032: Christian Money Management: A Faith-Based Foundation for Your Finances
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Show Notes
Learn how to handle money with wisdom, purpose, and biblical truth.
In this episode of The Anchored Decision Show, Lauren sits down with Certified Financial Planner Emily Scott to talk about biblical financial planning. From creating a God-honoring budget to deciding what to invest in, Emily shares practical, grace-filled wisdom to help you approach your finances with intentionality and faith. She also opens up about her journey into financial planning, why stewardship is the foundation of wise money management, and how generosity helps us guard our hearts from idolizing wealth. Whether you're managing a household budget, planning for retirement, or teaching your kids about money, this episode is packed with insight and encouragement to help you walk in financial freedom.
Links From This Episode:
✨ Investing for Dummies
✨ Faith-based investors: Bob Dahl and Eventide
✨ Dave Ramsey — Financial Peace University
✨ Divine Discernment Workshop: www.anchoreddecisions.com/ddworkshop
✨ Show Notes & Links: www.anchoreddecisions.com/31
Key Points:
🔑 Stewardship means managing God’s resources wisely—not just giving a little back, but viewing all of it as His.
🔑 Financial goals are the GPS destination—budgeting and investing flow from knowing where you're headed.
🔑 Time in the market (not timing the market) is the key to growing wealth through investments.
🔑 God-honoring budgets start with giving and saving first, then spending what's left with intentionality.
🔑 Generosity is one of the best ways to guard your heart from greed and financial idolatry.
🔑 Couples thrive financially when they approach money conversations calmly, without blame or fear.
🔑 Teach kids early that money can be saved, spent, or shared—and let them practice with real examples.
Your Action Step for the Week:
🎯 Set your financial goals. As Emily says, it’s like setting the GPS—you can’t create a plan until you know your destination. Sit down with your spouse or a financial advisor and define where you're headed financially.
Connect with Emily:
🌟 Website: www.financiallyunbroken.com
🌟 Instagram: @financially_unbroken
🌟 Facebook: Emily Scott - Financial Planner
🔔 Don’t forget to subscribe for more faith-based decision-making tips!
Connect with Me:
🌟 www.instagram.com/anchoreddecisions
🌟 www.facebook.com/anchoreddecisions
🌟 www.pinterest.com/anchoreddecisions
Check out my website and decision guide shop:
🌐 www.anchoreddecisions.com
🛍️ www.anchoreddecisions.com/shop
Transcript
Lauren:
Do you know how to invest your money wisely according to a biblical foundation? This week, I have a two part series for you with two different financial advisors helping you decide where to invest your money, how to steward your money wisely, and answering other financial related questions regarding how to raise your kids with a biblical financial perspective and whether or not to use credit cards versus cash. Should you take out a loan to do construction renovation or save up until you have cash? We dive deep into all of these in this two part series. So part one today is with Emily Scott. Emily provides a faith-based foundation for your finances so you can manage your money well.
Intro: Welcome to the Anchored Decisions Show. I'm your host, Lauren Black, the world's biggest overthinker turn decision coach, all by the grace of God. Now I'm on a mission to help you make easier decisions, discover God's will and live with purpose. Tune in weekly to hear real life decision stories, expert insights, and faith-based strategies to help you navigate your decisions with confidence, so ditch your pros and cons list and learn to make better decisions without asking your mom or losing another night sleep. Let's go.
Lauren:
All right, we are back, and I am so excited for today's guest. This topic of financial planning—financial decisions—has been one requested by my audience. People want to hear from an expert, someone that has way more experience than me. So that is why I'm super excited to have Emily Scott on the show.
She is a certified financial planner, and she has built her career on helping clients achieve financial wellness while passionately advocating for the integration of faith and finance through her Bible study, Financially Unbroken, which—that's awesome, I love that. Her background is in financial management, and she's dedicated to guiding individuals and families in making financial decisions through a spiritual lens.
In her seven-session Bible study, Emily combines practical advice with biblical principles, empowering readers to attain financial freedom while honoring their values. She's committed to providing expert guidance and personalized strategies with a strong focus on stewardship. Emily actively supports her clients in navigating the complexities of financial planning with a specialized focus on families with special needs.
So Emily, welcome to the show.
Emily:
Thank you. Thank you for having me. I'm so honored.
Lauren:
Yeah. So tell us a little bit about you, your family, and how you got into financial planning.
Emily:
Yes, absolutely. So I actually got into financial planning fairly early. I took a Dave Ramsey class when I was in high school, and I finally found where math can be applicable in real life.
Originally, I was kind of scared about finances. But once I took that class and I learned about it, I figured out that I wanted to go into this path of educating other people and giving them the same confidence in finances as I do. So that's really where it started, and that's where I've been ever since.
Lauren:
Wow. That is awesome. So when you said you ran into that class in high school, did you go to like a private school that offered it, or was that through your church?
Emily:
I went to a private school that it was mandatory to take. So I was a very fortunate individual to go through that school where it was provided.
Lauren:
Right, right, definitely. I went to public school, and they did not do enough of teaching us about the real world math, as you said, and like financial planning and investments and what things actually cost.
I know that I was very clueless going off to college, which was partly my parents' fault—not gonna lie. They didn't like to talk about finances, and so they kept everything hush-hush. But then it was like, okay, I need to know this stuff. I'm going out on my own in the real world.
So I wanted to start off with you telling us, from a Christian perspective—this is why it was so important for me to have a Christian financial planner on—how should we approach financial decisions differently than the world?
Emily:
Absolutely. So the number one thing is stewardship. It's a very big word, but what it means is to manage resources wisely on behalf of someone else. Psalm 24:1 says that the earth is the Lord's and everything in it belongs to Him.
And so when we have that mindset of, "I'm managing these resources, but they are God's," and you switch that perspective, that's really where you can begin to make wiser decisions with your money—when you have that lens of stewardship.
Lauren:
Right. Yeah, that definitely changes your perspective—that like, this isn't my money that I'm just donating a little bit of here and there for tithes or offerings. This is God's money that I need to be wise with how I manage it. Wow.
So are there any other verses that you like to use in your business or that you stand by with financial planning from a Christian perspective?
Emily:
Yes, there's a lot, but I've narrowed it down to two of my top favorites.
The first is Proverbs 21:5: "The plans of the diligent surely lead to abundance, but everyone who's hasty comes only to poverty." And so that really emphasizes the diligence—that you need to be planning and being intentional with what you have.
And then following that is Luke 14:28: "Suppose one of you wants to build a tower, won't you first sit down and estimate the cost to see if you have enough to complete it?" I apply that to budgeting and retirement planning because you can only do the goals that you've set out if you've planned for it.
Lauren:
Right. Yes. Yes. And I know some people that—sadly—they're like, "Oh, I don't make enough to start saving for retirement." And it's like, well, when will you make enough to start saving?
You need to cut back on your expenses now to have that, or you'll never be able to retire.
Emily:
Absolutely. And time in the market is the magic behind the investing, because the more time you have, the longer it has to grow. So even if you start with just a little bit—that’s the secret sauce.
Lauren:
Right. Yes. That's like—I’ve seen somewhere where, like, if you start with a penny and every day you double it, in so many years—not even that long—you’re up to like over a million. And it's just because they compound so much over time.
Emily:
Yes.
Lauren:
Now, what would you say is the first step in financial planning? So would that be maybe setting a budget, planning for retirement—you've mentioned both of those already—making a long-term investment plan? Like, what steps should someone take?
Emily:
I would say the very first step is to identify your goals, because the goals are the destination. You can only lead the GPS if you have the destination.
So once you have those goals, then you can dually do budgeting and retirement planning simultaneously, because your cash flow is going to lead into retirement decisions—and all of that's going toward those goals that you have.
Lauren:
Right. Yeah, definitely. That’s like—I had an episode on the Principle of the Path by Andy Stanley, where he talks about how your actions—not your intentions—determine your destination.
So you can have all the intentions in the world of having a retirement saving, but if you're not taking the actions to get there, it's not going to happen.
So now, how could someone decide what to invest in? I know this is kind of a loaded question and it’s going to be personalized for every person. What do you suggest people do to start even researching for their family—their personal situation?
Emily:
Mm-hmm. Yeah. So, there's several options out there. Investing for Dummies is a great resource. There are plenty of books. When you open an account at a custodian like Fidelity or Charles Schwab—any of those—they have a resources tab, so you can start doing some investment research.
You can talk to a professional like me to help guide those decisions with you. And then there are places like Eventide, or you can look up Bob Dahl. Some of these are faith-based investors, and they help guide those decisions about: do you want a mutual fund that is world-based, or do you want one that's filtered out things like gambling and tobacco outside of your portfolio?
I can go really deep in the weeds on that question, but that’s a good place to start. There are several resources out there, but also—don’t just Google it and take the AI-generated response as gospel on that question.
Lauren:
Right. Yes. And yeah, everybody's going to be in different positions. Like, I know some people who have a huge portfolio of properties, and they're not actually saving for retirement—specifically with like cash or a Roth IRA or something like that—because they have these investment properties.
And it looks a little different than someone like my family, where we've got our house, but we don't have any other properties. And my husband's very conservative with his investments, and so he would rather put into some of those, you know, IRAs and things like that to have that compound interest over time—but a little less risky and scary than purchasing an investment home or investment properties like that.
Emily:
Right.
Lauren:
So what steps do you recommend for someone who wants to create a God-honoring budget?
Emily:
So it starts with the income statement—so, what you're making.
How I break it down with clients is: you take out the taxes—because you do what belongs to Caesar, belongs to Caesar. So we take out tax. We put in giving into that as well, and savings.
Then what's left over—once you take out those big items—is the discretionary bucket. And out of the discretionary bucket is where you can be intentional about what you're spending money on.
Do you really need the name-brand bag, or is what you have sufficient and you can put that money toward something else?
It all kind of flows from that income statement that I work clients through. But being intentional and remembering stewardship as the first filter is always important.
Lauren:
Right. Yes—give from the beginning, and not from what's left over.
Yeah, so how can we balance this wise stewardship with enjoying still the fruit of your labor? Trying to, you know, balance saving for retirement but also living a little today—so that you're not putting everything into savings and not able to have some breathing room or some fun money for today or provide things for your kids and whatnot?
Emily:
Absolutely. So this is my favorite question, because a lot of people think that a financial planner is like, “You never get to spend on anything fun,” and that’s not living, you know, and you never know what’s going to happen.
And so I do take that into consideration when I'm working with people. It is important to factor that in, without relying on this YOLO—you only live once—mentality, or the FOMO—the fear of missing out.
What I like to do with clients is: instead of FOMO, fear of missing out, is “faith over the opportunity.”
And so what you have in front of you is resources and blessings from God. Rather than pigeonholing yourself into a tight-fisted, “I'm only going to do this, that, and the other with it,” if you open your hand up and you allow yourself to give generously, to pour into others, to volunteer your time—even if you don't have the resources—all of those things…
When you have that open hand, God is more able to bless you, because your hand is open.
Lauren:
Oh, that’s good. I like that picture.
Emily:
Mm-hmm.
Lauren:
So I know some couples that do things differently as far as their fun money—you know, spending money accounts. Some that—they have a separate bank account for that, that automatically, some of their funds—they have a set budget that goes into it every month.
And they might save for three years and then go on a big guy’s trip. Or the wife might constantly be buying little things with her money.
What are some things you've seen other people do in that realm as far as having savings accounts? And I know with the Dave Ramsey background, you might be one with the cash envelope. So what are some different options there?
Emily:
Yeah, so cash envelopes are not very popular. We have a hard time getting to the ATM, and it's just easier to set it up electronically.
Some banks offer different types of accounts where you can automatically shift money. What I typically tell people is: automate as much as possible, so you don’t have to remember it—and it's going where you've set it to go.
So that's a great strategy.
If one or either partner is a big spender, then separating out accounts—where it doesn’t look like there’s as much money to spend—sometimes that’s a really good strategy for people.
If some people have anxiety about bills—like I do—we have an account that the bills come out of, and so I don’t see the stress of all the monies going away from the principal.
So there’s a lot of different strategies that you can do to set up, but automation, I think, is key.
Lauren:
Yeah. Yeah.
Now that brings me back to—I don’t know if Dave Ramsey, I don’t know if you even still follow him today since that was your background—but does he still push for the cash envelope system today? Do you know?
Emily:
As far as I know, I believe it's still in the book. I don't listen to the podcast regularly, so maybe they have other strategies now, but yeah, that's a good question.
Lauren:
And I think usually Dave Ramsey is a household name these days in the church, but for anybody listening who has no idea who Dave Ramsey is—he’s kind of the pioneer of financial planning for Christians.
He has a Financial Peace University—his Bible study group, I guess—and a book. And tons of churches go through the course together to help people with their financial planning.
So now, I know that in my family, my husband is all about using our credit cards for as many purchases as possible so that we get the points. We just make sure we pay it off and that everything is covered. But that way we’re earning points for things. And when we go on vacation, we can get our hotels and our cars cheaper using points than we would using cash or a regular credit card.
So is that something that you advise, or how do you kind of manage that?
Emily:
So I consider a credit card like a screwdriver—because a screwdriver is needed for a lot of projects, but not every project. If you're trying to paint, you're not going to grab the screwdriver, right?
So, for different projects, you need that tool. If you are someone who is responsible enough to pay it off every month and you really are earning the rewards—not using it for rewards and then paying interest on it later—then yes.
It really depends on the person. If you are responsible, we use credit cards because it’s free money—as long as you pay it off. But that’s the key: you have to be able to use the tool responsibly.
Lauren:
Right. Yeah.
Now I would love to pose a hypothetical question for you and see your advice and thoughts on it—because we had been given different advice over this over the years, and I don’t know which one would’ve been the better advice to take.
So, when my husband and I bought our house—this was 11 years ago—it had a lot of updates that were needed. And some of them we needed to do immediately, like get a new roof because the roof was leaking, and that's pretty important to take care of.
So we took care of that one right away. But then the other projects we put off. We wanted to pay down more of the house. We wanted to save up cash for the projects.
And now it’s 11 years later, and things are so much more expensive. So it’s like, we're now spending cash—we didn’t want to take out extra money, an extra loan, and have interest on those—but we probably could’ve taken out a little bit of interest and still paid it off by now, and would’ve spent a lot less money if we had done things five or ten years ago.
So what are your thoughts there?
Emily:
Well, hindsight’s always 20/20. If I could go back in time and invest in Facebook back before it took off—right—I would’ve done it, of course.
It’s easy to get into your head about, “Well, I should’ve done this differently.” But the fact is, you did what you did, and you have to be able to accept the choices that you’ve made.
In that situation, I still probably would’ve said it was better to save up cash than to take out a loan, unless it was necessary—because the interest on the loan, how much would that have been, and how much more would that have added to the project?
That would’ve been a difficult idea to construct because we wouldn’t know what the costs are now, especially with the inflation craziness over the last couple of years. There’s no foresight on stuff like that. So it really depends on your risk tolerance and whether you’d pay with cash. But I think I would’ve done what you did.
Lauren:
Well, I’m actually very, very thankful we did wait in the end, because I don’t think 27-year-old me should’ve been making the design choices that we want for the next 30 years!
So, my style has matured and changed over the years—but the last few years, it’s been pretty set. So I feel confident that the design decisions I’m making now should be ones I hopefully still like in 20, 30 years… however long we’re in this house.
But yeah, I’m so glad that I didn’t do those projects right away.
My husband is the financial planner in the family. He’s the one who does all of our investing, calculates all of our finances, takes care of the bills, and I’m very thankful for that because my brain—I’m the creative side. I don’t want to do the numbers and the investments.
And so all of this is very foreign to me since he handles that. But yeah, I’m glad it worked out the way that it did in the end.
So, what are your suggestions for getting on the same page as your spouse? I know financial things can cause some big tension in a lot of marriages—and either having opposite spending habits or different ideas of what to invest in, or just having separate accounts versus joint accounts and things like that.
Emily:
Yeah. So the biggest thing that I see with people when they’re having that conflict is—they’re bringing things into the conversation that don’t need to be there.
They’re bringing in fear or guilt, or they’re blaming somebody for what they’ve done in the past. And they’re bringing in all these charged emotions.
Whereas if you don’t bring that to the table, and you’re coming in with open hands, open heart, open mind—you’re able to communicate more effectively and problem-solve more logically than when you have those charged emotions.
And then, if you’re not seeing the progress that you want, then it’s time to bring in a third party—a therapist or a financial planner—and we can navigate those conversations together.
We can bring the emotion down, look at things more objectively, and help guide those decisions and conversations with you.
Lauren:
Right. Right. Yeah. And I think it’s important in any hard conversation like that to make sure that you and your spouse are approaching it at the right time.
Because as you said, sometimes if it’s emotions—like, let’s say one person goes out and spends on something ridiculous or something really expensive, or something the other party doesn’t feel was necessary or a good purchase—then that is not the time to bring up all of their investments or your whole financial planning.
Let things calm down, and then talk through them peacefully—or, as you said, with a third party—to make sure that you have an outside perspective, too. Because, you know, there are two sides to every story and every perspective.
So, what are some practical ways that you encourage your clients to pray or reflect before making any significant financial moves—any big investments or planning their budget?
Emily:
That is a great question. So, having the perspective of stewardship—I’m always going to bring that into the conversation.
When it comes to bigger decisions and stewardship, we want to make sure that everybody’s on the same page. It is important to have a financial planner as another resource to make sure you’re making the best decision possible.
But two—when you’re coming to the table with God in prayer—making sure that He understands your heart.
And one prayer that I always use is, “If there’s something I’m supposed to say that I didn’t prepare, let me say it. And if there is something that I prepared to say that I shouldn’t say, erase it from my mind.”
Prayers like that, that are really descriptive to God—He honors those because it’s coming from our heart. And so when you’re praying over a big decision like that, it’s important to put the time commitment in. Don’t impulse it.
Make sure that you are being as transparent as possible with God, so that He can be as transparent as possible with you.
Lauren:
Wow. Yeah. Yeah. I love that—that just kind of opening up to whatever God’s path is, and for Him to direct that in your heart—even the thoughts that you were going to pray. That’s really good.
So, I know that a lot of times financial things and money can end up being an idol in people’s lives—even if they don’t think it is.
Like, we as Christians—a lot of times we’re like, “Oh, I don’t have any idols.” And then it’s like, oh wait… finances and putting our trust in the stability of finances can be a common idol for us.
So what are some ways we can keep finances and money and success—in the world’s eyes—from becoming an idol?
Emily:
Absolutely. So, it’s a dangerous path of being like, “I don’t idolize it, but here’s my collection of name-brand X, Y, Z…”—whatever your thing is, right?
So what I help people understand is—rather than being so focused on all the different convoluted ways that greed can creep in—the easiest way to battle that is to begin to be generous.
And then that’s when you’ll see it.
As soon as you go to tithe, then it’s, “Well, I don’t really need to tithe that much,” or, “Well, I think we’ve given enough…”
I would red flag that. I would be watchful over your heart in those decisions, because that’s where it’s going to pop up.
Lauren:
Yeah, definitely. And then, as I mentioned, my family—we didn’t really talk about finances. And I kind of was thrown into the real world without much support in that realm.
So what are some things people could do to help their kids learn about finances and just be involved in the financial conversations in the house?
Emily:
Absolutely. So, there are studies that show that the amount of talk about money in the house does build money habits at a really early age.
How confident the parents are talking about their money and their money journey—and how they are—if they were fearful about money, if it's not talked about at all… There are plenty of studies that show how important these conversations are.
So the earliest conversation I would start with is teaching younger children that there are three things to do with money: you can save it, you can spend it, or you can share it.
And as soon as they’re able to understand the differences from there, that’s a really great starting place to begin having more open conversations about financial literacy and those types of things.
Lauren:
Yeah. I’ve been wanting to help my kids—mine are six and three—and so I don’t want them to be in the same position that I was in when I was 18 and went out to college.
So I did get them—last year for Christmas—they got jars for their money. And so one is Save, one is Spend, one is Give.
Though I found my son—my older one—kept wanting to play with his jars, and so the money kept just getting bounced around between them. So I finally superglued the lid on the Save jar so that he could not get anything out of it. Whatever we put in there—it’s going to take a long time for us to get that lid off, so he can’t just keep playing with it.
And now it’s on the top shelf of his closet, which—he likes to stack up his stool on top of an ottoman and just climb the shelves to get to that top shelf. But even if he does get to that jar, he can’t get it open yet.
So I do like to try to help him understand that. I don’t think he quite grasps all of it yet, but I am just starting the conversations.
And he did say to me the other day—it was really cute—we usually, with things like getting ready for school, I’ll say, “We do the things we have to do first. Then you can do the things you want to do.”
So, we have to eat breakfast, get dressed, brush our teeth—and then you can play with your toys or go look for that thing you wanted to bring to school and things like that.
And so the other day, he said it about money. There was something he wanted to purchase, and he goes, “Spend your money on the things you need first, and then you can spend it on the things you want.”
I was like, yes, yes! You’re getting it!
And it’s not like that’s a phrase I repeat all the time for money things. I usually say it more for like things that we need to do.
But it was good that he’s starting to grasp it. And yeah, I’m just trying to teach him to be good with his money.
And things like—I hate when my kids waste food. Toddlers and little kids are so wasteful. They’ll take one bite of a banana and say, “You know what? I don’t want this banana.” And they go to throw it away.
I’m like, “No! Daddy or I will eat that. That’s like throwing money in the trash.” And so I say that often when they’re being very wasteful, and just try to even teach them about respecting our house and our things—because if they damage them, then we have to spend money to replace it.
So yeah, just trying to incorporate that into everyday conversations as needed.
And then even over the summer, I’ve done things like—they get to earn dollars toward things. And so if they get a certain number of summer bucks, they can put it toward extra showtime, or a trip to the Dollar Tree, or extra dessert that night.
And there’s little budgets that they have for each item, and they can choose how they want to spend their summer bucks.
Emily:
That’s awesome. I love that.
Lauren:
Yeah. So is there anything else that you could share, just as we wrap things up, on financial planning and investing and all that?
Emily:
It’s important to make those decisions instead of sitting and waiting on them. That would be what I would leave listeners with.
It’s very important to go ahead and make the decision—and make it scared, if need be.
Lauren:
Yeah. So be proactive, rather than reactive. Yeah.
All right, today’s action step for our listeners is to set your goals for what your finances are. As Emily said, that’s kind of like setting the GPS. You need to know what your destination is in order for everything else to fall in place.
So sit down with your spouse or with a financial planner like Emily and make that goal.
All right. Well, Emily, thank you so much for coming on today and sharing your wisdom. Can you tell everyone where they can find you and about your book?
Emily:
Absolutely. So you can find me easiest at financiallyunbroken.com. You can find both the financial planning practice that I have and links to the Bible study.
You can also find me on Instagram at @financially_unbroken, and I’m on Facebook as Emily Scott Financial Planner.
The Bible study is seven unique sessions—from debt management, cash flow, understanding net worth, all of those things. It’s a very easy-to-understand, plain-English translation of financial literacy. And then also answering all of those different topics through the spiritual lens and what God says about money.
Lauren:
All right, awesome. Thank you so much. Really appreciated you joining us today.
Emily:
Thank you. Thank you for having me.
Lauren:
Yeah.
And finally, let me pray us out.
Lauren (prayer):
Father God, I thank you so much for Emily coming on the show today. I thank you for the wisdom she has shared about how to invest and handle our money financially wise, but also from a biblical perspective—because we know that we are set apart from the world, and our finances should be as well.
God, we understand that our finances are not ours—they are Yours—and we are here just to be good stewards. So help us to have generous hearts, to prioritize giving, and to make sure that we are making wise financial decisions for the glory of Your Kingdom.
We give all this back to You, God. In Jesus' name, Amen.