Conversation Among Friends

Dudes,

question to the forum: what are some real good christian rules for handling money? The usual riposte to the question is "tithing", but that somehow doesn't cut it. More severe souls advise to "give until it hurts", but this is not very useful to me because there are various levels of pain.

my current conundrum is that i can't decide how much i need to save for emergencies, sickness, or retirement, vs giving to charity. how much to set aside for education? i believe we're all in the same boat there.