It's not about being "optimal", I understand that getting out of debt is somewhat psychological. I was broke throughout most of 2016 with about $15-20k of debt

It's not about being "optimal", I understand that getting out of debt is somewhat psychological. I was broke throughout most of 2016 with about $15-20k of debt (depending on how you looked at certain things) and a lawsuit from my landlord for back rent (I've talked about it on HN before, I don't need to go into elaborate detail). But being "sub optimal" isn't the problem; I think that telling people to increase tithing is bad advice, and to be honest I'm not even convinced his advice is about reframing the issue as "managing God's money", but instead it's his way of catering to his predominantly conservative audience, who would be unhappy if he said to hold off giving to their church. I don't really know what your second-to-last paragraph has to do with anything. I never claimed that most people learned good financial skills.