some thoughts on Money

Ye cannot serve God and mammon. (St. Luke 16:13)

Well, that is clear enough.

The rest of this morning's Gospel lesson (St. Luke 16:1-13, the parable of the Unjust Steward) is puzzling. What are we to make of this scoundrel, who cheats his master and is commended for doing so? It sounds to me like Jesus is telling us in verses 8 and 9 to go and do likewise, to use the "unrighteous mammon" in any way we want with disregard for such niceties as honest dealing and stewardship of what belongs to others.

He then seems to contradict what he has just said:

He that is faithful in that which is least is faithful also in much; and he that is unjust in the least is unjust also in much. If therefore ye have not been faithful in the unrighteous mammon, who will commit to your trust the true riches? (v. 10-11)

This at least makes more sense: money is a passing trifle, not to be compared with the "true riches." But it is a testing ground for us; if we cannot be faithful with money, we will not be faithful with anything.


So, what are we to do? Experience shows that Jesus was right: "no servant can serve two masters" (v. 13). St. Paul gives this advice:

But godliness with contentment is great gain. For we brought nothing into this world, and it is certain that we can carry nothing out. And having food and raiment let us be therewith content. But they that will be rich fall into temptation and a snare, and into many foolish and hurtful lusts, which drown men in destruction and perdition. For the love of money is the root of all evil, which while some coveted after, they have erred from the faith, and pierced themselves through with many sorrows. But thou, O man of God, flee these things, and follow after righteousness, godliness, faith, love, patience, meekness. (I Timothy 6:6-11)

Yet, we must pay some attention to money in order to at least have "food and raiment." St. Paul says in another place that "if any would not work, neither should he eat" (II Thessalonians 3:10). More specifically, in this society we must normally have a job, for which we are paid with money. What are we to do with it? And should we lay some of that money aside for future days, so that we may have food and raiment when we are old and can no longer work?

In my parents' day, this aspect was easier. Most Americans had jobs that promised a retirement pension, plus social security at age 65. They did not need to give any further thought to these matters; the checks would be in the mail when the time came. Almost no one currently in the workforce has a defined benefit pension nowadays, and social security is on shaky ground.

Instead, if we have a pension at all, it is a "defined contribution" plan, where we have considerable responsibility for how it is invested. That means we should know a little about the subject, enough so that we can be faithful stewards in this matter.


In light of these thoughts, I suggest three books that have been helpful to me.

The first book is "Your Money or Your Life," by Joe Dominguez and Vicki Robin. It has gone through several editions since the first in 1992; I read it in the late 1990's, and again last year. Mr. Dominguez died in 1997; Vicki Robin maintains a website that is a helpful introduction to the ideas in this book and much else, such as sustainable living and local foods:

Here is a summary of the book.

A related website is this.

It has a longer guide to the "financial integrity" program, based on the work of Dominguez and Robin: this is a 132-page PDF.

One concept from the book that helped me was to think of money as a representation of "life energy." For example: my effective salary is $16 an hour. When I ate lunch today at the Chinese restaurant, it cost me a little less than $7. I can think of this as roughly a half-hour of "life energy," the amount of time I needed to work in order to earn that $7. Was that a worthwhile use of that half-hour? I think so.

But what about that $16,000 car on the dealer's lot? One thousand hours of life energy, plus more to insure it, fuel it, and repair it. Is it worth that much time out of my life? Probably not, especially when I have an older car that is all paid for and still runs well.


In the earlier editions of "Your Money or Your Life," Mr. Dominguez recommended that once you are out of debt and begin to have a little money left over, you should invest it by purchasing 30-year U.S. Treasury Bonds. Every time you get $1,000, buy another bond. If you had done that in the 1990's when he wrote this advice, you would have done well. But it is a less attractive investment plan nowadays, given current interest rates. So, for this aspect I would turn to two other books:

"The Intelligent Investor" (Benjamin Graham). This was written in 1949 and remains a classic. It outlines a simple approach to asset allocation and investing. Several differing editions are in print, some considerably expanded by more recent authors such as Warren Buffett.

"The Little Book of Common Sense Investing" (John Bogle, 2007). This follows many of the same ideas espoused by Graham, providing a more recent perspective. The basic principle of both books is to have a balance of bonds and equities, and pretty much leave them alone except to rebalance when one or the other goes up or down. Most of all, "chasing the market" is a fool's game, certain to lose most of your money.

I also recommend the website of the Vanguard company, which has a lot of educational material for someone new to investment. Our IRA accounts are with Vanguard, and I recommend them.


So I have gone from St. Paul's "having food and raiment, [being] therewith content" to being an Investor. My wife and I have managed to stay out of debt and save some money, mostly in our retirement accounts, and considering our age, this is a good thing. But it lays us open to "temptation and a snare, and into many foolish and hurtful lusts," and some aspects are harder now than they were when we had little or no money. It is perhaps not helpful that I find the subjects of economics, finance, and investment to be fascinating. They can easily consume a lot of time -- more of that "life energy," that properly belongs elsewhere.

Perhaps the key is simply to remember whose money it is. We are stewards of it, responsible for using it in a manner appropriate to the Kingdom. And (borrowing from Dominguez and Robin), we are equally stewards of the "life energy" that is granted us and that is in part represented by money. "He that is faithful in that which is least is faithful also in much; and he that is unjust in the least is unjust also in much."