15 Bible Verses About Saving and Investing Money

Proverbs 6:6-8

“Go to the ant, you sluggard; consider its ways and be wise! It has no commander, no overseer or ruler, yet it stores its provisions in summer and gathers its food at harvest.”

Reflection: The sluggard is sent to watch the ant, which has no commander or overseer and still stores its provisions in summer and gathers its food at harvest. The next verses turn back to the sluggard: “A little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of the hands to rest— and poverty will come on you like a thief” (6:10-11). Proverbs 30:25 makes the same observation, that ants “store up their food in the summer.”

Proverbs 21:20

“The wise store up choice food and olive oil, but fools gulp theirs down.”

Reflection: The wise keep choice food and olive oil in store; fools gulp theirs down. A few verses earlier the same chapter names where the fool’s path leads: “whoever loves wine and olive oil will never be rich” (21:17).

Genesis 41:36

“This food should be held in reserve for the country, to be used during the seven years of famine that will come upon Egypt, so that the country may not be ruined by the famine.”

Reflection: Joseph has just interpreted Pharaoh’s dreams as seven years of abundance followed by seven years of famine. His plan takes a fifth of the harvest during the good years and stores the grain in the cities under Pharaoh’s authority (41:34-35), and this verse gives its purpose: food held in reserve for the whole country. Verses 47-49 record that Joseph carried it out, storing grain “like the sand of the sea.”

Proverbs 13:11

“Dishonest money dwindles away, but whoever gathers money little by little makes it grow.”

Reflection: The verse sets money gathered “little by little,” which grows, against dishonest money, which dwindles away.

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 money to complete it?”

Reflection: Jesus is speaking to the large crowds travelling with him (14:25). The tower builder, and next a king weighing ten thousand soldiers against twenty thousand (14:31), illustrate counting the cost of following him: “those of you who do not give up everything you have cannot be my disciples” (14:33). The illustration rests on an ordinary practice, costing a project before starting it, and on the ridicule a builder faces who “began to build and wasn’t able to finish” (14:30).

Proverbs 24:27

“Put your outdoor work in order and get your fields ready; after that, build your house.”

Reflection: The proverb gives an order: put the outdoor work in order and get the fields ready, and after that build the house. Later in the chapter the speaker walks past a sluggard’s field, overgrown with thorns and with its stone wall in ruins, and draws the same warning as Proverbs 6:10-11: “poverty will come on you like a thief” (24:30-34).

Proverbs 27:23-24

“Be sure you know the condition of your flocks, give careful attention to your herds; for riches do not endure forever, and a crown is not secure for all generations.”

Reflection: The reason given for knowing the state of the flocks is that “riches do not endure forever.” Verses 25-27 describe what careful tending returns: lambs for clothing, goats that pay “the price of a field,” and milk enough for the family and the servants.

Ecclesiastes 11:2

“Invest in seven ventures, yes, in eight; you do not know what disaster may come upon the land.”

Reflection: The verse before it reads, in the NIV, “Ship your grain across the sea; after many days you may receive a return.” The King James Version has “Cast thy bread upon the waters” and “Give a portion to seven, and also to eight”; the English Standard Version has “Cast your bread upon the waters” and “Give a portion to seven, or even to eight.” The NIV wording points to trade and spreading investments, and the KJV and ESV wording, giving a portion, points to generosity. In all three the verse ends on the same clause: no one knows what disaster (in the KJV, “evil”) may come upon the land. Verse 6 adds, “you do not know which will succeed, whether this or that, or whether both will do equally well.”

Matthew 25:27

“Well then, you should have put my money on deposit with the bankers, so that when I returned I would have received it back with interest.”

Reflection: In this parable, which follows the ten virgins (25:1-13), a master going on a journey entrusts his wealth to three servants. Two put the money to work and double it; the third buries his bag of gold in the ground because he was afraid (25:25). The master answers that even a deposit with the bankers would have earned interest. The two who gained more are praised for being “faithful with a few things” (25:21, 25:23).

Proverbs 22:7

“The rich rule over the poor, and the borrower is slave to the lender.”

Reflection: The borrower is set beside the poor, both under someone else’s rule. A few verses later the chapter warns against guaranteeing other people’s debts: “if you lack the means to pay, your very bed will be snatched from under you” (22:26-27).

Proverbs 13:22

“A good person leaves an inheritance for their children’s children, but a sinner’s wealth is stored up for the righteous.”

Reflection: The inheritance reaches past the children to “their children’s children.” In the second half, the sinner’s wealth ends up stored for the righteous. Ecclesiastes 5:14 describes the opposite case: wealth “lost through some misfortune, so that when they have children there is nothing left for them to inherit.”

Matthew 6:19-21

“Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moths and vermin destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moths and vermin do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.”

Reflection: In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus sets two places for treasure side by side: earth, where moths, vermin and thieves reach it, and heaven, where they do not. Verse 21 gives the reason for choosing heaven, “where your treasure is, there your heart will be also,” and verse 24 closes the section: “You cannot serve both God and money.”

Luke 12:20-21

“But God said to him, ‘You fool! This very night your life will be demanded from you. Then who will get what you have prepared for yourself?’ This is how it will be with whoever stores up things for themselves but is not rich toward God.”

Reflection: A man in the crowd asks Jesus to make his brother divide an inheritance (12:13). Jesus warns, “Be on your guard against all kinds of greed” (12:15), and tells of a rich man who plans bigger barns for a surplus harvest so that he can “take life easy” for many years. The fault named in verse 21 is storing up “for themselves” while not being “rich toward God.”

Ecclesiastes 5:10

“Whoever loves money never has enough; whoever loves wealth is never satisfied with their income. This too is meaningless.”

Reflection: The Teacher says the love of money cannot be satisfied, and the next verses describe what wealth brings: more people consuming it, and sleepless nights for the rich (5:11-12). Verse 13 names “wealth hoarded to the harm of its owners,” and verse 15 ends, “They take nothing from their toil that they can carry in their hands.”

1 Timothy 6:17-19

“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. Command them to do good, to be rich in good deeds, and to be generous and willing to share. In this way they will lay up treasure for themselves as a firm foundation for the coming age, so that they may take hold of the life that is truly life.”

Reflection: Paul tells Timothy what to command the rich: not to be arrogant, and to put their hope in God rather than in wealth, “which is so uncertain.” They are to be generous and willing to share, and in doing so “lay up treasure for themselves,” the storing language Jesus uses in Matthew 6:20. Earlier in the chapter Paul warns “those who want to get rich” that “the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil” (6:9-10).