# The Budget That Starts With God: How the 10-10-70-10, 10-10-80, and Tithe & Offering First Plans Change Everything *By Dr. Van Moody* --- Most people build their budget the same way. They start with their income, subtract their bills, subtract their groceries, subtract their subscriptions, subtract their car payment, and then — if anything is left — they give a little to the church and maybe put a few dollars in savings. It feels responsible. It feels practical. But it is actually backwards. The most transformative financial decision you will ever make is not which investment account to open or which debt to pay off first. It is the decision to put God first in your finances — before the bills, before the groceries, before everything else. That single act of faith reorganizes not just your budget, but your entire relationship with money. For years I have taught three budget frameworks that are built on this principle. Each one is slightly different, designed for different seasons of life and different levels of financial margin. But all three share the same foundation: **God first, yourself second, and then you live on the rest.** Today I want to walk you through all three, explain the biblical logic behind each one, and show you exactly how to start using them. --- ## Why the Order of Your Budget Is a Theological Statement Before we look at the specific frameworks, I need to address something that trips up a lot of people. Many Christians believe in tithing and believe in saving, but they treat both as things they do *after* they have handled their "real" financial obligations. The tithe becomes whatever is left after the mortgage. Savings becomes whatever is left after the tithe. This approach has a name in Scripture, and it is not a flattering one. Proverbs 3:9–10 says: *"Honor the Lord with your wealth and with the firstfruits of all your produce; then your barns will be filled with plenty, and your vats will be bursting with wine."* The word "firstfruits" is not a metaphor. It means the first portion — not the last, not the remainder, not the overflow. The first. When you give first, save second, and live on the rest, you are making a statement about who you believe is the source of your provision. You are saying: *I trust that God can do more with 90 percent of my income than I can do with 100 percent.* That is not naive. That is faith operating in the financial realm, and it is exactly what Malachi 3:10 describes when God invites us to test Him in this area. With that foundation in place, let me walk you through the three frameworks. --- ## Framework One: The 10-10-70-10 Plan This is the framework I recommend most strongly, and it is the one that is pre-selected as the default in the Financial Freedom App's Budget Wizard. Here is why. The 10-10-70-10 Plan divides your income into four intentional buckets: | Category | Percentage | Purpose | |----------|-----------|---------| | **Tithe & Giving** | 10% | Honoring God with the firstfruits of your income | | **Pay Yourself First** | 10% | Building savings, investments, and an emergency fund | | **Living Expenses** | 70% | Housing, food, transportation, utilities, and lifestyle | | **Margin & Opportunities** | 10% | Buffer for unexpected expenses and unexpected blessings | The first 10 percent goes to God — immediately, automatically, before anything else is touched. This is the tithe, and it is non-negotiable in this framework. The second 10 percent goes to yourself — into savings, into an emergency fund, into a retirement account, into whatever financial future you are building. The 70 percent is where you actually live your life. And the final 10 percent is what I call the margin bucket. That last category is what makes this framework unique. Most budget plans have three categories. This one has four, and the fourth one is intentional. Life is unpredictable. Your car will need a repair. A medical bill will arrive. A friend will need help. A business opportunity will present itself. The margin bucket is not a slush fund — it is a strategic reserve that keeps you from being derailed by the unexpected and positions you to respond generously when God opens a door. I have seen this framework transform families. When you are living on 70 percent of your income, you have breathing room. You are not one emergency away from crisis. You are not choosing between the electric bill and groceries. You are operating from a position of strength, and that changes everything about how you make financial decisions. --- ## Framework Two: The 10-10-80 Plan The 10-10-80 Plan is the simplified version of the same core principle, and it is the right starting point for people who are just beginning their financial freedom journey or who are in a season of tighter margins. | Category | Percentage | Purpose | |----------|-----------|---------| | **Tithe & Giving** | 10% | Honoring God first | | **Pay Yourself First** | 10% | Savings and financial future | | **Living Expenses** | 80% | Everything else | The logic is identical to the 10-10-70-10 Plan — God first, yourself second, live on the rest — but the living expenses bucket is larger (80 percent instead of 70 percent), and there is no separate margin category. This is the right framework if you are carrying significant debt, if your income is variable, or if the idea of living on 70 percent feels impossible right now. Here is what I want you to understand: starting with the 10-10-80 Plan is not settling. It is wisdom. It is far better to commit fully to a 10-10-80 framework than to commit halfway to a 10-10-70-10 framework. The discipline of giving first and saving second is the transformation. The percentages are the starting point, not the destination. As you pay down debt, increase your income, and reduce your fixed expenses, you can migrate from the 10-10-80 Plan to the 10-10-70-10 Plan — and that transition will feel like a promotion, because it is. --- ## Framework Three: The Tithe & Offering First Plan This framework is for people who feel called to give at a higher level — and who want their budget to reflect that calling explicitly. | Category | Percentage | Purpose | |----------|-----------|---------| | **Tithe** | 10% | The biblical baseline — returning to God what is already His | | **Offering** | 5% | A freewill gift above and beyond the tithe | | **Living Expenses** | 85% | Housing, food, transportation, and lifestyle | The distinction between tithe and offering is important and often misunderstood. The tithe — 10 percent of your income — is not a gift. It is a return. Malachi 3:8 asks: *"Will a man rob God? Yet you are robbing me. But you say, 'How have we robbed you?' In your tithes and contributions."* The tithe belongs to God. Returning it is obedience, not generosity. The offering is where generosity begins. The offering is what you give above the tithe — freely, joyfully, in response to what God has done in your life. The Tithe & Offering First Plan sets a floor of 15 percent for giving (10 percent tithe plus 5 percent offering) and builds the rest of the budget around that commitment. This framework is not for everyone in every season. But for those who feel called to it, it is one of the most powerful financial disciplines available. There is something that happens spiritually and practically when 15 cents of every dollar you earn goes to God's purposes before you spend a single dollar on yourself. It recalibrates your entire relationship with money. It makes you a better steward of the 85 percent that remains, because you have already demonstrated that you understand who the real owner is. --- ## How to Choose the Right Framework for Your Season The question I get most often is: *Which one is right for me?* Here is a simple guide: **Start with the 10-10-80 Plan if:** - You are carrying significant consumer debt (credit cards, personal loans) - Your income is variable or unpredictable - You have never consistently tithed or saved before - Living on 70 percent feels genuinely impossible right now **Move to the 10-10-70-10 Plan when:** - Your consumer debt is paid off or nearly paid off - You have established a consistent tithing habit - You have at least one month of expenses in savings - You want to build a strategic financial margin **Choose the Tithe & Offering First Plan if:** - You feel a specific calling to give at a higher level - You are in a season of financial abundance and want to honor it - You want your budget to reflect a posture of radical generosity - You have already mastered the 10-10-70-10 framework None of these frameworks requires a high income. I have seen families living on $35,000 a year transform their finances using the 10-10-80 Plan. I have seen couples earning six figures who were still living paycheck to paycheck until they adopted the 10-10-70-10 Plan. The income level is not the variable. The order of priorities is. --- ## Your Next Step: Open the Budget Wizard The Financial Freedom App's Budget Wizard has all three of these frameworks built in as ready-to-use templates. When you open the wizard, the 10-10-70-10 Plan is pre-selected as the recommended starting point — but all three faith-based templates are available, along with four additional frameworks for different financial philosophies. Here is what I want you to do right now: open the Budget Wizard, enter your monthly income, and let the app calculate exactly what each category looks like in dollars for your specific situation. Seeing the numbers — not percentages, but actual dollar amounts — is often the moment when the framework stops being a concept and becomes a plan. You do not need to be debt-free to start. You do not need to have your finances figured out. You just need to be willing to put God first and trust the process. The framework will do the rest. Financial freedom is not a destination you arrive at someday. It is a decision you make today. And it starts with the first line of your budget. --- *Dr. Van Moody is the founder of the Financial Freedom App, the pastor of The Worship Center Christian Church in Birmingham, Alabama, and the author of nine books including the bestsellers* The People Factor, The I-Factor, *and* Desired By God. ---