The Buddha addressed the issue of how householders acquire and manage their money in several different suttas. Like most things, we can relate to our income and expenditures in healthy or unhealthy ways. In general, we try to avoid obsession and practice generosity.

The householder who seeks wealth righteously, without violence, and makes himself happy and pleased, and shares it and does meritorious deeds, and uses that wealth without being tied to it, infatuated with it, and blindly absorbed in it, seeing the danger in it and understanding the escape — he may be praised on four grounds. … Just as from a cow comes milk, from milk curd, and from curd butter, from butter ghee, and from ghee comes cream-of-ghee, which is reckoned the foremost of all these, so among all householders, the foremost, the best, the preeminent, the supreme, and the finest is the one who seeks wealth righteously, without violence: and having done so, makes himself happy and pleased; and shares the wealth and does meritorious deeds; and uses that wealth without being tied to it, infatuated with it, and blindly absorbed in it, seeing the danger in it and understanding the escape. (from AN 10:91, translated by Bhikkhu Bodhi)

This sutta offers a compressed form of the principle of right livelihood. “Seeking wealth righteously, without violence” refers to earning a living while maintaining the five precepts (without lying or deception or harming). This is the first ground on which a householder may be praised.

By earning a living in a way that is ethical, the householder makes herself “happy and pleased”. This is easy enough to understand on the surface; being solvent removes many obstacles and worries in life. In other suttas (AN5:41 and 42, e.g.) more detail is given: this happiness comes about from providing for the welfare of one’s family, friends, and other associates.

Sharing one’s wealth and doing meritorious deeds is the third cause for praise. This general category may entail supporting members of one’s extended family, or the local church or other charity, or any person or group that models and advocates living in accordance with wholesome principles. This bears reflection. Do we share our funds with people simply because they asked first? Or do we use the opportunity to consider what we value most and how we can support those principles?

Lastly, are we tied to our wealth, infatuated with it, and blindly absorbed in it? Do we allow our income (or lack of it) to define us? Is this how we measure our value or success? The Buddha suggests we avoid this relationship to money. He recommends “seeing the danger in it and understanding the escape.” How can we escape evaluating ourselves and others by income level? We can see the danger in that attitude and remember that it’s our words and actions that create our inheritance. While being self-supporting is a good thing, the most important thing is to behave in a way consistent with our wholesome aspirations.