How Much Should I Give To Charity? #596

something that we do. But secondly, tomorrow is Thanksgiving and as many folks are taking the day, hopefully they are spending some time reflecting upon the different blessings and the just the gratitude that should overcome us when we think

about where we are in our lives. I think a natural outcome, like a natural outpouring from that would be to sort of pay it forward, right, like basically finding ways to share your gratitude, share your your blessings with those around you, whether it's actual individuals or whether it's with other nonprofits. So that's why we're gonna talk about

this day, man. Yeah, We're gonna discuss just the different folks who should be giving their money away, the best ways to go about it, and and also maybe some of the reasons why it is important for us to do this as well. Yeah, for sure, we'll hit it all on on this episode, but I agree it's sometimes the timing matters of when you talk about something and

giving away money. One's close to the end of the year, so it matters more from attacks perspective, but it also matters because we're, like you said, we're in that kind of spirit, that zone of reflection. Maybe right now we're experiencing more gratitude, more thankfulness this week, and that should, like you said, overflow Matt into I think our ability to give money away and give possessions why But let's before we get to that topic matter. I just wanted

to mention listener Chelsea reached out. I have talked about I don't know, maybe a month and a half ago, or maybe it was even longer, talked about having hiring a pet sitter to watch our cats while we were gone at the beach, and so I paid I think we paid like fifteen dollars a day to have someone

coming and check on the cats. Pretty good, and my goal would be ideally, but we just moved into this house, so I didn't we didn't have any neighbor kids or anything who would do it for even less, that would be ideal. But if she mentioned a great thing to consider would be to join a site like Trusted House Sitters, which I have heard of and I know people that have used it, but I've never tried it myself. One of those sites that's popular among those who in particular

have retired early, like travel the World. Perhaps the digital the digital nomad types, right, they love sites like Trusted because you join and then you kind of have access to swap with people across the world. Really, and this is one of those things where someone would watch my kiddies in all likelihood for zero dollars. But the thing is, I have to be okay with letting them stay in

my house. So it's it's a different if it's it's a different ballgame, Like we're talking about something that's a little different than just hiring someone to come and feed and clean the litter box. But I think it's cool and I think it's worth considering. It's something that's now on my radar. I'm gonna consider using the site in the future for for times we get away. There is like an annual membership, so you gotta pay. I think it's I think it's a hundred twenty nine bucks a year.

I'm not hundred percent sure, but yeah, this is one of those things where you gotta pay a membership fee. But for some folks, if you're if you're gone enough, or if you want to use this to stay other places for free. To me, that's one of the coolest

parts of trusting house sitters, little travel hack. Yeah. Well, and I see the fee, the membership as a as a nice barrier to entry as well, right, because you don't want the site flooded with folks who are just looking for a free place to Oh yeah, I'll take your dog, trust me, like you want there to be some barriers. You want there, you do. You don't want anybody and everybody to be on there. You want folks

to take it seriously. And so I see that seeing that as a homeowner, I want somebody to essentially be vetted and somebody who has some buy in. So I see that being a good thing. But yeah, and often times I think why they call him trusted how sers and not just any old house annual individual taking care of your place. Yeah, but and generally speaking to I mean, that's one of the things that Chelsea said, She's like, you know, the downside is that you do have somebody

saying in your house. But again, I think most folks would be more than happy to not have all of their stuff in the exact same position as it was when they left, right, or maybe for things to not be in the exact same condition when you get back, because most folks I think, care about their dog, you know, their pets a little bit more than maybe not like their home, but maybe some of the stuff in their

home that would get used. And generally speaking, like if in particularly if you have a dog, kennels suck, I mean back when like if we had Stella, our old great Dane, she hated kennels specifically, and so having somebody to come to the house and to take care of it there would would have been much more successful than the mini kennels that we tried that she hate well.

And a lot of those kennels, aren't she right, Those are pretty too, And so if this is cheaper, actually, if they have any sort of like daycare in the name of it, and it's not just a kennel, it's like doggie hotel plus grooming and paper and it's like, oh no, that's gonna be really expensive, gonna you're gonna

pay a premium. Yeah, but if you can, if you can get someone to come to your house, your dogs more comfortable there, your your animals don't have to get uprooted, maybe this is like the best option for a lot of folks. I know I'm gonna consider it for sure. So thanks to Chelsea for the recommendation, and for anyone out there listening. If you're like trying to figure out what you do when you leave, when you go on vacation, what are you gonna do with your animal? This is

definitely something worth at least considering totally. Let's move on, Matt. Let's mention the beer we're having on this episode. This is Peach Cobbler American style sour by Shades brewing our last beer from listener Andy. Andy sent us a hall so thank you Andy, he did. We'll give our thoughts on this one at the end of the episode. Absolutely looking forward to it, all right, But let's get to that question, Matt, how much money should we be giving away to charity? And we let's go ahead and put

it out there too. We promised this isn't a clickbait headline. We will answer this question most definitely during this episode with a lot of other context, a lot of other information to go along with it, because a lot of people they do wonder this question, like should I be and how much should I be giving away? And so yeah,

we're gonna talk about that in detail. But you and I'm at we're not farmers by trade, right you You had a garden in your back for a little while, a little miniature, a few chickens, like that's about that's about the extent of our farming knowledge. But from what we do know about growing food, it's important to let your fields go fallow for a certain period of time. Traditionally, if you're a real farmer, that's like real real farmer talk right there. Let your fields what you say, grow fallow,

gro fallow, so it let's go fallow. That's probably it. I don't know, I honestly don't know. But like traditionally, what you want is like one out of every seven years for those fields to not be producing, because this allows the soil a chance to restore some nutrient balance. And a farmer might even plant something that doesn't earn them any money, like a bunch of clover. Let's say, amount I know you've done this in the yard totally something we've done to restore nitrogen. It's it's a nitrogen

fixing plant. Yes, so some farmer might say, you know what, not only am I not going to produce on the field, I'm gonna plant something. Clover is pretty cheap, but you might plant something in an attempt just to hopefully not overwork the soil and maximize the yield in years to come. And if you don't do this right, the the effects can be endness. You can actually destroy the effectiveness of

the soil. And it's kind of counterintuitive, right. It certainly feels like taking time off from growing crops is going to be a harmful thing, right, that it's gonna hurt your bottom line. But the truth is that taking the opposite approach, by constantly farming and over using those fields, that it's gonna it's gonna be more cash trophic in the long run. And so we think the same is true when it comes to giving away your money. It sure doesn't sound like a vital ingredient in the wealth

building formula. Like in fact, it sounds like the opposite. What seems like you could you could maybe should leave that one out in order to be using your money most effectively. But we think that it actually is an important part of the wealth building formulas. That's why we're gonna discuss that today. It's similar to letting your fields

not grow follow but go fellow. Yeah, And I mean in fact is yeah, we're not farmers, but it's not reason Wendell Berry right, like this is literally the majority of what he talked about in the Unsettling of America, but just talking about the farming practices that large agriculture is implementing today and how it is the short term it seems like it's productive, but in the long term, long term negative effects have quite consequential effects on the

land over time. But yeah, we like, we like one of the reasons we're talking about this today is because like here on the show, where like this is how the money, not how to farm, But we constantly talk about the different ways that you can work to have more money, right, Like, whether that's through spending less money on stuff in your life, or through like keeping costs down on your investments, or it's through the different ways

that you can increase your earnings. But either way. It can be easy to develop a hoarding mentality right where there's only one direction that money flows and that's in, not out. But we believe that that is an unhealthy view in so many different ways. And we truly do believe that by giving money away, even by by starting out with with small amounts, that you are going to

end up better off in the end. Now, we're also not here to we're not going to preach the prosperity gospel by any means, but there's even a chance that you're gonna end up with more money down the line. But at the very least, we do believe that you're going to end up living a happier and a more

fulfilled life. Um there's research that points to the fact that when you give money away, when you spend money on other people, it go It activates the same neural pathways and the dopamine release and similar to to when you have like a good meal or a nice drink, and so you're rewarding yourself here in the the immediate Sernam granted that shouldn't be the only reason that you're giving money away is to just feel good about yourself, but it is nice to know that at least in

the immediate short term, there are some positives. You don't have to wait years for this to end up being something that you see having a positive impact on your finances. I agree. I think that is important to mention that it can. We don't want it to be purely self serving, but the fact that it is something that's beneficial to

your psyche, yeah, for sure is. And the reality is that giving giving money away has been on the decline in America right for for the first time in a long time, fewer than half of households gave even a dollar of their money away last year. That's down close to from twenty years ago, where something like seventy families or individuals used to give at least some of their money away. So fewer households feel like they have the ability to give away anything, or they just believe that

it shouldn't be a priority in their life. And at least part of the reason for this is a decline in religious affiliation. Right a commonplace where folks used to give their money was to their local house of worship. But even with the rise of what's known as the nuns, who claim no affiliation with any religion, that might explain at least some of the giving drop off, But even still, it's not like faith based folks have a corner on doing good in the world or that they're the only

people giving their money away. That would be far fetched as well. So let's say you're someone who does fall into that nun group, that's okay, but there are still plenty of organizations that have no religious ties that could meaningfully use your dollars. So yeah, whether you are keen to give to faith based organizations, whether you belong to one or not, Like even even those faith based organizations

matter seeing fewer dollar inflows. So I just hate to see that fewer people are participating and giving money away to their fellow American or two causes that that need them. Yeah, when you say nuns, you mean n O n e S, not the other nuns, in which case you would think, wait a minute, they should be giving lots of their money away. The nuns they're very religious now, they're completely

dedicated to the faith. No nuns means no religious affiliations. Yeah, uh. Well, what's interesting too is that this trend of folks giving away less other money it seems to be getting worse you're talking about how fewer than half of households gave even a dollar. Well fewer than one third of households headed by someone under the age of forty gave any money to charity. So the leading indicator shows that this

this downward giving trend that is likely to continue. Can considering that future generations are are giving less money as well. One bright spot though contrary by the way those eight year olds giving it a two per second. So no, there is there is some some good news here. There are actually more dollars than ever before that is being funneled towards nonprofit organizations. But those donations, unfortunately are coming

from fewer wealthier folks. And I'm not mad at billionaire philanthropists out there, but you can't expect government agencies and a few incredibly rich elites to do all the giving force, right like with the downsides of having the majority of charitable dollars coming from these individuals is they typically are going to give to the organizations that they care about, that billionaires care about and simply aren't going to be

the most effective ones in your neighborhood. It may exactly, it may not be, it may not have your best interests in mind as well, and so be the bigger, more recognizable organizations that are doing work on a national level. But that means the one that's like tutoring kids in your neighborhood probably isn't gonna cut Yes, yeah, I mean like I love what Bill and Melinda Gates, what they've

been up to, Mackenzie Scott her as well. But there is still plenty of room for all of us, all the rest of us out there to participate, like you said, will, particularly when it comes to supporting smaller nonprofits that are targeting specific problems, in particular with where it is that you live. And by the way, it is our contention that everyone should be giving their money away. So we're the question we're asking in this episodes, how much should

he be giving away? Well we'll get to that, but it really should be everyone should be listening to this thinking not about what other people can do to meet the mission or to give their money away, but but you think about yourself in this scenario, how can I be giving the money my money away? And we we think that all of us have something that's worth donating that could be even just something as small as used goods in our house that we don't need any longer.

Out of the church we've been going to, they're giving taking used code donations for a local ministry there. So that's like one of those things that almost everybody has a used coat they can give right that that's not necessarily too stressful on your finances to meet that need. You probably got a couple of jackets that you're like, you keep around, but you're like, I never wear these,

don't those jackets exactly? And you know that could be volunteering our time to spend helping out youth after school, and and yes, it can and likely should mean giving away some of your money to maybe not just items that you have that you don't use any longer, although

that's one effective way to give. And regardless of where you stand with your finances, if you're listening to this, you're trying to make improvements, and we think there's room in everyone's budget to prioritize giving, albeit to differing degrees.

We we don't want you to wait until you've quote unquote made it to start making giving a priority, because the truth is, no one ever truly feels like they've made And if you continue to push this off further down the road if you kick the can, the likelihood as you'll never actually feel like you're you're in the financial position to give money away. It reminds me a

matter of kind of like having kids. That's one of those things where it's like, I'm gonna wait until financially prepared to have kids, and you can continue pushing that off for forever. I think both having kids and giving money away, they both feel like things were never prepared for. We almost have to start before we feel prepared totally. Yeah, do Like Kate and I didn't just put it on the calendar, like start having babies this year. It's literally

something we did when we were younger. Your whole life revolves around that calendar, doesn't it. I'm a planner, That's all. That's all I gotta say. But for those out there, maybe that's literally what it takes, and we'll get to like maybe some some more practical steps that we can all take in order to actually implement giving within our lives. And by the way, I don't I don't mean that money on a credit like give money on a credit card that you don't actually have, Like that's I don't

want to get to give away money. But I think it's easy to say, like, I don't have years worth the savings, I've only got six months in the bank, and you can always have a retort to not being financially prepared. It's those are easy to make, right And by the way, also we like we don't want to

shame any anyone either. If you're a newbie here at how the money, maybe you are behind on your bills, well, we would want you to get your financial house in order before guilting yourself into a recurring monthly donation, you know, to your favorite nonprofit. And actually, uh, no, matter what, we don't want you to guilt your way into giving money away. We want that to be something that you

do intentionally. But it is also important to mention that even if you can't give much, developing the practice of giving at least a small small portion of what it is that you bring in we think is going to pay dividends in the future. Like you are building the muscle of being generous now, so that you have the discipline to continue giving as you get older, as presumably you get wealthy, and it's probably going to be more difficult.

You think it's difficult to give ten percent of your income. Now, when you're making fifty dollars, you're like, oh, I'm not gonna get give away five dollars. Well, what happens when you make two dollars or three dollars and it ain't gonna get easier. The dollar amounts might increase, but I think developed again, developing that discipline is what we're talking

about here. We're talking about building these good habits, and plus there's just something amazing about these these positive good habits and how it is that they can radiate out into other areas of our lives that we think that that's I feel like that's something that I hope sort of sets our listeners apart maybe than other listeners of other official podcasts, that they're able to not just look at money as something like we talked about earlier, that

they are hoarding and gathering for themselves, but to see the positive impacts that they're able to make with that money. Hopefully, how the money listeners are characterized by being generous, agreed man, I think are there's like a different vibe about our show hopefully, and and I think even in the the engagement we get from listeners when they respond to our newsletter, or when they comment on Facebook, or the way they treat one another is like, it's so different than most

of the rest of the Internet. Our Facebook group is actually like a place where people are nice to one another, which most groups on the Internet or most comment sections are just horrid sesspiables of negativity. I think it has a lot to do with downplaying money right. Like again, it is it literally, quite literally in the name of

our podcast, How to Money. But oftentimes I feel like what we're doing is downplaying the importance of money and elevating humanity, whether that's others or other organizations or those in need, just the different ways that we can bring value not only to our lives but to everyone around us. And the truth is that if you want to give your money away, there are ways to do it more effectively and less effectively. And so we want to talk about the nuts and bolts of the practical steps to

giving away money, and then how to vet charities. We'll get to that later on too, but they're all. There are also certain things, some excuses maybe that pop up that prevent us from giving money away. We're gonna debunk a few of those. We'll get to that first right after this. All right, we are back from the break, and we will answer how much money it is that

you should be giving away. But Joel ut is to this right before the break, Let's talk through some of the different reasons that uh, we're tempted to not give

away our money, and oftentimes that's because of fear and uncertainty. Right, A ton of folks out there have developed what we would call an unhealthy emotional attachment to their money that prevents them from from feeling comfortable enough to give any of it away, no matter how much progress that they've made within their own their own wealth building journey, and it takes real work to move past some of those insecurities.

Much of the time, I think those feelings are rooted in what folks have heard, what they have learned, what

they've experienced in childhood. Uh. And so, for instance, of money was a constant source of contention in your house, you might have adopted some of those those same feelings, you know, without even realizing that those feelings have you come from years of the different conversations maybe that your parents were having, where it has subtly fluence your thoughts like subliminal almost yea kind of biosmosis you absorbed it.

It's just kind of like this, it's like this counter currents, you know, like like regardless of what's going on the service, there's a very clear attitude towards money, Uh, that oftentimes does impact And most of the times we don't even realize that it's happened because it was so it just was the water we swimming. Yes, it was the way money was talked about, and so we just assumed that this was how it should be and that this is

the stance on money that we should take. This is and it carries into adulthood, and we we often failed to even reconsider maybe whether we should change the way we think about money in all of its aspects. But yeah, most of us are are still predominantly relating to money based on the way our parents related to money, based on the way we encountered it as a child. I think.

So I think we we learn more from our parents than we probably give them credit for that then we even give ourselves credit for having learned within that period of And sometimes it's not credit, right, Sometimes it's it's

not a healthy approach. Like I would say, lots of times because we don't talk about money well families historically, and so it is a problem that we often have to overcome because money wasn't handled well in our household, It wasn't talked about well in our household, and so it's it's something that we're we have to actually actively

combat against. Yeah, definitely, And credit doesn't necessarily mean positive, Like sometimes it can be a way that you say blame, but I agree, you know, if if you do want to make progress and to to not make any future money decisions that we're faced with based largely on some of these subtle different money scripts that we've developed, I think we have to first recognize that these these scripts exist, right, Like we have to understand that, man, there is more

like there, there's more to this, there's more to the way I was raised than I realized, more going on under the surface, exactly. And then once you recognize that, you've got to push back against some of those emotions, some of those feelings with data. Um. And we're going to get to some of this I probably here in a second as we kind of dive into some of

the more practical steps. Um. But you have to look at the actual facts, the actual figures and numbers and intentionally push yourself to do something that's going to you'll initially uncomfortable. Over time, as you get better at it at it, it's going to be something where you will be able to develop some healthy habits. So one excuse or one reason people give to not give their money

away is fear and uncertainty. Another one is is passing the buck, because folks often declined to give an ether money away based on a belief that someone else is going to do it. And like you mentioned earlier, Matt, like the billionaires, they're doing it. But that doesn't mean that all nonprofits are being served equally. And so in our culture, childhood and adolescens, I think this is a part of the problem gets extended not just into college,

but well into your twenties. And the best example I can give of this is that federal law demands that young adults be allowed to stay on their parents health insurance plans until age six, right, And I feel like that's telling because because of that reluctance. Part of that is is reluctance to feel like we're actually adults. And so the natural outcome of that, it might be when it comes to charitable giving at least that we think that the quote unquote adults are on the case that

they're going to sort it out. But the reality is nobody actually has everything figured out, and there aren't these fictionalized adults out there who are coming to save the day. If you're listening to this podcast, no matter how old you are, you are the adult, and it's important to be the change that we want to see. I do think that that period of prolonged adolescens set refusal to grow up to believe that we are the adults who have the ability to make impacts on the things that

matter most, on the problems that our society faces. That in and in and of itself, is a problem that prevents us from tackling the problems that's right. Yeah, as we're talking about this, it makes me think about how it almost feels like this giant group project that we're all apart of, and you think, oh, somebody else, this is gonna be somebody else, smarter that's gonna take care of this. It's like no, no no, no, no no, You're You're a part of the group. You are a valued member,

and you need to have in put. You also need to participate and give your money away. Emily's and grad school. She just did a group project and just brought me back to those days when you're like trying to pick the smart kid in the room who's going to take on most of the trying to figure out how like okay, and then you might be like, wait a second, and the smart one in this group, do I have to

do all the work? And oftentimes like that. Guess that's what we're trying to push folks into realizing, is that we are truly the adults here and we basically that that we need to sort of step up. Um. I think one of the other things too, like one of the interesting things things that happened is that there's this way like when we do participate, when we when we choose not to pass the buck, and when we do step up, uh and give some of our money away,

it has this way of forming us. Right, And so they're like, what I'm saying is that like, for instance, you've got somebody who says they love animals, Well, you can feel that way about loving animals, but until you give to like the like Wildlife Federation whatever I forget the name that, or until you come sit my cats for free while on DNA vacation, or like you might say that like that you care about homelessness, but until you go and volunteer at the homeless shelter, until you

actually give some of your money away to that organization, well, it kind of feels like empty words, right, And so it has this way. There is a lot there are a lot of empty words, and particularly a lot on on Twitter. Right, there's a lot of saying that you believe something, and there's a there's a lot less backing

it up with how you act exactly. Yeah, And so it's it's it's just a way to kind of reinforce the values that you say you live by, and it puts some action behind the words that maybe you have stated before. Joe. Another reason that some folks don't give is because they don't have the money, They don't have the funds. There might be some folks out there and they're just trying to stay above the water, like they for instance, they just want to save just a little

bit of money. They want to start paying off some debt, which I totally get. Uh. And so again, like we don't want folks who are you know, saying money gear number one or two feeling compelled to write big checks. But it is also true that there are a lot of folks who do have the means to start giving away something right, like, they just haven't thought creatively. They just don't think that they can do it because they're

maybe they're not tracking where their money is going. Uh, and so you might feel like you don't have the money, But is that actually the case? Is that actually true? Like what like, examine your life, examine your expenses and ask yourself, what are the other expenses, what are the other things that you're prioritizing in your budget that might be worth forsaking. Again, not to o trip you, but

sometimes stats and data can be sobering. For instance, all we looked this up and sixty one of children in low income homes they don't own a single book, which is crazy. It definitely makes me think differently about what it is I have, kind of going back to the gratitude and thankfulness portion that we're talking about earlier, but also how much more it is that we can give away if we just opted to to make it a priority.

When you're faced with the facts, whether it's what it is that you are spending your own money on or whether it's being faced with the realities of what others are living in their own lives. Yeah, I think about how many books you have on the shelf in your house and put that in juxtaposition to a large percentage of these kids who live in homes. They don't have the financial means, they don't have any they don't have any books. Like I know we have dozens and dozens

and dozens. Yes, we have an overloaded books. So can we give some of those away? Yes? And we should. And reading that staff Matt made me want to do that, Like, where can I channel these books and give away physical items that I own to benefit someone else? And I think perspective and gratitude are massive parts of the equation that help us feel more energized to give and then

more comfortable parting with our money. We often we don't think much about the massive levels of wealth that we have as a society, and I think it's a it is an important thing to focus on, especially right now this week, the insane progress that has made us all incredibly rich, at least from a historical perspective over the past couple hundred years. For instance, in eighteen thirty, the average worker put in seventy hours a week and guess

what those jobs were A whole lot harder. It wasn't easy work, you know, forty hours a week is is pretty standard these days. And a lot more folks work on a computer in an air conditioned space, on a laptop, maybe from their bed, like who knows. And again, I don't say this to try to guilt you, but to help us all realize just how good we have it, even if there's room for improvement. It's currently somewhat popular to talk about all the ways in which things are

becoming worse. And it's not that there aren't problems that our society faces, but the when you look at recent data, especially you over the last hundred years, just how much wealth we have accumulated as as a society, and how many more gadgets and gizmos and cheap food and all that stuff we have at our fingertips. We have fewer reasons for despair than we think. That's right. But now let's get practical. Let's discuss how it is that you can get started giving money away. And we want folks

to know that it is okay to start small. You don't have to to go from from zero to one hundred as fast as a Tesla Model less. That would be McKenzie Scott going from zero to billions. It's like, wait, uh in one year? Uh. And by starting small, I don't mean just giving a few bucks like at the grocery store checkout counter, you know, like on the random occasion that you're asked. That's not necessarily a bad thing.

It's just that we would rather you pick out which charities you want to give to to to kind of feel more of a personal connection to where your money is going. We'll talk a little bit more about how to vet charities in a little bit like you alluded to earlier, Joel. But in the same way that you can get started with investing with just like one dollar on apps like m one or when you open account with Fidelity, it is okay to give small amounts of

money away as well. Oftentimes I think even just giving any money at all, like just even starting with a dollar, is like half the battle, right, just getting the ball rollings, just starting in and of itself is maybe half the battle. Going from that majority of people who don't give to the minority of people who do so, all of a sudden being a giver. That is a pendulum metas one. It's a minor move, but it's a major move based

on like when it comes to your psyche exactly. Yeah, you don't have to be rich to begin your investing journey or to start giving your money away. Uh. And so let's go ahead, Joel and answer the question how much money should you give away? We're not going to give a blanket statement or like a blanket dollar amount or even a percentage, because it's like we talked about, everything is contextualized for the individual and their personal financial situation.

And so let's say someone this is their first episode listening at how the money and they are in tons of debt up to their eyeballs. They might not be ready to give away any money right at this point in time, but hopefully if we want to chaw on you too, though, and we want you to get to that, that's not an excuse like um. But that being said, so Joel, you and I, like both of our families, we give away at least ten percent of our income.

That's kind of our floor exactly. Again, that's not to say that that should be your floor or that should even be your goal, but as you and I were talking through this. We were we were thinking through Man, I think it would be totally possible for folks to start challenging themselves to give it away at least one

percent of their income. Granted, I know it is a lot hard harder to do at the end of the year when maybe you haven't necessarily planned for it, right, Because again, when we give money away, it's we do this a little bit month by month, you know, paycheck by check paycheck. Basically, this is not like something that at the end of the year all of a sudden we're just like and we we just crap on it, like ten plus percent of you know, your annual income.

Preparation and planning for it, I mean that truly is really important. But I think what's key here is identifying a percentage, even if it's a really really small percentage, because just like with as you're saving for retirement. Right, So for all those out there who have four one case you, right, you know, you choose a percentage of your paycheck that is going to go towards your four

own king hopefully enough that gets the full company match, right. Yeah, But what that does is it allows you to stick to something that you've agreed to do. It's a mechanism, right, It's a tool, and it allows you, even as you continue to make more money, to still give according to the same principles and the same values that you've previously identified.

And so in that way, I think it's something that you can not that you're trying to put it on autopilot from the standpoint that you don't think about it, but that you are able to put it on autopilot from the standpoint of like, no, I have identified that this is something that is important to me, and I'm going to live by it. It's in that way, it's

like a form of accountability. Yeah, I mean, I like that you mentioned planning it, because budgeting for your giving and then doing it with regularity is a really important practical step to making it kind of this normal routine behavior in your life. And I don't mean routine as in boring. You set it and forget it, because part of the good thing about giving your money away is that you can have a connection to the work that's being done. But budgeting for it takes some of the

fear out of giving your money away. You don't, like Matt, when you go to the grocery store. When you're at all the buying new groceries, you're not freaking out about the money you're spending every time. You're not like just nervous whether or not you're gonna actually be able to afford those groceries at the end of the month, because you've planned for it in advance. Right, you know what your grocery line it and budget is. I think we

shared it in uh how the Money newsletter recently. But there's the reality that when you have a line item in your budget, there is money there to cover that expense. And the truth is you can do the same when it comes to money you want to give away, making it a line item in your budget, giving on a

recurring basis to organizations that you care about. We kind of want you to treat your giving like any other subscription you might have in your life, right, just one that's better for the world and better for your heart, Like it's doing more good than whatever you're paying to Hbo, Go or or whatever they're what you know, whatever streaming services your favorite. You're giving money should be allocated in

a very similar way. We say that's right, and it's it's worth mentioning to we share how much it is or the percentage that we give away, not not to toot our own horn, but I think there's a contagious element when it comes to how it has folks spend their money. Right Like, think about your friends around you in your life, and as they start talking about things that they're spending money on, you start thinking about ways that you can spend your money that aligns in those

ways as well. Right Like, you've got a friend, he's talking about this vacation that they that they just booked or something like that, and you're thinking, oh, man, I want to go on a vacation, or you see your coping on Airbnb trying to find exactly, or you've got a friend and maybe they bought a new car or something like that. Hopefully I wasn't financed or anything, but you start thinking, man, my car is kind of feeling

kind of shabby. And so in the same way, I think giving it appeals to that same sort of natural tendency, that same behavior, And so we share this as well because we want more folks out there to be givers. And it's even probably worth sacrificing in order to be able to give Uh, and that the truth is, if you're listening to this episode and you're starting to think that maybe you'd like to start giving, but maybe you're

just not sure. If you have the legal room in your budget as it's currently constructed, you you might need to make some adjustments to your spending. And I know that's easier said than done, especially with inflation doing it's something currently, but we always find time. We always fund the money for the things that are actually important to us.

We just have to take the time and identify those things that aren't necessarily providing us the value and instead finding ways to funnel those dollars to some of these different charities, some of these different organizations and nonprofits that will move the needle. But we want you to at least consider spending less in order to to make giving a possibility. And one other thing worth mentioning when we touched on this earlier, I think, but you don't necessarily

have to just give money. You can give of your time. And so volunteering to help your favorite nonprofit out was some Melbow grease. Uh, it was some of your time. That can be a perfect place to begin if you are feeling a bit constrained when it comes to your budget.

Because let's say one of our listeners, Matt like out there, they're saying, listen, I've got fifteen thousand dollars with the credit card debt I until trying to pay off, and I have this plan because we've talked about paying off debt. I went to on debt dot it, and I am ready to pay that sucker off in the next fourteen months. We would say, awesome. And you know what, if you want to wait until you can actually start giving money, until you're completely done with credit card, that's fine, we

get that. But at least in the interim over these next fourteen months, can you find other ways to give And whether that is, like you just said, your time, or whether that is old jackets you got in the house or something like that, or old books you've got lying around, there are other ways to at least start giving, to exercise that muscle before you're ready to start writing a check or writing no one writes checks, but like

to start making a recurring payment every single month. But simultaneously, I think it's worth challenging yourself to not necessarily pro like to put like we touched on this earlier, but pushing off that giving because I think it can be a slippery slope, because any sort of financial goal could be like a noble cause where you're like, oh, I

got a ton of debt I gotta pay off. It's like, well, now I gotta I wanna make sure I'm getting that match, you know, with my four O one K. Like these are all great goals, and then I want to max out the four O one K. And then where you're gonna draw the line because you continue to push these goal posts out further and ultimately what you're doing is you you are still focusing on yourself rather than others,

even though that they are good goals to have. Uh, it is worth I think challenging yourself to say, Okay, even though I'm in a tough financial situation, but I know my power is not going to get cut off tomorrow. Uh. It might feel like you've got bills, but like, again, are these bills related to entertainments? And maybe those are bills that you can begin to remove from your life and instead spend some of the money towards others. And

again it can be small. You're right, and and you know what, it's okay, we would say to push your financial goals. Uh, make if it takes just a little bit longer to reach some of them because you're prioritizing giving. We think that's still a good thing because it's helping you have that better relationship with money, a healthier attachment or detachment from it. Right. Even though money is an important tool, it's not the end all, be all, and

giving helps us realize that. Giving regularly helps us realize that. But now we've got more to get to. Specifically, want to talk about how you give, where you give your dollars, and then knowing which charities are going to make the best use of the money you're giving away. We'll talk about that and more right off for this so we're back from the break. We're talking through some of these practical stuffs when it comes to the best ways to

effectively give your money away. And one of the things that Joel, we would recommend for folks to do is to follow the impact of your dollars. And what we mean by that, Uh, none of us wants to give money away just out into the ether, like out into

blank space, right. Uh. And the truth is, especially this time of year, board at like nonprofits and be like, yeah, I guess I'll give there this year, Like you wanted to have a connection to something you can write, but that's assuming there's a dartboard even there, Like like the way a picture is just like you're just throwing it out there and it's like, where's it gonna land? I don't even know. Hopefully there's something that you're giving to.

But what I'll saying though, is like this time of year, we're constantly being asked for money, uh, sort of these these year end gifts, and a lot of folks I think they feel overwhelmed and they either shut down completely or they might give small amounts of money maybe kind of small amounts along the way. But the difficult thing about I think taking that tactic is that we often feel removed from where our dollars are going and what

they're doing. We might even forget which organizations we've given to, you know, when we sort of piece meal these donations out.

And again that's not the worst thing in the world, but it is so much better for us when we proactively decide where to give our money, you know, not just giving spur of the moment, uh, And it just allows us to gauge the impact more clearly, and what I think by doing that enough, we can oftentimes make sort of a transition from feeling like that we're having to what feels like a sacrifice to being able to spend our money in a way that not only aligns

with our values, but because it aligns with our values, that it's something that we look forward to. I think for some folks there might be a clear moment in time where it switches in their head and all of a sudden they're thinking, Oh, this used to be a chore, but now it feels like an opportunity for me to spend my money in a way that helps others but also kind of brings me some joy as well. But but for other folks, it might be a more of

a process. Right, Like we're over a number of years, he might start to feel better about the money that they're giving. I think there's a lot of different folks out there, and it depends on who you are. But however it is that you can identify and ground yourself to some of these specific specific organizations. I think it's going to allow your dollars to to feel like that they're going further for you, which I think is going

to lead to more success, more successful giving. It's going to be something that you're going to be able to maintain long term sustained ability to continue doing this. Yeah, and I like what you said about following the impact of your dollars because dropping a few coins into a Santa ring, a bell bucket, right Salvation Army, asking for donations in front of a Walmart, or something like that. I'm not saying that's bad. Continue to do that if that's important to you, But I think sometimes we just

feel guilty. We give out of guilt in a situation like that, or when someone comes straight up in our in our face when we're outing about asking for money. We're liable maybe to given that circumstance, as opposed to being thoughtful about the money we're giving ahead of time. And we would like to know that the dollars we released into the world where are actually doing good and we'd like to understand and see which way they're having

an impact. So we would say, consider asking a favorite local nonprofit what it is they need and how you can help meet that need. You might be able to see the exact way in which those dollars are being spent. Also do something as simple as like signing up for the newsletter of that nonprofit to follow along with their progress. I'm sure they send something out weekly or monthly that it can help you stay abreast of of what they're doing and how they're having an impact where they exist

and with what they're doing. It's a great way to connect the money you're giving away to good work being done that impacts the lives of others. Amount It makes me think of a some money I recently gave away to a nonprofit that we love that Emily and I are tied to, and they were able to tell me exactly how they were going to use the money that I was giving to them, which made me really excited to give. I was like, Oh, it's going to scholarships

for these kids like that. That is really cool, And that got me just really even more excited to give that money away. And so it's it's not that some of the biggest nonprofits aren't worth supporting, that the Red Crosses of this world aren't doing great work or anything like that, but we would say giving locally often gives you the clearest window into the impact your money is

having and can be powerful totally agree. Yeah, Like when we are able to connect our giving to the work being done, I think that's going to get us excited to give even more money down the road. But let's talk about giving to have the most impact, and a lot of this is going to have to do with, first of all, personal preferences right as to which issues that you see being the most important and some of the different organizations that are addressing some of those issues.

But even when you hone in on the specific areas that you would like to impact, not every charity is created equal. There are often many, many, multiple different organizations doing very very similar things. For instance, if you wanted to support families of fallen soldiers, that's a great cause, but make sure that you vet the charities doing this work first, because there's someones out there that aren't so great.

We would positively point people uh to some sites to research charities like charity navigator dot org, Charity wash dot org, and Great Nonprofits dot dot org. These are all awesome sites and ratings the analysis that these sites offer. They can help you to feel confident that the money that you're giving away that it's being used effectively and if you legit have no idea where to even consider giving your money away. These sites can help with that too,

write Charity Navigator for instance. How some they've created some cool curated lists that are worth looking at based on different causes that might resonate with you, and you can you can even look for charities doing the best work in in basically whatever particular arena you care the most about, like protecting the environment or reducing homelessness, great nonprofits. That site does a good job helping you see solid organizations

near where you live. And so yeah, a few minutes of research can help give you greater confidence that the charity you're giving to is using those funds in an effective manner. These sites basically have different rating systems for these charities and you can see, oh, are they spending a lot on overhead or are they giving a lot

of money directly to the people that they serve? And and plus it helps you to avoid fake scam charities, which yes those exist, and it gives you the perfect retort if you prefer to not give your money away on a whim when asked. For instance, Matt, when someone knocks on my door asking for donations, I say, Hey, what's the name of your organization, I need to research it first, and so they know that I'm not going

to give my money to them in that interaction. Maybe I will a later date, but I need to go check them out first to make sure one that it's an actual organization and two that I align with it, and then three that that they're going to use that money effectively. Totally. Yeah, I will say, the last time someone came to our door, they had their Charity Navigator rating ready, so helpful, ready to deploy. Well, that might

disarm me a little bit. Yeah, But simultaneously, I think we also need to feel comfortable and politely declining, right because not to say that whatever, okay, great, I see that you get on Charity Navigator. That's awesome. Uh, and not to say that the work that you're doing isn't important, but it may not necessarily perfectly align with how it

is that you want to spend your money. There's a lot of different organizations out there, and so you might already be hot committed with your You've budgeted it out and guess what you've got those donations they're recurring and sorry, there's not enough love over even Oh you're doing great work, but i'll consider you in the future, and so I think you also need to basically have the guts to

let somebody down. Unfortunately, because that's every dollar that we are spending, whether on ourselves or on somebody else, is money that you're not going to be able to to give to a different organization. To just keep that in mind as well. But um, one other sort of technical thing that's worth touching on are the tax benefits that

you get by giving your money away. Of course, not everyone is going to be eligible for a tax deduction based on the giving because when the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, it you know, when it passed, it massively increased the standard deduction, meaning that far fewer folks are going to atomize your taxes, and a huge percentage of folks won't see a decrease in their taxes because of

how much that they give away. But if you do itemize your deductions, make sure to keep track of the money that you're giving away so that you can snag that tax deduction on your gifts. And again, hopefully this is intentional giving, but you won't be surprised when you get a year in statement from from an organization. Hopefully you'll be looking forward to that, you'll be counting on it as opposed to it showing up because you maybe gave away some of your money in a non intentional way.

But let's say that you aren't terribly far away from itemizing deductions, but you're not there yet, it might make sense for you to batch or to clump your giving. That can be a little easier seven done. But if you're keen to get at least a little bit of a break from Uncle Sam from the I R S. Being strategic with when it is that you give, that can give you a tax benefit that you might not

otherwise receive. And so what we mean by that is, let's say that you're going to give away twenty thousand dollars this year, You're gonna give away twenty thou dollars likely next year. Well, if there's a way that you could either give a full forty thousand now automize your taxes this year, but the next year take the standard

deduction or vice versa. Instead, take the standard deduction this year, uh commit that money at the beginning of next year, and then make your your final year and donation at the end of next year, and then you can automize next year, but finding a way to maximize that that tax break. It's definitely a nice little park that you want to make sure that you're aware of. Yeah, it can be a little bit of that cherry on top.

But but you're right man. They that also Let's say you're you're planning on giving twenty dollars away this year next in your scenario, most people don't have that reservoir of for d K sitting there right now, So it

can make sense for some people. Make sense for again, all those planners out there who are starting to take their they're giving a little more serious and mega savers, and so maybe they do they have all that cash on hand, they plan ahead, they give it all this year to get the additional tax benefit, and then they don't give anything next year, and they're building up their

war chest to do the same thing in right. But and donor advice funds, by the way, we should mention those, those are worth considering for the high rollers out there, because this is a great way to be able to set aside money for giving in a single year in order to get that tax benefit, but to be able to disperse those funds over time and the cool thing about a donor advice fund is that you can invest those dollars that you plan to give away, allowing them

to grow. So it's a way to feel like you're being even more effective with the dollars that you're planning to give away because you can grow them in the meantime, and you can open one through your favorite low cost investment firm like Fidelity. Another great option is a website called daffy dot Org. Will link to these sites in the show notes, but this is a nonprofit itself that keeps the cost incredibly low for normal folks who don't have millions of dollars to give away. We really like

what they're doing in the space. And and so if you're an optimizer and you want to you want your giving dollars to be used the most effectively. You want them to be literally invested in the market, so that over time, as the market bounces back, you have more dollars to give away just because of the mechanics of how you're giving your money away. Donor vice funds are a really cool tool to be able to do just that. That's right, man, And so no matter where you are

on your journey, towards some financial freedom. We hope that you are encouraged, right, Like, the last thing that we want is for anybody to hear this and feel laden with guilt. That is not what we're trying to accomplish here.

But I think there there might be a lot of folks who have been so focused on optimizing their money over the past four or five years, and they're thinking, oh, my gosh, I have never considered giving some of my money away because it didn't make sense from a financial standpoint. I wasn't going to be able to get that tax deduction,

so why would I even consider it. Well, we pointed to a lot of other reasons why we think you should consider giving your money away, And even if you feel like you're fairly cash strapped, we do think it's at least worth thinking about giving some of your money away. We think there are some different creative ways that you can pare back some of your spending, uh to funnel some of those dollars towards some the different organizations that you might find will have a positive impact not only

on your community, but eventually the world. And it's it's fun to be able to give your money away and to be able to see it being used in an effective manner for causes that you care about. And and it makes me think, Matt, there there is. We think frugality is great. We praise frugality almost all the time, Like we think that coming back on expenses is a

great thing to focus on. But it's possible to have too much of an emphasis on frugality to not think enough about how to grow your income, to not think enough about starting a business or multiple streams of income or investing for your future. Well, but I think the same thing can be true. It's it's a great thing to save more of your money, but can you put too much emphasis on that to the exclusion of giving money away? We think, yes, like, that's possible to and

there is. Unfortually, charity can be a casualty of being overly frugal. Yeah, And the reality is that your relationship with money might not be as healthy as it otherwise could be if you were to part with your money more frequently by giving it away to nonprofits and need to organizations doing work in your community. So it is one of those things where yeah, to remember that money is not the ultimate goal, that is just a tool to be able to accomplish things that you care about

in this life. Well, charity seems like it should be a part of that. Then it seems like it should be something that we are funneling more and more of our money towards as we get better with it, as we make more financial progress. That's right, man, All right, let's shift gears and get to the beer. You and I enjoyed a peach cobbler by Shades Brewing. What were your thoughts all this one, buddy? All right, so this one was a little mouth puckering and had some peach

fuzz action going on for Georgia boys. Was right at my alley and had a little bit of Grandcrackers, a little bit of vanilla going on, but it was it was mostly to me. I got, I got peaches out the wazoo, and yeah, I enjoyed this because a peach hour that's money in my book. Yeah, it wasn't overly sweet, so it definitely kind of had the slightly underwrite peach

kind of actually going on. But it completely gets me in the mood for the tomorrow, the Thanksgiving dinner that most of us are going to be able to partake in, which also gets me thinking peach cobbler. If what's your favorite of the different fruit pies or cobblers out there? Do you have a favorite? I mean I kind of like all of them, but yeah, Pete, peach collar, apple pie, apple Baby, Yeah, I was gonna say it, like you two the best. You can't beat apple. Do you do

you like pumpkin pie? Not a huge pumpin po I like pecan pie though, yeah, Peak and she was some ice cream, he was, Oh yeah, based any pie with some people with some ice cream on top, totally the

way to go. But we hope that everyone out there that you have a a wonderful Thanksgiving holiday tomorrow, uh, and do take some time aside and express some of the gratitude for the mini blessings that we have in our lives, and specifically to challenge yourself and to see if there's ways that you can share that with others. That was our goal for this episode. And we'll make sure to link to some of the different resources, uh,

specifically some of those different charity research websites. We will link to them in our show notes at how to money dot com. No doubt, all right, buddy, that's gonna do it for this episode, until next time. Best friends out, best friends out