Your Money Is Your Prayer: Put One Dollar in an Envelope
The envelope system is more than just a financial tool for me—it’s a spiritual practice.
The Envelope System
by Sam Beasley
I began using envelopes as a financial planning tool in 1995 after a friend showed me his envelope system. It is not an exaggeration to say that it changed my life—not just financially, but in many other ways as well.
The envelope system is pretty simple, really—you just figure out what you spend every month and create an envelope for each category of spending: housing, utilities, transportation, food, medical, personal care, pet care, dependent care, insurance, entertainment, education, spiritual, debt repayment, taxes, retirement savings, etc.
You also create envelopes for everything you want to have. Still, you’re currently not getting—perhaps a dream vacation, a much-loved hobby, a big-ticket item like a new car, home electronics, a piece of expensive jewelry, a creative project, or something else. You write the category on the envelope and also write the dollar amount. Then you fund each of your envelopes.
If you don’t have the entire amount to fund all your envelopes, you make sure to put at least one Dollar in regular weekly or monthly. “Why one dollar?” people often ask me. I suppose it could just as easily be a dime, but I was taught to begin with a dollar, so that’s what I’ve always used. There are a certain emotional power and cultural symbolism in a dollar bill that coins just don’t have. But if someone doesn’t have a dollar to fund an envelope and only has a dime, by all means, start with that. It’s better to start with a dime than not to start at all.
As I think back on my early days of putting dollars in envelopes, I can tell you I learned some very important lessons. For example, I loved fishing, so I began by putting a dollar in an envelope labeled “fishing lures” every month. Then I began to look for fishing lures that were on sale—and I’d find lures on sale for one Dollar that previously I had paid five or six dollars for. Then I made a startling discovery: the fish didn’t know the lure was on sale! I caught just as many fish using a one-dollar sale lure as I used to catch paying five or six times as much! It was a real eye-opener in terms of the true value of things.
I also liked to golf, so I would fund my golf envelope every month. In the beginning, I only had enough money to play nine holes, not the full eighteen, but I can tell you those nine holes were glorious! I loved them because I had paid for them myself instead of using a credit card and racking up debt.
Now, prior to this, if you had asked me to start by saving one Dollar to buy my own fishing lures or rounds of golf, I would think you were crazy. “One dollar can’t buy anything,” I would have said. Funny how, when I had no money, I thought a dollar wasn’t worth anything—but now that I have money, I think a dollar is worth a lot. Today I even pick up pennies when I see them on the ground because I now understand the value of money—even very small amounts of money.
My envelopes give me a pay-as-you-go way of life. In funding my categories each month, I am making a powerful statement to myself and to the world: “I’m going to take care of myself. I’m not going to depend on MasterCard or Visa to take care of me.” My father used to say, “Never use a bank. Be a bank instead.” That’s how I live now—I bankroll my own life.
The envelope system is more than just a financial tool for me—it’s a spiritual practice. Writing the category on each envelope is a prayer. Putting a dollar in the envelope says: “I mean it.” The Dollar is my commitment to myself and my commitment to faith to my higher power (whom I choose to call God). In putting a dollar in each envelope, I am literally putting my money where my mouth is—I am asking God for what I need and want. I’m willing to do my part by putting a buck in the game. I am making a contract with God—together, we co-create my life.
As soon as I identify something new that I want, I start an envelope. For instance, two things I’ve noticed create financial havoc for people are funerals that require travel and pet surgeries. Envelopes labeled “Funeral Travel” and “Pet Surgery” can keep those unscheduled events from becoming a problem, merely by allocating monthly dollars.
I do this with every item, every experience, every life event that I want to be prepared for. This has brought about a dramatic change from the way I used to live prior to learning how to use envelopes in 1995. Before, I would pretend—“Oh, I’m sure things will just fall into place somehow. I don’t need to plan.” It was “magical thinking” that usually left me unprepared, caught without resources when I needed them, and unable to keep my commitments to myself and my family.
Today, instead of believing in magic, I believe in the reality of “works,” as in “Faith without works is dead.” When I make an envelope and put a dollar inside, I am saying, “This is real. I am making real-life plans and commitments for real-life events.”
My wife and I have been doing this for the past twenty-three years. We fund our envelopes weekly or monthly, depending on what we decide would work best with each category. And I can tell you this: we put in the first Dollar, but we’ve never had to put in the last Dollar. In other words, we make our commitment by putting in the first Dollar and adding regular amounts of money consistently, and we just keep at it. Then somewhere along the way, somehow, we always get what we were working toward. The item becomes available to us before we ever finish fully funding the envelope. In the beginning, I used to wonder, “Is this envelope system going to work?” But after almost two decades of doing it, I don’t wonder anymore—I KNOW it works.
As my wife and I began to fund what we wanted, we began to accrue equity, especially our house. And when we accrued equity, we left it there—we didn’t spend it. We just let it build up. Over time we built up enough equity that we could buy a chain of businesses. Then the businesses built-up equity, and we left that alone, too. We just let it accrue, like dollars in envelopes. And those businesses have made us a tremendous amount of money.
It all begins by making an envelope for something you want or need and putting a dollar inside. The envelope is your prayer, and the Dollar is your commitment to your higher power that you’re willing to do your part. How does it work? Let’s just call it, “That which I don’t know.” Call it God; call it your Higher Power; call it the Universe; call it whatever you like.
I’m so grateful I learned how to put a dollar in an envelope when I was forty-five years old—the past twenty-three years have been incredibly abundant because of this spiritual practice. But it doesn’t matter how old you are—if you want new financial results in your life, it’s never too late to begin.
Today is a glorious day to put a dollar in an envelope! Today is a glorious day to create a little financial peace in your life!
*Excerpted from “Your Life Is Your Prayer: Wake Up to the Spiritual Power in Everything You Do” (Mango Publishing; 2019) by Sam Beasley and BJ Gallagher; used with permission.
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About the Author
Sam Beasley is a successful businessman entrepreneur who uses spiritual principles to establish, build, and run his businesses. He is a charismatic speaker and dynamic workshop leader. His mission is to share what he’s learned so that others may become successful and fulfilled as well. His previous books (with Suzanne Lorenz) are “Wealth and Wellbeing” and “Wealth and Wellbeing Workbook.” www.yourlifeisyourprayer.com
