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Managing Money

Managing Money

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family paying tithing

Purpose

Learn how to manage your financial resources wisely. As you do, you will prepare to be self-reliant and help those in need.

Description

Learn about budgeting by creating a monthly budget for a fictional household. You can use this worksheet to make decisions about income and expenses. Make sure you stay within your means!

It may be helpful to have play money (from a board game, for example) so participants can organize it into different budget categories such as tithes and offerings, savings, housing, utilities, insurance, food, and so on. Consider inviting an expert to lead a discussion on topics such as saving for future expenses, understanding credit and loans, and living debt-free.

More Ideas

  • Organize your money—Create some kind of containers to manage money. For example, you could use envelopes, jars, or bags. You might consider labels for “Tithing,” “Savings,” “Offerings,” “Education,” and “Other Goals.”

  • Set a financial goal—Invite participants to draw a picture representing a financial goal—for instance, saving money for school or a mission. Set a goal amount and a goal date, and determine how much to save every week to meet the goal.

  • Frugal habits guessing game—Divide into teams. Have each team privately create a list of money-saving habits such as turning off the lights when everyone leaves the room or taking shorter showers. Then invite one team to make a drawing representing the habit on a large piece of paper or whiteboard. The other team tries to guess what the habit is.

  • Fun with board games—Play one or more board games that involve money. (Look online for ideas.) Be sure you have enough games for everyone to participate. They don’t have to all be the same game!

  • Watch money grow—Using play money or a spreadsheet, start with a small sum of money. Using several interest rates, calculate how the money grows over 5, 10, and 15 years. Talk about the benefits of saving wisely and earning interest on savings. You may want to refer to the parable of the talents (see Matthew 25).

Discussion

Encourage participants to talk about what they are learning. Discussions can take place before, during, or after the activity. You could ask questions like the following:

  • Why do you think it is important to manage your finances responsibly?

  • When have you experienced the blessings of managing money wisely?

  • What feelings or impressions do you have about being financially self-reliant?

  • How can you apply what you are learning in your life?

Related Resources

Sabbath Day Lessons

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