As Shepherd of the Hills begins this year’s Stewardship Campaign, we invite everyone to examine their relationship with money. This personal money autobiography, created by the ELCA, is a great place to start.

Writing a Personal Money Autobiography

Writing a personal money autobiography is an important step in expressing one’s stewardship journey. The process reveals one’s attitudes, behaviors and feelings about money. In this activity it is important to focus on different points in your life (childhood, adolescence, young adult, mature adult, etc.) Take a sheet or two of blank paper and write out your responses to the questions below. Reflect on these experiences and how specific understandings developed.

1. What is the earliest experience with money that you remember?

2. As a child growing up, did you feel rich or poor? Why?

3. What was your attitude toward money as a teenager? How was this influenced by peers or siblings?

4. How were your attitudes and behaviors about money shaped by your family members?

5. What role did money play in your life as a young adult? How was this influenced by a spouse or co-workers?

6. If applicable, how did your relationship with money change when you became a parent and grandparent?

7. What is your happiest memory in connection with money?

8. What is your unhappiest memory in connection with money?

9. How does your faith guide you in your use of money?

10. How do you feel about your present financial situation compared with a past situation?

11. Are you generous or stingy with your money? In what ways?

12. How do you decide what to give to churches and other nonprofits? Why do you give to these causes?

13. What kinds of risks are you willing to take with your money?

14. What will you do with your money as you approach the end of this life?

This and many other resources on stewardship can be found here