QUESTION: Janelle in Sacramento wonders if they should cut their tithe in order to help them get out of debt more quickly. Dave explains his spiritual take and that he wouldn’t stop his tithe or reduce it.

ANSWER: By definition, an evangelical Christian is someone who believes what the Bible says. That’s where we need to go for our answers, not some guy on the radio. However, I can help you with that. I’m not your authority; God’s word would be.

As I’ve studied Scripture, the word “tithe” literally means tenth. Deuteronomy says to give a tenth of your net increase—a tenth of your income. About 1,200 years of Protestant Christian teaching has been that the tithe goes to the local church because the local church is the New Testament representation of the Old Testament storehouse. The Old Testament storehouse took care of the Levites. The church in your community is supposed to be doing that. That’s an evangelical Christian definition of it.

When does it occur? As I’ve studied it in Scripture, it’s real clear that it’s off the top as it says in Proverbs. That’s before anything else occurs. Having said all of that, there’s enough toxicity in Christianity and misinformation, so let’s back up from that. God loves you whether you give money to the church or not. He doesn’t love you more if you give. We’re not going to get into performance-based legalism. We’re just doing this because we love God and that’s what He’s telling His kid to do. I’m going to follow that.

No, I wouldn’t stop my tithe. I wouldn’t reduce it. It’s a tenth. I tithed all the way into bankruptcy court and all the way out. These are a loving Father’s instructions for His kids.

QUESTION: Shirley on Facebook wants to know if a single person with no dependents needs life insurance. Dave says you don’t need much.

ANSWER: You might need enough to bury you and pay your debts. Basically, you don’t want to leave somebody behind that you’re a burden to. Obviously, your funeral would be. Seven or eight thousand dollars would cover that in most cases. If you have some debts, it would be nice for those to be cleaned up.

Generally, if you have a health insurance policy, there’s a small life insurance policy built into that. If you work somewhere and buy your insurance through them, ask HR if there’s a small policy built into that. That may be enough to take care of you. You just don’t want Mom and Dad to have to write a check on the worst day of their lives.

No dependents is the key here. What we’re saying financially speaking is that no one is counting on you. If someone’s counting on you, that changes the whole equation.

QUESTION: Eric wants to know how he can get his wife on board. She freezes when he discusses budgeting because she sees it as restrictive. Dave explains that Eric needs to apologize first and then tell his wife why he wants to budget.

ANSWER: It is a restrictive thing. I have to say no in order to have some other things that I want. Life is about a restrictive thing. You guys aren’t in Congress. You have restrictive things. Money is finite.

There’s a good chance that in all of your wonderful enthusiasm, you may have turned my name into a curse word in your house. What you’ve done is talk about the what and not the why. The reason I got you on board, Eric, is I didn’t just tell you what you had to do; I told you why. You liked the why. The why was attractive. You went straight to the what and didn’t let her buy into the why. You owe her an apology. That will open up the door to start talking about the why.

Spend about 90% of your time talking about the why, and then the what or the how will be a natural byproduct once you buy into the why. You kind of blew it, so you have to backtrack and get back to solid ground in the relationship. That’s called an apology.

Your wife doesn’t want to punish herself unless she thinks she’s going to win as a result. The budget is not fun. But it’s the result that I’m after. The only reason someone would engage in restrictive behavior like a budget is if they thought it was taking them to a better place. That’s the why. The why is the better place. The how is the budget. Then, if she can’t buy into any of that and she says, “I just don’t want anyone to ever tell me no,” then what you have is an immature princess, and you may need some marriage counseling. But I don’t think that’s what’s going on here. I think you’ve miscommunicated this in your enthusiasm and given her a mixed message.