I recently read Rory Groves’ book The Family Economy. Groves describes the decline of the family as the basic economic unit. He then guides the reader in creating a family economy, one where we are joined together for “work, worship and wisdom”. This is primarily displayed through an agrarian lifestyle.

The vision is undeniably romantic — every covenant family on its own few acres, children working alongside parents, mothers making clothes and sourdough, fathers and sons tending livestock, building, and repairing, the home buzzing with productive work. 

Unfortunately, the impacts of the industrial revolution are here to stay. Seceding in this manner may work for some or even many families but for most of us in 2025, that exact life isn’t going to happen. 

That does not mean we cannot have a true family economy where we work together, providing the things we need and valuing relationships over possessions.

Instead of producing our own food and clothing, we produce and warehouse capital, to meet the family’s needs, circulating it internally forever to build multi-generational wealth and advance Christ’s kingdom.

That is what I mean by a family economy. 

In my first article I argued fiat money and fractional reserve banking violate the Ten Commandments, chiefly the 8^th commandment, stealing wealth through inflation and the Cantillon effect.

My second article showed how that same inflationary system, combined with taxes and consumerism, has driven mothers out of the home and made the single-income family seem impossible, increasing the atomization that Groves discusses.

Both articles pointed to the same solution: stop letting outside banks profit from your family’s need for finance. Instead, take control of the banking function and build a family economy to meet the need for finance of you and your posterity. To briefly illustrate this consider a home purchase. The purchase of a $300,000 home at 5.3% results in almost $299,729 leaving your family economy forever as interest. Proposed 50-year mortgages more than double that loss – all because we outsource the banking function and depend on others for finance.

To see the power of a “family” economy in practice lets look to a historical example.

The Greatest Illustration in American History: Black Wall Street

In the early 1900s the Greenwood district of Tulsa, Oklahoma — known as Black Wall Street — was the wealthiest black community in America.

What made it so wealthy? The community largely operated as a closed loop economy.

Men and women left the district each day to work construction, domestic, or agricultural jobs in white Tulsa. They brought their paychecks back home and spent them at the locally-owned groceries, hardware stores, theaters, restaurants, and pharmacies. Those business owners then spent their profits at other black-owned businesses in Greenwood and paid their local employees, who again spent in the district.

Historians estimate a single dollar circulated 10–20 times inside Greenwood before it ever left the community again.

The same dollar built wealth for multiple families.

What happened to this once prosperous community? In June of 1921, a trigger event started a riot and the district was burned to the ground killing up to 300 residents and destroying 35 square blocks. Greenwood never fully recovered.

We see the negative effect today when Walmart moves in and sucks dollars out of Main Street and sending them to Bentonville. The advent of Amazon resulted in the same without the local jobs even being created. We also see it when immigrants earn wages here and send remittances home — the wealth immediately leaves the country.

The lesson is unmistakable: Once you capture a dollar, never let it leave your economy again.

That is the governing rule of a family economy.

The Mindset: Family Finances as a Business

Businesses don’t accumulate capital to spend it down to zero and then close their doors. They accumulate capital to provide for the needs of the customers, which in turn profits the owners by providing income. In time, the business is then passed from one generation to the next to continue meeting needs of the community and family.

You must operate your family finances with the same mindset. The business is a mutually owned “bank”. The customers are the family members as well as owners.

You see, everything we buy is financed; either we pay interest to a bank or we give up the interest we could have earned on that money. The only question is who will profit.

To illustrate this fact, let’s look at a car purchase.

Most Christians aim to pay cash for cars thinking they are avoiding a car payment. They also believe it is morally preferable, confusing being in debt with having debt. Neither of these are true. 

To prove both points, imagine you have a savings account earning 3% with a balance of $50,000 and you want to purchase a vehicle for $30,000 you have two options: Pay Cash Now or Pay Over Time.

Option A – Pay cash now Pay $30,000 of your money now out of your $50,000 savings. You now have $20,000 left earning 3% in a savings account instead of the full $50,000, reaching $22,500 after 5 years.

In the meantime, you have reduced your savings available for emergencies and opportunities. If another need arises that is greater than what you have available, then you must turn to debt.

Option B – Pay over time You leave your full $50,000 compounding at 3% and instead spend $30,000 of the bank’s money now, and in return pay $580 a month for 60 months at 6% interest. You do have a debt you could pay off at a moment’s notice if you needed. But you are not in debt. You are in control- you are not a slave to the lender.

After 5 years your original $50,000 has grown to $56,400 after taxes and you have paid $34,800 in principal and interest payments.  You paid $4,800 more, but have access to $34,000 more for the next car purchase.

By choosing to pay cash now to avoid paying $4,800 in interest you give up $100k of future interest over 50 years.

Option	Pay Now	Future Payments	Interest Paid	Available Capital after 5 years	Available Capital after 50 years
A: Pay Cash	$30,000	$0	$0	$22,500	$66,500
B: Pay over time	$0	$34,800	$4,800	$56,400	$166,300

From this it should be evident that you always have a car payment – you have to put money back in your savings account. Whether you realize it or not, that withdrawal from your savings to pay cash is a loan from yourself that must be paid back. And if you can’t afford to pay yourself back, then you can’t afford it.

Both of these options are giving up control of the banking function. I’m proposing treating your finances as a business – a bank. If you were going to pay another bank $580/month then shouldn’t you pay yourself at least that? Anything less is stealing from yourself. 

Option	Pay Now	Future Payments	Interest Paid	Available Capital after 5 years	Available Capital after 50 years
A2: Loan from self	$0*	$34,800	$0	$59,500	$175,800

Don’t mistake what is happening. You didn’t make money buying the car, you simply controlled the banking function and stewarded your money in a more efficient manner.

Family Loyalty – The Grocery Store Test

I’m proposing a family economy, not an individual operating alone. To continue growing the vision, picture yourself as the owner of an Albertsons grocery store. Would you ever shop at Walmart for your groceries…even if it were cheaper?  No– that would be profiting another business instead of your own.

You also wouldn’t take the groceries from the store to feed your family without paying. For each item taken without paying, 10 or more additional items must be sold to break even. That is again reducing the profit for your business and hurting its long-term financial stability.

Now replace that grocery store with a bank. Instead of selling groceries, you meet financing needs of the customers’ – the family. 

Let’s say your son turns 16 and wants to buy his first car. He is already thinking long range and understands that paying cash is stepping over a $100 bill to pick up a nickel. So instead of making those payments to a commercial bank, he finances it with the family for the same terms, this way the interest the bank would have earned stays in the family instead.

How is this implemented?

Building the culture is going to be different for each family, but the foundation of that culture is scripture. Family worship, including prayer, scripture reading, and singing, is essential. For more, I’ll defer to Rory Groves’ books for specifics on recreating the family bonds eroded by the industrial revolution.

Regarding practical steps, it is actually quite simple – accumulate your wealth in an asset you have complete control over and that is guaranteed to increase in value. Then, through wise leverage, finance the things of life – family provision, cars, education, homes, growing your business, and more. You retain complete control over the terms of every purchase and capture the opportunity cost of those purchases. 

My purpose in this article to share a vision, not to give advice or recommendations. That should come from a discussion with a financial professional (I recommend those trained by the Nelson Nash Institute to coach families in this way of thinking).

Multi-generational Vision

I am currently 43. My oldest son is 16. I will soon be financing his first car.

Lord willing, over the next 50 years my household and my descendants will finance dozens of cars, multiple homes, weddings, college degrees, and even some business startups.

If we pay banks for all that financing, we will transfer hundreds of thousands of dollars to strangers. If we pay cash, we will give up even more in future growth.

But if we stick together, like the families of Greenwood, every one of those dollars stays in the family economy, compounding across generations, binding us together with real financial ties long after I’m gone.

Today I am the patriarch of my family economy. When I die I will pass the business on. The family banking system will be divided among my children, who then become patriarchs of their own expanding family banks.

My family and I are building a business. It takes time to grow that business. I cannot finance a home yet, but I can finance my son’s car, and later my other children’s as well. I will be able to finance their college educations, if that is where God leads them. In time, I will be able to finance their homes. 

That is the kind of inheritance that lasts, one that is not just money but family culture. A household with a shared mission capable of stewarding wealth for the glory of God and building His kingdom.

As they say, the best time to plant a tree is yesterday; the second-best time is today. If you share my vision for your family, I urge you to start being intentional with your finances today.

If you’d like to explore this idea more, or are ready to create begin building your family economy, click to book a free call with an advisor today.

Semper Reformanda

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