you want to handle this is up to you. I'm just bringing up a good strategy for some.
*1 Matthew 6:24 "You cannot be a slave of two masters; you will hate one and love the other; you will be loyal to one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and money.
-Jim Sager III
(All Bible Quotes from the Good News Bible)