The First Financial Lesson

What is the first financial lesson you should teach your children? I’ve been contemplating this one for a while now. I even picked up a book on the topic (on clearance, so being a good steward with my resources!) at a local Christian bookstore. Isn’t it a bit ironic that they had to mark this book down to $3 to get it off their shelves, when we live in a culture that knows so little about financial stewardship?

When I think about raising my children in such a way that they will avoid unnecessary pain and suffering in their adult lives, I am certain that financial stewardship must be one of the lessons. Not too long ago I got to help one of the young men in my church buy his first car. He had no concept of basic financial concepts, like what his budget allowed, how interest rates work, etc… Watching him about to walk onto a car lot was like watching an innocent fed to lions. In pre-marital counseling, I almost always discover that the couple has not had any discussions about their financial future. In marital counseling, I find that because they had no discussions about their financial future, they are anxious and fighting, and usually in debt. In other words, my perception is that most people have no clue about how to handle money.

This post isn’t really a how-to on that sort of thing. I’m also not holding myself up as any sort of financial guru. I’m not a Dave Ramsey guy or a Larry Burkett guy, although I think Money Matters has some good resources. Sometimes, I think the guys who tell you how to handle your money are kinda like this guy:

But I do have younger children who I want to train up in this area of life. I don’t want to wait until they are about to leave the house and then say, “By the way, let’s have a little chat about money.” I think it needs to be progressive instruction in the various elements of financial stewardship. So my question to myself is, “What is the first step?”

Here’s what I came up with: GENEROSITY. The first lesson I want to teach my children is that money is not the thing we acquire to get what we want, but the thing we acquire that allows us to express love to our family, our church, and our community.

What I like about this approach is that it is holistically redemptive (yeah, that’s a real phrase). I don’t want to teach my kids financial stewardship so that they can become better misers, or better worldlings, or any kind of a better sinner. The love of money really is the root of all kinds of evils when money is a self-centered thing. The only way (I see) to avoid that is by seeing money as a means to loving others.

Growing up in a missionary home, we didn’t have a lot of extra money. But I don’t remember a time when we didn’t give. We gave to the church offering. We gave to missionaries. We gave to others who needed it. I unconsciously adopted the idea that the very reason I had money was to give it away. Which is good, because I also started making money from a young age, and got reasonably good at it. But generosity saved me from the love of money.

So start by teaching your kids to be generous. Teach them to work hard so that they have to give to others. Make giving a regular part of their lives. Pick a particular cause and have a yard sale or a bake sale or a neighborhood pancake breakfast where ALL the money goes towards someone or something else. Let them experience the joy of giving and develop a taste for it early.