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Have you tried to change a financial habit but found yourself going back to the same old patterns? Most of us find it difficult to make any major changes in our financial tendencies. Impulse buying, online shopping, overspending, charging purchases and then not paying them off right away – these and many other practices can become so ingrained that they become difficult to change. We want to lament with Paul, “I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do” (Romans 7:15).
Underlying many of our financial patterns are our money motivations. These motivations act like an underwater current – unseen and often unrecognized, but affecting everything that happens in the water. Money motivations are not intrinsically good or bad; they simply describe how we view money. As we come to understand our own motivations, we empower ourselves to recognize the effect that these motivations have on our financial tendencies and to manage our responses.
In this article, we’ll meet four characters who each represent a key money motivation. We’ll see how each of these motivations can affect our financial decisions. We’ll learn to recognize our own primary motivations and to understand both the strengths and the dangers of each one. And hopefully, we’ll gain a clearer understanding of some of our financial practices.
Felice Freedom
Felice looks at money as something that enables her to live how she wants. She enjoys using money for purchases and experiences. When money is scarce, she feels restricted, unable to do the things she wants to do, purchase the things she wants to buy, etc.
Felice doesn’t worry much over finances; she just goes with the flow. She doesn’t obsess over bank balances, the stock market, or other financial measures. She doesn’t plan her spending in detail, preferring a more spontaneous approach. A spending plan feels restrictive to her.
The Freedom Motivation: Benefits
On the plus side, if your primary money motivation is freedom, you’re not likely to hoard. You’re not likely to make an idol of money so that you keep saving beyond your needs. You’re also not likely to use money to manipulate others.
Because freedom is important to you, you’re probably not enslaved to career and earning. This may free you up to use your time to help others. Additionally, you may be more prone to giving generously. Your spontaneous nature with money may make you more responsive to the Holy Spirit’s prompting when it comes to giving.
The Freedom Motivation: Dangers
Beware of several pitfalls associated with this money motivation. First, you may be prone to materialism or consumerism, using money to accumulate possessions or to pursue pleasures. This may work against any tendency you would have toward generosity.
Second, your spontaneous approach to money may lead you to downplay the importance of saving, which can leave you vulnerable to unexpected expenses and can leave you without the money you need in later years.
Both of these pitfalls may tend to make you more prone to get into debt and stay there. Paying off debt and saving for the future feels like you’re doing what other people want you to do with money, not what you want to do with it. If debt is a problem for you, consider whether this motivation may underlie that problem.
The freedom motivation can also lead to selfishness, as gratifying personal desires becomes the dominant use of money.
Perhaps most importantly, if your primary money motivation is freedom, you may be reluctant to live according to a spending plan. You feel restricted when you can only spend money in certain, predetermined ways. But without a spending plan, you’re not maximizing your stewardship. Even if you’re not going into debt, chances are that your saving and giving are both impacted by your spending.
We’ve discussed elsewhere that a spending plan actually enhances your freedom with money by putting you more in control of where the money goes. Instead of being controlled by whim and spur-of-the-moment decisions (not to mention marketing), living by a spending plan gives you the freedom to determine where your money goes. Scripture counsels us against consuming all we have:
The wise store up choice food and olive oil,
but fools gulp theirs down.
–Proverbs 21:20
Sam Security
Sam looks to money to provide for his needs. He doesn’t really enjoy money, but worries about not having enough. When money is scarce, he’s concerned about having enough to live on or to handle an unexpected crisis.
While Felice doesn’t worry about money, Sam does – a lot. He closely tracks his bank balances and investment accounts, and gets concerned when he hears bad news about the economy. He plans his spending pretty closely to make sure he’ll have enough. Debt makes him feel insecure.
The Security Motivation: Benefits
If security is your primary money motivation, you probably have a fairly detailed and workable spending plan. You don’t overspend and if you do, you make the necessary adjustments in both the current month and succeeding months. You pay attention to your financial situation and trends and don’t let negative trends go unchecked.
You’re not prone to impulse spending and you’re not motivated by materialism or consumerism. You probably save intentionally for both short-term and long-term needs, and as a result, you’re able to handle unexpected emergencies. You tend to avoid consumer debt.
If you’re motivated by security, you’re probably also a hard worker. However, you may not enjoy working but feel trapped into earning in order to save.
The Security Motivation: Dangers
The most obvious danger of the security motivation is its tendency to make money an idol. The accumulation of wealth becomes a goal that drives much of life. We put our faith in money to provide for our needs, rather than in God. Scripture warns us of the uncertainty of putting our faith in money:
Command those who are rich in this present world not to be arrogant nor to put their hope in wealth, which is so uncertain, but to put their hope in God, who richly provides us with everything for our enjoyment.
–1 Timothy 6:17
The deceitfulness of wealth is one of the major obstacles that keeps believers from bearing spiritual fruit, as Jesus taught in the Parable of the Sower (Matthew 13:22).
The security motivation can also lead to hoarding – saving beyond actual needs. Precisely because wealth is uncertain, it can feel like you never have enough to meet the undefined needs of the future. This may drive you to continually save more, which in turn tends to limit generosity. Jesus draws this connection in the Parable of the Rich Fool (Luke 12:16-21). Looking to money to provide security makes it hard to give it away.
By the way, another application of this danger of security can be the desire to leave an inheritance for the next generation. Scripture paints a positive picture of leaving an inheritance, but taken to an extreme, this too can become an idol – leading us to trust our children’s future to money rather than to God.
Paul Power
Paul thinks of money in terms of success and control. Money makes him both look and feel successful. Paul uses money to bring him control over situations and to pave the path for further success. He’s a career guy, good at his work and constantly leveraging that to further his career.
Paul doesn’t worry about money like Sam does, but he’s just as driven as Sam to earn it. Where Sam sees money in defensive terms (protection from crisis, etc.), Paul see it offensively – in terms of what he can do with it. Sam feels trapped, compelled to constantly earn in order to save; but Paul is energized by earning because he feels like he’s driving toward a goal.
The Power Motivation: Benefits
If power is your primary motivation, then you probably spend money wisely. You’re not quite the penny-pincher that Sam is, but you don’t waste money either. You may not detail out your spending to the dollar, but you have an overall strategy for how you spend and save, and you’re disciplined in sticking to it. At the same time, you’re open to new opportunities.
“With great power comes great responsibility.” Peter Parker’s (aka, Spiderman’s) motto applies to you if you’re in this category. Power is not a bad thing necessarily. Power can be used to effect significant good in the community and in the world. Consider the story of Joseph, whose power in Egypt enabled him to save the country (and his family as well) during a severe famine. Or Esther, who leveraged her power and influence with the king to save her people from disaster. If you have a heart for God’s glory in the world, power can be a great enabler.
The Power Motivation: Dangers
There are some obvious pitfalls to the motivation of power. First of all, if your heart is focused on your own good (rather than on God’s glory and the good of others), you may use money to manipulate others for your benefit. You may tend to see other people as primarily either helps or hindrances to your own success, rather than seeing them as God’s children.
Power may be the motivation most prone to selfishness, in several forms. If this is your motivation, you might be overly concerned with how others see you. You might think of yourself more highly than you ought. You may tend to put your own success ahead of the needs of others. If this is where you find yourself, heed the words of Paul to the Philippians:
Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit, but consider others better than yourselves. Each of you should look not only to your own interests, but also to the interests of others. Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus…
–(Philippians 2:3-5)
Laura Love
Laura thinks of money in terms of love – both expressing love and feeling loved. Her primary love language is gift-giving, and she enjoys spending money on others. She feels fulfilled when she’s bringing happiness to others. She usually picks up the check when going out with others, and tips generously as a way of expressing appreciation to her server.
Laura cares a lot about how others see her. She not only wants to express love, she wants to feel loved by others. Sometimes, she spends in such a way as to gain appreciation from others (if the truth were known, this is actually part of her motivation for picking up the check).
The Love Motivation: Benefits
If your primary money motivation is love, you’re probably sensitive to the needs of others and you care about meeting those needs. You’re not obsessed with earning and saving, but you like to have some extra money on hand to help out friends or family or to give to those in need. You see money as an opportunity to build relationships. You may tend to put the needs of others ahead of your own needs.
Generosity probably comes easy for you. You may even actively look for ways to use money to help others.
The Love Motivation: Dangers
Watch out for putting too much emphasis on the opinions of others. Where Paul Power cares about being viewed as successful, you may care about being viewed as loving and generous. Paul wants to be admired and even envied; you may be overly concerned with being appreciated. This may cause you to spend unwisely and lead to unintended debt.
If spending on others is your primary way of expressing love, be aware that it may not be the primary way your friends or family express love. You might tend to base your feelings of being loved on how much others are spending on you, but that may not be an accurate measure of your relationships.
Money Motivations and Stewardship
Freedom. Security. Power. Love. Most of us would admit that we’d like a bit more of all of these – and that’s not necessarily bad. Each of these motivations can have a positive impact on our stewardship – but each also has a darker side.
Why does all of this matter? By understanding our own money motivations, we can guard against tendencies that may be unwise. At the same time, we can maximize our stewardship by leveraging the positive aspects of our motivations.
As stewards of God’s possessions, our primary purpose with money should be to bring glory to God. That can be done in many different ways, and it can be done in ways consistent with each money motivation. Here are a few questions you might consider, based on your primary money motivation.
- Freedom: Are you truly financially free, or are you driven by whims and marketing? Are you saving wisely and giving generously?
- Security: Are you trusting in money more than in God? What would it take to change that? Does your need to save keep you from being rich toward God and others?
- Power: Are you leveraging your success for God’s glory? Are you maximizing your influence to spread the gospel and help those in need?
- Love: Are you secure in God’s love, or is a desire for the love of others driving you? Is your love for others limited to those in your immediate circle, or do you love “neighbors” who are not geographically, socially, or ethnically near you? Does God’s love drive your love?
How did these motivations resonate with you? Did you see yourself particularly in one of them? Did you identify any behavioral/financial patterns that you might need to modify? Spend some time in prayer asking God for direction and next steps.
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