Eight Best Practices for Achieving and Maintaining Financial Health
The following eight practices are universally recommended by financial advisors—both secular and Christian—in helping younger singles and couples establish lasting financial health and independence.
1. Build Core Habits Early
Guard Your Spending
Dining: How often do you eat out or use a food delivery service? Consider cooking at home and eating out only on special occasions, like birthdays, anniversaries, or scheduled date nights. There is certainly room for spontaneity here, but as an exception rather than the norm.
Transportation: Owning and maintaining a car can be expensive—but doesn’t have to be. Remember that the main purpose of your vehicle is to get you safely and reliably from point A to point B—not to elevate your status or satisfy the need for speed. Excessive car payments can strangle our finances, raise our anxiety, and rob us of the joy that comes with simplicity. Read more about a practical, conservative approach to car buying here.
Entertainment: We all need recreation and occasional diversion from our heavily scripted and scheduled routines. But we live in a culture where entertainment demands more and more of our attention, offering unlimited opportunity to escape (or avoid) the stresses and pressures of life. How often do you go out to a movie or concert? How many streaming services do you subscribe to? Just as you would with eating out, consider making entertainment more of a special occasion than a daily escape. Invest more in deepening your relationships, developing your gifts, and nourishing your soul.
Stuff: We are consistently allured into possessing the latest innovations, conveniences, and fashions. Are you an early adopter of the newest tech? Consider asking yourself if your current iPhone is doing just fine before you dive into the next release. And do you really need another pair of shoes right now? Be careful not to allow your happiness to be contingent on consumerism. Start practicing intentional contentment. It may seem countercultural, but it sure calms the financial waters.
Start Saving — Even If It’s Only a Little
Aim for 10–20% of your income, but even $20/week starts to build financial muscle.
Save automatically so you don’t rely on willpower. Divert a set amount or percentage of your paycheck into an interest-bearing savings account and watch it grow.
Track Your Money
Learn how to build a basic budget using free apps like Rocket Money, WalletHub, or Goodbudget.
Read more here and here about how to build a spending plan that meets your needs, enables you to save and invest, and honors God.
2. Build an Emergency Buffer
You’re young, but emergencies still happen (car repair, a broken phone, or a lost job).
First goal: $500.
Next goal: 1 month of expenses.
Long-term goal: 3 months of expenses.
Again, keep it in a high-yield savings account, not a checking account.
3. Build Credit — the right way
Good credit saves you thousands later.
Get a starter credit card (student card or secured card).
Use it for smaller purchases (like gas or groceries).
Pay the balance in full every month.
Keep usage below 30% of your card’s limit.
Avoid carrying over balances, retail store cards, and "buy now, pay later” deals.
4. Start Investing Early (It’s your superpower!)
Time in your teens and early 20s is more valuable than large amounts of money later.
If you have earned income:
Open a Roth IRA (huge tax advantage when you’re young).
Invest in simple options:
S&P 500 index fund (e.g., VOO)
Total market index fund (e.g., VTI)
Invest a small amount consistently — even $20–$50/month now matters more than $200/month at 30.
If your employer offers a 401(k), get at least the full match — it's free money.
5. Avoid Bad Debt Like It’s Radioactive
Good debt:
✅ Low-interest student loans
✅ Low-interest car loan (only if necessary)
Bad debt:
❌ Credit cards
❌ Payday loans
❌ Buy now/pay later
❌ High-interest personal loans
Also, avoid financing clothes, vacations, or electronics.
6. Live Below Your Means (Your future self will thank you.)
If you make $4,000/month and live like you make $3,200, you’ll:
Save faster
Avoid debt
Build freedom
Reduce stress
Lifestyle inflation is the real enemy.
7. Make “Future You” and Others the Priority
Remember that your young self shapes key decisions and milestones that lie ahead, like:
Whether you’ll live in stress or in peace
Whether/when you can buy a home
Whether/where you can travel
Whether/how well you’ll be equipped to support the people and causes you hold dear
Whether/when you can retire comfortably
Every good habit put into practice now multiplies for decades.
8. GIVE!
Although last on this list, Scripture would have us place our giving first—as in first fruits. In the Old Testament, first fruits were the first and best portion of a harvest, given to God as an act of worship.
Giving also shifts our attention away from ourselves, liberates us from the need to build our own little empires, and restores our dependence on God to provide for us.
As some who have gone before us have noted,
“No one has ever become poor by giving.”
— Anne Frank
“The only way to overcome the selfishness in your heart is to pour yourself out for others.”
— Tim Keller
“We make a living by what we get, but we make a life by what we give.”
— Winston Churchill
“It is more blessed to give than to receive.”
— Acts 20:35,
Faith & Finance Perspective
Our fallen human nature would have us manage our money in ways that preserve our levels of comfort, convenience, and entertainment. But our redeemed nature reminds us that God owns everything and has entrusted us with money and possessions not only to provide for and prosper us but also to build His Kingdom on earth as it is in heaven. This requires that we manage our funds well, avoid debt, and live generously. As Romans 13:8 advises, "Owe no one anything, except to love one another."
Just as the Father offered His Son as the first fruit of our salvation, we offer Him the first and best of all we are and all we have—our money and possessions, our time, our talents and abilities, our decisions, our worship and devotion—not our leftovers or discarded items. Generosity is not some religious requirement by which we will be evaluated, but rather a spiritual posture characterized by joy, gratitude, trust, and dependence on our Great Provider and His unfailing track record of loving and caring for His children.
“. . . and now I bring the firstfruits of the soil that you, Lord, have given me.” Place the basket before the Lord your God and bow down before him.
- Deuteronomy 26:10