Joy and Tyne Bush will never forget the day they graduated from college. Maybe it’s because the Bushes heard more than “Pomp and Circumstance” on their graduation day. They also heard wedding bells.

“We graduated at 10:00 in the morning and got married at 3:00 in the afternoon,” Joy recalls. She says their decision to get married so soon was purely practical; they wanted to begin their life together quickly and affordably. “You hear about girls who dream about their wedding day,” Joy says. “That was not me!”

But their joint graduation and wedding day exemplifies a practicality that Joy and Tyne embrace. “It was drilled in,” Tyne says. “If you can’t pay for it, you don’t need it.”

Joy agrees with her husband. “You come out of the womb with a tendency to be either a saver or a spender,” she says. “We both tend to be savers.”

But in addition to saving, the Bushes have also spent their lives practicing an eternal character quality: generosity toward God’s kingdom.

“We want to invest in things that have an eternal consequence.”

“I’ve always been very challenged by the story of the widow and her mite,” Joy says. “The ultimate goal would be if someone could live on 10 percent and give away 90 percent…that’s certainly a goal to work toward.”

In fact, the Bushes see their simple lifestyle as the bedrock of their generous lifestyle. “Neither of us want a lavish lifestyle…We realize that you can’t take any of it with you,” explains Joy. “We want to leave something that will improve people’s lives long after we’re dead and gone.”

To improve people’s lives, the Bushes use a personal rubric to guide their charitable gifts. “Our criteria for giving are feed the hungry, heal the sick and spread the Word,” says Tyne. “American Bible Society is high on the list in terms of spreading the Word.”

“We want to invest in things that have an eternal consequence,” Joy says. She and Tyne support the work of American Bible Society through the Gift Annuity program. “Charitable gift annuities appealed to my financial spirit because the organization gets so much money up front,” says Joy. “When you die, the organization gets the rest of it…In the meantime you have regular income coming in.”

And the Bushes give much more than dollars and cents in their quest to serve the hungry, sick and needy. Tyne serves men in prison. Joy tutors young students. And earlier this year, the Bushes served at a camp for people with disabilities.

It’s all been part of the Bushes’ lifelong task—saving money to serve others. “That’s what really matters,” Joy says.