After a year as a day student at the Christchurch Technical College, he left school at the age of 15 to contribute to the family income.
In 1917, Mackay, supported by the Free Church of Scotland, had founded Colegio Anglo Peruano, a school for boys in Lima, Peru.
Mackay, who had by then been appointed by the YMCA to be secretary-at-large for South America, passed on Money's name to the Free Church of Scotland.
When Money arrived in Peru on 2 August 1927, he considered his chances of finding a life partner to be slim (his own words), but within a few days he was to meet Janet "Netta" Kemp, the only female teacher in Colegio Anglo Peruano.
Mackay firmly believed that a missionary, particularly one engaged in educational work, should immerse himself in the life of the country and become as familiar as possible with its history, politics, sociology and culture.
In the academic world of Peru a doctoral degree was expected of a person appointed to be the principal or vice-principal of a large school.
Early in 1928, within six months of arriving in Peru, Money had become sufficiently fluent in Spanish to matriculate and enrol as a doctoral student.
Money chose the sociology of Peruvian Amazonia as the subject for his doctoral thesis because he hoped to minister to the "Lowland Indians".
Less than four years after his arrival in Peru, Money was chairman of the commission that wrote the first constitution of the church and enabled it to be legally recognised by the government.
The Instituto Biblico Peruano (Peruvian Bible Institute), was founded in 1933 as a co-operative venture under the joint auspices of the Evangelical Union of South America, the Christian Missionary Alliance and the Free Church of Scotland.
Money’s sphere of influence widened when he was invited in 1940 to become the first organising and executive secretary of the newly created National Evangelical Council.
The Money’s long-term view was to foster the development of the indigenous church, whereas the Mission believed the urgent need was to preach the gospel in all its simplicity, not to train others to teach, as they were 'now in the last days'.
The Wycliffe Bible Translators came to Peru in 1946 and in 1956 the first students, literate in Spanish as well as their native tongue, graduated from a bilingual school.
He brought together the Wycliffe Bible translators, Le Tourneau (an American builder of heavy machinery) and Dr Moro of the Swiss Indian Mission.
The Bible Institute for Lowland Indians (Instituto Biblico Selvatico de Pucallpa) was established in Peruvian Amazonia on the eastern side of the Andes, and opened in 1957 (under the leadership of Dr Moro).
To meet this need Money, then secretary of the Board of the Peruvian Bible Institute, worked for the creation of Lima Evangelical Seminary.
This service included the supervision of school certificate examinations for the University of Cambridge, the temporary headship of the Colegio San Silvestre for girls upon the death of the headmistress, Miss Nellie Kufal, until the arrival of her successor from Britain, the organisation and inauguration of Markham College for boys and its headship pending the arrival of the titular headmaster, the founding of the Bible Institute for Lowland Indians in Amazonia and the creation of the Lima Evangelical Seminary.
When asked if any students stood out in his memory, he named a list of men holding the highest positions in Peruvian life, including a former cabinet minister with the nickname at school of ‘Sleepy Donkey’.
Money travelled widely in both North and South America and represented Peru at international conferences in the Netherlands, Switzerland and Germany.
Determined to fulfil his engagement in Switzerland, Money persuaded his medical advisers to let him go with an indwelling urinary catheter.
Until May 1992, Money travelled south each year to give a lecture at the annual Waihola Christian Youth Camps.