How to Give Away Your Money #024

money is actually going to charities that will use it. Well. Yeah, Joel, And that actually makes me think of a recent comment that we had on our site by Sarah, and she had mentioned how, you know, she liked how we have a good balance between living a frugal life but also enjoying life and you know, giving money away and being charitable.

That kind of falls on the side of living that good life, right, because if we were only about being cheap and like living that frugal life, it's like, well, I don't really have money to give away to other people. A big part of what we try to, you know, what we strive towards is all aspects of enjoying life, and included in that, you know, is giving money away. So so if you've listened for a while, you know

that's gonna sound familiar. That's the kind of what we talk about every week, right, We try to balance the two. But if you're a new listener and you're kind of wondering why it is that we're talking about giving money away when this is a podcast about money and beer, well, you know, that's why we try to enjoy life, but we're also striving to be why stewards of our money and and along with that is being frugal. So, Sarah,

thanks so much for that comment. Yeah, we really appreciate that. Yeah, Matt. And sometimes people ask me like, hey, do I have to like beer in order to listen to your podcast? Yes, it would help, but but no, you really don't, don't. I Mean, I think the majority of the reason that we pour a beer on the on each episode, Matt, is it kind of represents something that we enjoy and somewhere that we put our money, that we that that

matters to us. But then on top of that, I think it represents more than anything, this concept of balance, right, and exactly, that's something that means a lot to both of us. There are a lot of people out there that are trying to retire at age thirty four, but they're not living a life of balance. You know, on the way to that. And then there are also people who are completely out of whack in overspending and they're working way too much and they're you know, neglecting things

that actually matter to them. Hopefully that comes out in our episodes. That balance is such a key, uh, and that's something that we strive for and definitely don't always do well. Balances at the heart of kind of the core of the mission of what we're up to here. That's right, it's our mission. So Matt onto the beer that we are drinking this evening. Oh man, that's not a loaded, nice pop. So you've got this beer. This is Russian River. This beer is called Consecration, which is

a barrel edge sour beer and Russian River. They're out of California, right, that's up there, like kind of near wine country, Yeah, exactly. And this beer comes to us courtesy of our friend Carl, who runs the website hundred days dot com. Uh. He's an awesome writer, he's an awesome dude. He absolutely loves good beer, and so he was kind enough to send send us this beer, which is I think one of both of our all time favorite beers. And he's got a lot of wisdom to share.

The hundred was in regards to he was set a goal to be able to be financially independent by you know, fifteen hundred days later, right from when he started the ball. Yep. So that was the whole that's the whole reason behind fifteen hundred days. Yeah, man, this beer was I mean, really, I think we've had sours before. I know I had a few hours before this, but this was the first sort of world class barrel age sour that kind of

knocked my socks off, you know. Yeah. I distinctly remember another friend, because this brewery's out of California, the only shipped to a few states. Another West Coast friends sent us a bottle. We split it, and I just remember saying, if sours can taste like this, I want more, because we've had some kind of average to subpar one before that, and Consecration from Russian River just kind of took the cake and really still does to this day. It's such

a delicious beer. Yeah man, So this pours, it's pouring like a nice kind of murky brown, but it's got a lot of bubbles to us, you know, it's definitely it's definitely gonna have a nice bit of carbonation. Ready to taste this, Yep, that's still awesome. Speaking of balance that we talked about earlier, this this beer is so well balanced. Some of the sours today are getting a little crazy, little out there. This just kind of toes the line that it's walking perfectly and I so dig

this beer. Yeah, it's pretty aggressive, nice nice bit of tartness to it, but it's barely aged, so you know, just those oak notes just kind of really balance it out and kind of smooths it out, makes it real easy to drink. It's got some slightly more bitter notes to it than maybe some of the sours we've had recently. Yeah, I kind of like that. Actually, it's it's kind of rare to find. It's usually super sweet and when it comes to sour and so that those kind of bitter

notes balance it out. And it's definitely got rush and river. Being based in wine country obviously major access to wine barrels and this one's aged in Capernet saweignon barrels and so it's got a little bit of that wine quality to it as well. Uh, yeah, you know what I feel like, guess what I can feel sort of like the tannin sort of dryness, kind of coming out of

the wood a little bit, maybe completely. And so if you're into wine not really terribly into beer, a beer like this would be kind of a good one to check out. And we're actually seeing more and more of that beer wine hybrid kind of thing happening. So all the lines are getting blared. Man, I know, right, have you guys ever been up to a wine country like Napa or Sooma? No, never done it. I think I've like southern Oregon has some wineries and I've that's up there.

I've done that before, but never like the California wine region. So Kit and I went once and we decided, okay, we're gonna be over there. We've got to stop in, you know, and like Napa and Sonoma, thinking that we wouldn't really enjoy it, but no, we we loved it. Man. We had such a good time. And we're not even really into wine, but just seeing the grounds and the vineyards, you know, being able to like the couple that we

went to had hiking trails like on the property as well. Wow. Yeah, And so it's gorgeous and then you get to cap it off with going down into the you know, the cave or whatever where they where the age all the barrels. It's nice and cold down there after you've been sweating up in the California sun and get to tip back some delicious wines. And yeah, we had a great time for obvious reasons. I guess there is something about vineyards

that's just beautiful. It's a little more romantic than than just a brewer, right right, Yeah, completely from that point of view, I can totally understand why you want to do it, you know, and I think especially getting into beers like this, you know, drinking some of those beers that have a little more wine like qualities. I can completely see why people dig wine, and I can see myself someday in the future maybe drinking more wine than

I do now, but right now focused on beer. But yeah, that being said, I mean, if you are out there and you're a wine drinker and you know of like a bottle of wine that's like in the I don't know, sixteen eighteen dollar bottle, a bottle range that that you know as really good and that you could recommend to somebody, give us a shot. I mean, I would love to know, like, what's a really good bottle that you can get for you know, sixteen bucks anything of his Kirkland signature. My buddy,

I don't know if that's true. However, I'm sure someone's gonna write it and say, oh, it's actually not that bad, you know, just like the Aldi beer. No, not terrible. So tip to the folks that do like wine. There's a website called Costco Wine blog dot com, and there's this dude who dedicates his uh at least free time. I don't know about his life, but he dedicates himself entire life to writing about and reviewing the Costco wines.

And they're actually like just the Costco irons, just the Costco ones, and there are you know, Costco is actually I think the number one buyer and seller of wine in the country. Yeah, just like Walmart's the number one organic produce. Yeah. That's a good point. That's a good point. I mean, I mean that bean said, like, certainly Costco has got great wines. Though they do from what I've heard.

I'm certainly not a connoisseur, and and I've I've tried a couple of them, and they've they've been a lot better than two buck Chuck in my opinion. But but yeah, that that blog is really cool if you're into wines and want to check it out. And another thing that Costco is great for, by the way, is getting bottles of liquor, oftentimes the Costco liquor. If you're particular Costco and you're not a member, Matt, We're going to fix that in the near future for you. It's too far away, man,

That's that's my big thing. I just don't like driving, so I don't want to hear your excuses close the audia is our house. Now, that's true, I know. But so the liquor selection at Costco is really really good, and the prices are insanely good too, because usually a package store marks up a bottle of liquor between thirty

and so. At Costco, the most mark up that Costco ever does is so typically you get a bottle of their Kirkland signature liquor for ten dollars cheaper on average ten to fifteen dollars cheaper than what you'd pay at a package store. They also have regular brands of booze as well. Stuff. Yeah, and it's cheaper too, like by good ten bucks, so you can at least pick me up a handler to you know, if you're going up there,

I'll see what I can do. By the way, I just wrote an article it's up on the website now about where you should go to get beers when you're in Atlanta. Uh and so don't miss that. I also mentioned some of our antiquated beer laws in the article, So check that out if you're interested on knowing where we drink beer in in our town, and if you're visiting, definitely be sure to hit some of those places up Yeah. So Matt onto the topic at hand, how to give

your money away. And I think ultimately you and I both think that there's a lot that we as human beings can learn by giving away our time and our money. Yeah. Man, that's right for both of us. You know. A big part of like some of our core values, you know, is being generous giving our money away, like in whatever

sort of outlet that looks like for you. And and a big reason we want to talk about this too is, I mean, at least for me, the sort of angle I want to approach it from is giving your money sort of intentionally um and actively right, instead of it being sort of this passive thing that you're doing, or instead of it being a more like a reactionary thing, you know that being said, I'm not going to tell you not to like give money to somebody asking for a handout or or whatever it is, you know it

is that someone approaches you. But there's ways that you can give that helps you to feel maybe more in charge of your money. It's where you're intentionally giving and that's more part of your plan and like your mission, you know, like your financial sort of game plan and mission versus it sort of being this thing that is more like an afterthought or only if someone approaches you and you know, asks for a donation, that kind of thing. Yeah,

I think too. There's a place that people get caught up and they say, you know what, in the future, someday, I'm going to give my money away, you know, one of these days, you know, once I hit this certain point in my life, that's when I'm gonna actually start giving away some my money. But I just can't afford to do it right now. Uh, And I feel like I ultimately what that what it comes down to is

that's kind of like an excuse. I hear the same thing with a lot with a lot of people who say I want to travel someday, and they never seem to prioritize it. They never seemed to buy a ticket to go somewhere and visit a really cool place. And so that's just kind of a common thing. They prioritize their money going to other places, and ultimately, it is

a matter of prioritization. And if you say that you want to give some day but can't give in some capacity now, then I think, really you're just fooling yourself and you're checking yourself because it's something that you can do now if you would only prioritize it. Yeah, you're just giving the lip service. Basically, you're doing it to

kind of make yourself feel a little bit better. And and granted maybe you're going through some terrible financial situation right now that you know where you just you do not have the space you do you don't have the bandwidth for that. And for for those people, we are not talking to you. But you know, if you've kind of been if you've got a steady job and you've you're living your life and you're enjoying yourself and in your drinking craft beer, the good stuff, we're talking to you.

You know like, and I think too, we this isn't something we want to guilt trip you over. But no, no, no, yeah, it's not it's not this. Uh. We're not trying to make you feel bad for not giving. But hopefully by the end of this episode you will have seen how

it's benefited Matt and I in our lives. It has given us a healthy detachment from our money, just kind of healthy understanding that money isn't everything and in so many ways that our goals right for our money and for our lives, are actually better served by giving away a portion of our income. And so we'll kind of tell you what that looks like in our lives. And I'll be honest too. You heard the last episode, uh, where my wife told a story about where I was

charging my friends for coal. Still a terrible story that I can't live down. But I feel like my heart has changed a lot about giving over the years and generosity, and so hopefully you can see kind of how I've grown and honestly, being married, you know, being married to my wife, Emily has accelerated that change in my life where I prioritize it and it's been so meaningful to me to give away a portion of what we make.

And uh so, I think in the end, if you want a healthy view towards money, learning to give away a portion of it, you know, and you can figure out what that means to you exactly percentage wise, but but learning to give away that portion can actually give you a more robust appreciation for what you do have. Yea, man, you know what this reminds me of two is the our episode on asking for a discount in a totally

sort of twisted way. But but we talked about how asking for a discount it's sort of like a muscle, and like the more you do it, it it kind of makes you uncomfortable or it's just because it's just hard to do, right, um, But the more you do it, the easier it becomes. It's a behavioral thing, you know. It's it's like a muscle. I feel like giving your money away. It's it's real similar, you know, it's it's

a muscle. It's sort of like this cognitive pathway where the more you do it, the better at it you get, the more you're sort of able to recognize it and see it in your life kind of just as you go throughout the day and throughout your life and you can respond to that. Yeah, And I think in a lot of ways, like giving our money away is like a recognition of the fact that we aren't completely self

made people. We are influenced and made up in so many ways of the contributions of parents, teachers, are community, and the country that we live in. Uh, hard work is certainly rutual to success, but being generous is that kind of recognition of the benefits that we've received from other people that have played major roles in our lives. And and and in a sense, it's sort of paying it forward, right Like you you're you have that recognition, you see that, and then you're also doing that for

for other people. And whether that be through your finances, right through your money directly, or just through your time and the attention the knowledge that you're able to share with others and kind of pour into other people's lives. All that is a part of recognizing all that went into you and sort of doing that for others around

you as well. So obviously, like the number one benefit of giving your money away is helping people, right, It's it's you trying to better the people around you, trying to better the world around you trying to make the world a better place. I mean it's obvious, right, But if you think of like, Okay, how does how's giving my money away you gonna make things better? I think a lot of times folks can immediately just only focus on, well, how's this going to be good for me? Like, you know,

what are the benefits? Like what how's this going to affect my bottom line? When that shouldn't be your primary goal at all, Like it should be because you see a need or you really believe in this effort or this cause, and and that's something that you're gonna, you know, put put your money behind, yeah, because you truly believe it. Yeah.

And I think ultimately the easiest way to see the need and then to see the benefit of where your money is going is to give locally, right to give to an organization that exists in your neighborhood or in your town. And so you know, for for me, there are are a couple of organizations that are extremely local that I can quantify what they do. You know, I get the newsletter updates, I run into the people that work there. I know what is happening and the sorts

of success stories that come out of that nonprofit. So it's really exciting to see something happening in my own neighborhood, whether it's helping kids or helping you know, older people whose homes are in disrepair and they can't afford the repairs on their home. Giving the causes that are local where you can kind of see the tangible work is to me a really great benefit that you can actually kind of watch the progress of your money right before

your eyes. I mean that makes me actually think this article I saw that I read where they're talking about how even though like the total number uh of dollars that have been donated has increased over the years, the number of people who have been contributing has decreased um And like the whole article is talking about like the pooling of money to the you know, the rich, and how they're kind of deciding where the money goes, and how that affects policy, you know, tax policy, just all

these different things. But what that means though as well, is that these nonprofits and sort of charities are marketing themselves to people because they're trying to get these big donors, and they're trying to appeal to sort of like the mass appeal the mass, you know, the whole country, and when that's sort of right in front of you as as somebody that's looking to give your money away, you don't see the immediate need, like you don't see like

you said, like the local charity, um, something that is right in front of you if you were just to you know, literally like open your eyes or ask around and see what your local needs are. Yeah, So be mindful of that because it definitely is trending to where these bigger organizations are sort of siphoning and getting all the funding, all the donations, where you know, the smaller local organization has kind of been suffering over the past

few years. Yeah, and so I think a benefit to Matt is that giving your money away changes you just as much, if not more than the people or organization that you're giving to. It's really cool if you give to a local organization to see your money at work

and to maybe see people's lives that are changed. Someone like I mentioned, you know, a house and disrepair for a senior citizen that is able to stay in their home because otherwise they would have had to move, they would they wouldn't been able to fix up their house or they just have to live in a home with you know, a messed up roof or something like that.

That's something that's tangible and you can see. Yeah, I mean if you were like, you know, just give the Red Cross, Like I don't want to knock Red Cross, but like they're great. However, it's hard to see the efects of that. And so yeah, if you see the physical effect that your money is having, how encouraging is that?

You know, I mean that if anything that would just kind of give someone, if anything that might encourage someone to give more, you know, like when you see the effects like that, it just has this positive sort of reinforcement that hopefully continues the cycle. Yeah, and I think ultimately then it has a great effect on you as a human giving your money away. So it's cool to see the progress, cool to see your money at work, where you live, or for a cause that you care

about greatly. But then on top of that, there's something about living life with more of like an open hand where you're not holding onto your possessions too tightly or just like gripping your money right and not letting go of any of it. There is something that changes, like in your heart and in your demeanor almost when you are freed up to give. The way that you are generous with your money, I think actually translates to a generosity of spirit that's almost like a felt quality about

a person too. Uh so, so giving your money away translates into the kind of person that you are in life, and it has such a freeing effect on your soul by deciding to give away a portion of your assets. It's hard to explain, right, like it's this this this weird and tangible thing. But I think we've all met people in our lives, whether it be at work or just anywhere where there's something that's just greedy and they're just stingy and they just don't they suck, you know.

It's it's someone that you kind of don't want to be around. And that's the way you're what you're kind of talking about. It's sort of like that you can't put your finger on it, but it's just you can just tell that. It's just like, man, why you gotta

be like that with your charcoal? Joel Well, And it's like this thing of like it fabled in books and fairy tales, right, I mean, the Grinch and every these are screwedge right there these characters that are there no workhouses, like I mean, all they're they're these great stories that encompass someone's heart that is hard to the plight of their fellow man, and then how how they can change.

And I think some of those stories actually, while probably over exaggerated, do kind of give us a window into the human heart where if you do view your money and humanity in that way, you know you can change and you can go from essentially this mindset of scarcity where you have to hold on to every dollar that you have, to one of generosity, and that's going to

have an impact on the world around you. But then you know, even more so, maybe your heart or girl like five sizes like the grunch too, so and and and that will have other benefits that are really hard to quantify but but are super important. Yeah, and you'll certainly see and and sort of the non tangible quality of life that you have. Yeah. Yeah, it changes your heart, but it also changes your mind. It's got like a

psychological effect. There have been studies that have shown that giving money away leads to essentially like a happiness boost, that that giving away your money actually makes you happier. And then on top of that, it also oddly enough,

makes you will richer. There's something psychologically about even if we give away like a small portion of what we have, it makes us feel like, were like, wow, I've got enough money to give to give to this charity or that charity, and it actually kind of reinforces the fact that we are wealthy. And and if you live in America and have a job, like compared to the rest of the world, you are wealthy. Man, when I found super fascinating about So it's specifically like that about the

happiness boost, right. The reason we buy things is to kind of make us happy. Right, Like you buy a shirt and because of that shirt, you're happy, at least for a little bit, you're happy. Right then, That's how it is with a lot of possessions, a lot of stuff that we buy. When you give your money away, that also makes you happy, but at a rate much

higher than where you to just buy this trinket. And so in a sort of self serving way, you can make yourself happy by giving money away because it's just more effective. It's like a more efficient way to make your heart glad. And we would argue that it makes you better happy, not sort of this superficial on the surface I bought this gadget happy, but this sort of deep happy that resonates with humanity and with like your fellow man, something that's more real than just this thing

that you bought. And at the same time, you're you're spending less to you because like the amount of money that you'd have to spend in order to make yourself a certain amount of happy, you can spend like five times less than that by giving your money away and achieving the same happy by making someone's life better. And that crazy. It is crazy. And I'll tell you, I see this like in my own self, in my own heart, and I see it in like the hearts and lives

of my kids. So there's something about when you receive a gift, I feel like you are thankful for it, but it's always or when you buy something for yourself, there's always like a certain level of disappointment. It never seems to kind of hit what you're aiming for, uh. And I totally see it in my kids when they get gifts. They sometimes end up playing with, you know, the box that it came in or classic yeah, or discarding it in favor of something that they've had for

a long time. It's not that they're not appreciative, and they they say thank you and they enjoy the gift for a while sometimes, But I completely see their hearts being totally different when they give something away or when they help someone else that doesn't have what they have. There there's something long lasting. And it's the same for me.

When I buy myself something new that I think I want, you know, it really only satisfies for a small period of time, and that happiness is like tainted with bits of guilt, and it really doesn't have the satisfaction that I think it's going to when I, you know, click to buy online. But then when I do serve someone else, when I, you know, spend my time to help a fellow human or actually ride a check to an organization

in my neighborhood, that means a lot to me. Uh. There's something that is a lot more long lasting about that happiness, uh than just consuming more so, another way that it's a benefit man to your wallet is that you know, contributions and donations to like nonprofits are tax deductible. I don't know a ton about this, I'll be honest, because I actually have a c p A. Since I'm a small business owner, that's one aspect of the business that I've decided to outsource. Can you feel me in then?

On like the because you've got the new standard deduction, right, yeah, So essentially the standard deduction for single individuals and for couples was raised, and so there are a lot fewer

people that will be itemizing on their taxes. And so, for instance, right when the tax law got passed, I decided to give my contributions to a couple of organizations in as opposed to doing it on a monthly basis throughout the next year, just so that I would be able to claim a higher deduction on that year's taxes. And so for some people, the way to combat this

is to give bigger chunks like every other year. Ultimately, this is advice to help you on your taxes, but uh, tax strategy, right, yeah, I mean the most important thing is to be giving your money away, But if you want to do it and reap the most tax savings, then consider alternating years in which you give. Just make sure it's a part of your budget and that you're thinking about it. I know that can kind of almost be another excuse not to give so, so don't let

it be that in your life. But if you do want to get the most tax benefit from your gifts, yeah, consider doing it like alternating years that you can you know, one year take the standard deduction and then the next year exceeded based on essentially a higher gotcha, higher gift level. Gotcha cool man. So that was some of the benefits

and hopefully too. When folks read the title of this podcast or you know, this episode, they weren't immediately like, oh, this is the episode for rich people that are just giving their money away to charities and foundations. This is a philanthropist episode. Uh, And I mean that's definitely not the case for you know, for either of us. We do, we know we do intentionally and regularly and actively give our money away, but I don't think the total amount

would blow anyone out of the water. Oh really, Joe, you know I give away and twenty K last year. Wow. Uh, for surpasses anything that I can even conceive of. Just kidding um, But I think a lot of folks might be thinking this is all great to hear, but I am totally in debt. We're underwater, we're just scraping by living paycheck to paycheck, Like what like, we can't do this, you know, like what am I supposed to do? And yeah, what would you say to folks uh in that situation? Sure,

I mean I definitely understand that. And there are were times in my life where you know, rent was super high and I was just starting out in radio and I was making very little money. Uh, not that you really ever make lots of money in radio, but I

would tell them to start by donating some of your time. Um, whether it is like your local after school kids club and you can tutor somebody, whether it is whether it is volunteering some time at an old folks home in your area and bringing your kids there to play bingo and you know, give them some some cheer, or spending time, you know, even with a neighbor that is homebound, you know, whatever it is. Maybe you're a good cook and you can make a meal that's killer for six dollars for

someone in your church that just had a baby. There are so many ways that you can spend your time and your talents to help someone out that you know that's in need. And so yeah, I would say start by volunteering your time and maybe a gift that you have.

It could be as simple as, you know, mowing someone's lawn. Uh, there are lots of ways that you can kind of get started in this and then just make sure that it's a goal that as your income does start to grow and your debts start to decrease, that you would prioritize this and um and make sure that it's on the front burner as a topic of conversation and as

something that you're aiming for. And sometimes, you know, giving your time might even actually be more difficult, but it can definitely be more meaningful, especially if it's something that you kind of have a heart for that you care

more about. So on the flip side of that, though, man, I mean, I would even encourage folks to consider even if you're not bringing home hardly anything right, like like you're living paycheck to paycheck and literally maybe you're only setting aside like fifty bucks a month, you know, tops or something like that. Instead of thinking, oh, well, I can't even fifty bucks is hardly anything, and I need that to start paying off my debt or something like that,

consider a percentage. You know, it might be difficult to say, well, five bucks. I mean that's nothing like, like, where is that going to get me? If I if I give somebody five bucks, Well, just know that it's it's less about the five dollars that you're setting aside to give to an organization, and instead, what you're working on is

that is building that muscle. Right, Like, so if you're sitting aside five bucks out of your fifty, you know, you're sitting aside ten percent, and that's a lot of money. You know, if you're stocking away five thousand dollars a month, like in a couple of years when you're you know, making bank, that's five bucks a month, and that's a big amount of money. Like, that's a lot of money

if you're still sticking with the percentage. And so for a lot of folks that maybe are in that situation, I would, I mean, I would challenge folks to look at a percentage that makes sense for you. And if you're making hardly anything at all, that's gonna seem silly because it's such a small amount, but that should also mean that that's totally doable. And what you're doing then

is kind of locking into like a rate. You know, just like we talked about previously about a savings rate and trying to up the amount that you set aside for retirement. If you can just stick with a percentage and maintain that percentage, then you're gonna be much better, you know, at giving your money away down the road when you've got a lot more of it because you've again you've worked that muscle, and you know you're gonna be a pro. Yeah. Completely, There's something about forming a

habit and sticking to it. It's almost like jumping on the bike for the first time. I mean, I remember before I bike to work for the first time, I had it all built up in my head, like it was this scary thing that oh man, it's gonna take forever and I'm gonna be all sweaty and it's just not gonna be worth it and it's gonna be big pain. And bike org has been one of the great joys of my life now at this point, and so starting

there's something to be said for starting getting it rolling. Yeah, And so build that habit in your life, whether it is yeah, two dollars a week, whatever it is, make it something. And I think there too, too, there is something about giving to where it impedes your lifestyle to

a certain degree. There is something meaningful about that and saying you know what, it's going to cause me to miss out on this, and it makes the giving really meaningful and helps you to understand, you know, how important it is as a priority in your life. Awesome. So we've talked about now why you should be giving. We've talked about some of the different benefits that occur when you do give your money, and so now we're gonna talk about some more practical stuff. Man, how to give,

How to actually give your money away. So first of all, find a cause or charity you know, like we just talked about that you really believe in that you can kind of get behind something that resonates with sort of your life goals, you like, your core values. Because when you can give your money to an organization like that, you're gonna find it to be so much more fulfilling, right, And so the dollar amount doesn't change age Like, you can give to any old organization and sure they're gonna

use your money and it'll be great. Or you can give to somebody that you believe in and that you're behind, and that's gonna affect you as well. Obviously, and that has a big impact on additional giving and the people around you and just the sort of person that you are. That's definitely something that you want to consider. Yeah, and

also consider giving of your time and yourself. And we mentioned this a little bit, but actually, Matt, what you said, I think sometimes it's harder to give your time, it's harder to give away bits of yourself in service to other people. But I think sometimes that's one of the absolute best ways to give, coming into contact with people that have a need and caring for them with the things that you've been given. That's one of the most

beautiful ways that you can give. And sometimes, yeah, the most difficult, especially for people who do have, you know, large amounts of money. It it can be really easy

to write a check and hard to feel it. And so if you feel like that's the case for you, say, you know what, I'm giving a lot and ultimately it doesn't seem to be resonating moving the needle with me, Well, then you're the perfect candidate to spend some time locally with the charity, volunteering to keep the books or meeting with someone who has a specific need, or tutoring the

kids right at your local kids club. There are lots of places where you know your time could be really useful, and that should totally be part of the equation when it comes to how you think about giving. Yeah, and not to make light of of what you just said, but you know, like volunteer, your time doesn't have to kind of be this drudgery. It doesn't have to be this pain you and I recently volunteered at our local

beer festival and it's a ton of fun. I mean, we have a great time because to hang out with a lot of our friends, meet tons of new people, and specifically, all the money that the beer fest makes goes into the Neighborhood Foundation, which gives tons and tons of money away to local neighborhood organizations that that need funding. They literally make tens of thousands of dollars, you know, every year through that beer fest, and our neighborhood has

made better because of it, exactly. And so you know, I just wanted to mention that too, because it's it can be fun. It doesn't have to be this thing where you feel like you have to like flagellate yourself and like okay, I gotta go like earn my you know,

earn my time because I'm not donating any money. It's like, well, obviously you can give money, but you can donate of your time and it can be it can be a lot of fun too, And even if it is something that's more work, you know, it's something that may not seem as glamorous. It kind of comes down to how you view it yourself and and sort of the value that you place on it. Yeah, and a great place to start could be asking, like a good friend, hey, where do you volunteer or give your money? Maybe what

they partake in will resonate with you. I know that first step can kind of be daunting sometimes, but that might be a good way kind of to get the ball rolling. Find out where people that you care about and are close to give their time and their money. However, don't let that be an excuse to not give, right.

I mean, I would encourage everyone, even if you're hardly not making anything at all, to try to set a percentage right and hopefully everyone by then of this podcast yes, will be challenged, you know, feel challenged to be giving. You know, if not a dollar amount of way a percentage a percentage of your income because you know that might be a an easier way for you to part with your with your money, Yeah, and be picky about

the charities you choose. There's a great website called charity navigator dot com and they do an amazing job of helping you understand the transparency and the financial choices of the nonprofit before you actually give to them. So, for an example, Yeah, if you look up Habitat for Humanity, uh, you can see like the exact percentage of the money you give that actually kind of goes towards the work

as opposed to you know, back office and things like that. Uh. And there was I assume it's a lot, and it's a lot. Yeah, they're great, Yeah for good things about habitats. Yeah, I love Habitat and uh. But then there was there were a lot of articles, you know a few years ago about this uh nonprofit called Wounded Warriors, and it was an organization that raised money for veterans that had

been disabled or wounded in combat. And it turns out that a lot of the money that you were giving was actually going towards higher up people in the organization, staying at fancy hotels, you know, eating fancy dinners, going to fancy parties things like that, and so just all

the fancy stuff stuff. Yeah, and so checking that that charity out that you're considering giving to out on a website like charity Navigator can kind of really actually help you feel good about the transparency level of the organization that you're giving to. And especially in times in the immediate aftermath of a natural disaster like a hurricane, there

are all sorts of fake charities that pop up. You'll see Facebook ads are getting email to donate and sometimes there's you know, one word off in the name of the charity, and so checking them out on a site like charity Navigator can help you know too that you're not giving to a scammy organization. Yeah, and you know we're cheap, like we don't. I don't like to pay fees when it comes, you know, to someone to manage my money. I don't like to pay more than I

need to for pretty much anything. And so when I'm giving my money to a charity, I wanted to be the exact same thing, and you want it to be effective. Yeah, I wanted to be effective giving effective use of those funds, and so I want to donate to the Vanguard of charities exactly until like a charity like Habitat pretty much is that. And there are other organizations that very much

fall into that vein. But then there are other ones where you know, there's a lot of overheads, a little more expensive and not nearly as much money of yours is going to help the people that are actually in need as you would hope would be edi. That's a good tip. And something else too is to put it in your budget. Right, So, if you're going to start giving your money away, put it in your budget and

stick to it. If you're not used to giving, it's probably not going to come natural to you to give a portion of your paycheck away every month or every two weeks. So what you need to do then is the plan for it. And don't let giving be an excuse to why you're you know, now overspending and blowing your budget. It's now needs to be a part of your budget. And this is also a way that kind

of eases some guilt. And if you are actively give your money away, right, like, if you have every month you know that you're going to set aside, you know, X number of dollars or a percentage of your income to go towards a charity, whether that's predecided or if you kind of like to wing it right, if if you kind of are waiting for opportunities to come up.

This is the perfect way for you to know that you are helping people, right, that you are giving money away, um, while at the same time not feeling like you're being guilted into it. And I'll tell you too from personal experience, like setting a line item for giving money away is that it's just fun. The way Kitt and I view our budget is that once we've decided that that's what that line item is, like, we almost have to force

ourselves to to reach that amount. Right. For some things that's not difficult, right, like going out to eat, we almost always hit that budgeted amount um. But the same thing sort of applies for giving your money away if

you've decided on a certain dollar amount. So if you've underspent or you know, under gifted that category, if you're getting towards the end of the month, man, you can really look for ways to give that money away, which is kind of crazy, Like that's just sort of this weird position that it kind of puts you in, and I think that should for most folks give you a lot of joy. We found joy in that definitely in the past. At this point, we're kind of like always

hitting the max. We're all we're like almost always almost going over our budgeted amount. But and obviously you don't have to spend all that if if you're if you've got some left over for that month, just roll that over into next month, because there might be another opportunity that that shows up and it might be over your typical amount, and so you know, be wise with your money. But yeah, that's so important for us, is to actually set a dollar amount that is our goal that we're

trying to hit every month to give our money away. Yeah. I love your approach, Matt. I mean, I love how that's sort of thinking about putting it into your budget and then the fact that your budget ultimately reflects, you know, the things that you care about, the things that that bring you joy, and then being a part of those nonprofits you know, where you give your money actually seems to in my mind, with that mindset, bring you more joy.

And I personally love getting emails, you know, hearing back from people that I know the work for those nonprofits that we give money to, and being involved in them and hearing the stories of what's actually happening. There's so much joy that's brought to my life based on, you know, the amount of money I'm able to give every month. Uh, and then and then hearing what's actually happening with those funds.

There's something really cool about that. And if and if it wasn't budgeted, if it wasn't set, if it wasn't baked into the cake every month of what I'm giving away, Uh, it would be really easy for me to decide, Yeah, I'm not gonna give this month, I'm not going to give next month, and and just kind of continue on in the pattern. Um and and so, Yeah, putting it in the budget, you know, has this double effect of kind of ensuring that you actually do it and then

you know, reflecting those places that you do prioritize. I mean, it's actually becomes like a joyous thing when you do that. Yeah. Well, and even like a third prong then too, is that it allows you to do those things and to have that joy while at the same time not wrecking your goal your financial goals, right, Like, it's not like this budget buster that just showed up because you didn't plan

for it. I think a lot of people will think that this feels a little too stiff, if you know, to say, oh, you need to set a line item every month, like you must give this amount of money away. You know, it doesn't feel natural and giving and and and from the heart. I mean, our lives are complicated in our finances. There's just a lot of moving pieces.

And if something were to come along and if you didn't have that money set aside, well, if you were to respond to that, you know, out of the kindness of your heart, you know, out of generosity, like from a place of of of trueness, then it might blow your budget for that month, you know. And then there's other financial goals that you're not able to achieve that

you know, you also want to achieve. It's just kind of going into it with a plan and being prepared for it too, you know, yeah, completely, And I wanted to quickly mention also another how to give is you

can give through something called a donor advised funds. So that's that'll be more on the philanthropy episode, right Well, yeah, I mean it actually in a lot of ways, it is kind of more people with big bucks doing things, but there's actually a lot of benefit that you can get as a small giver as well having a donor

advice fund. And so actually the credit card that I think I mentioned that I use all the time in using credit cards like a pro is a fidelity credit card that gives me two percent cash back on everything I spend. And so over the years, you know, I'm racking up a fairly substantial amount of points that allows me to open up a fidelity account, of multiple different types of fidelity accounts that I can open, and one

of those types is a donor advised fund. And so the cool thing about donor advised funds is that they allow the donor themselves to make a charitable contribution to receive that immediate tax benefit that year, but then actually disperse those funds in different amounts to different organizations over a variety of years. Yeah, so you can kind of

watch it grow. Uh, you've kind of taken that initial deduction, but then you can watch it grow and decide how much you want to give away you know, this month, next month, you know, five years from now. So that kind of too could also help alleviate some of that, you know, budget busting. If you have like a donor advice fund, a small one set up, and you have this maybe monthly amount that you give, but then you ship away and kind of put a little bit here

and there. Yeah, and then but then, but then, let's say you get like a bigger request from a charity and you see the need and you feel like you really do need to put your money to work for that charity. You know that donor advice fund can be that perfect opportunity for you to give of some additional

dollars um that you kind of have in reserve. And so it's it's it's kind of a cool tool that you can use and and hopefully to you know, in donor advice funds, often in your money is invested and so hopefully it's also growing at a bigger clip than just the money that's sitting in your savings account. Yeah,

which is definitely great. And something to keep in mind too with donor advised funds is that once you donate to those funds, it's gone right like, like, you can't you can't withdraw that money back into you know, your regular savings account or something like that. Oh wait, I need it, Nope, Nope, that money is then earmarked for giving.

Exactly the way that the government sees that money is that once it goes into that fund, it is at that point charitable giving and it can't it can't go back, like it can grow in your account there, but at some point you're going to have to gladly hopefully donate that. Yeah, so if you're interested in opening one, look at the specific rules of the company where you might consider opening a donor advice fund. But they are definitely a good option for people looking for kind of outside of the

box ways to give a little bit more. Here specifically too, it's it's a great way for big earners to offset their income, right so, like so it's definitely for doctors and and folks that have very high incomes. If you're looking for ways to minimize your tax burden, that's one of the strategies, you know. And this kind of it seems kind of cold hearted. I guess, like it's like, oh, this is one way that I can reduce how much I give the government is to give to charity, and

it feels like the heart isn't in it. I guess as much. But like we said before, you want your money to go as far as you can get it to go, and so this is one of them are ways that you can reduce your tax burden while at the same time maximizing the amount of money that you can give to charities. Well, and speaking of doctors, our friend Physician on Fire has a great article about donor vice funds, and so we'll link to that in the

show notes as well. Something I want to ask you is what are your thoughts on auto enrolling versus like manually having to give to like different charities or whatever

it is that that you do every month. And before you answer, the reason I asked us is because I thought back to the episode we did on like ways to cut your monthly bills right, and you had specifically mentioned how you like to with some bills at least not put it on auto pay, so that you kind of had to manually go in and pay it every month, so that you would feel it right these here you feel where I'm going, No, I completely, I completely feel

it where you're going. And honestly, when you ask the question, that's exactly where and so you know me too well, Doc, I think there's a huge benefit in doing something physical right where you actually pay a bill and you kind of feel the money a little bit more than you auto pay, and you're you know, finally reconciling at the end of the month versus being like this data point that just shows up and yeah, okay, that's so like actually taking the time to even if it's not writing

a physical check, right, but actually on the keyboard typing it in right. Yeah, there's something to that. I think the same is true forgiving, because I feel that in myself there are some elements of some of the charities that I give to that are kind of set up on automatic withdrawal, and I don't feel it in the

same way. I guess, you know, I get the you know, an email or a newsletter or an update or something like that, and so that's kind of the time that I spend thinking about where my money is going, but I don't feel it when i'm actually, you know, specifically

donating the money. And so I think that, again can be up to the individual, but I do see in my life how setting up some of those automatic withdrawals has actually led to me thinking less about it, and I do think there's a a huge benefit to actually thinking about it and being, you know, act an active participant in the actual, you know, physical tangible act of writing the check or or just typing in the credit card information online. Yeah, man, I mean I would totally agree, right.

I do think though that the sort of the auto draft, right, and it's kind of setting it up on the recurring thing might be really helpful for folks who are looking to kind of get started and giving. So it's a tool, you know, I kind of see it that way, like it's it's a way for folks to kind of get you on a plan. It kind of signs you up and you're on it for the next you know, however long.

But you know, like I think for a lot of folks, that might be if you're used to that, and if you've been on that sort of treadmill, like you're on that cycle for a while, and and like Joel said, if you're not feeling it as much, or you don't find yourself like thinking about it at all until you get like the tax document at the end of the year, if that's like the only time that you think about it, then maybe at that point it is a good time for you to take it off the auto draft and

have it set up to where you have to manually do it yourself, because you know, like, yeah, you're gonna think about it more. If you're sing it and you're thinking about it and it's in more of your day to day life, it's going to be something that has

a larger impact on you personally. At the same time, while I say that, though, I don't want to discourage people from agreeing to uh support some cause and not doing auto draft, because if you know that that's how you're going to get on board and continue to pay for the next twelve months, well then do it. You know.

It's almost like a gym membership, Like a lot of times people join the gym because they know that, well, if I don't do this, I'm not gonna go like if I don't join this program, if I don't sign up, if I don't do this, then I'm not gonna do it. And you definitely don't want that as well, because the ultimate goal here in the end is to give your money away, hey, and to actually help people, And so don't let that be a hindrance from you to actually

helping people and making the world a better place. Yeah, sometimes for me, when it comes to that dilemma, the best way to do it is to set up a calendar reminder. It gives me that ability to think about where my money is going to quickly hop on and make the donation, you know, on that monthly basis, and that gives me kind of the best of both worlds where it is almost recurring, but it actually also takes

a little bit of thoughts. So maybe a calendar reminder is that that happy medium for you as opposed to that direct a c H or direct bill pay you know, actually gives you that tangible time to think about where your money is going and reflect on it. Back to the beer real quick. I really enjoyed Russian River consecration. Man, it's a blast from the past that we brought back tonight.

It's someunny that you mentioned blast in the past. I was actually listening to a beer podcast because I'm a nerd and they're talking about just all the new breweries and how the guy the host was asking another, you know, somewhat newer brewer what they thought about Russian River because there were someone like the original pioneers when it came to some of the new styles and definitely with sours and barrel aging, and he's just like, you know, do

you think that people will forget about Russian River? And the guy that he was interviewing was just like, no way, Like they're they were just such pioneers, Like there's no way that that folks would forget about them. And I feel the same way, you know, at least for us suthenly, with it being one of the first amazing, world class like barrel aged hours that we'd had. Like when he when he said that, I was just like, WHOA what kind of world do we live in that he thinks

that Russian River may not be relevant anyone. Yeah, I'm completely still pumped to see this show up, you know, in a package on my doorstep. And thanks again to Carl who runs the website days dot com and if you care about the topics we talk about, you're really like his site. But yeah, this is such a good beer and all the beers honestly that I've had from Russian River have been eight plus. Man, They're like super good. I would love Have you ever been out there? No?

I would love to visit. Let's do it. We need to take a porn u poor trip out there. Yeah, we do alright, man, time for a recap? How to give your money away right now. You might feel like that you don't have the margin in your in your life. You may not feel like that you're in the financial position to where you can give your money away, to where you can give to charity, and to that we would say, no, you need to start giving now, because

what it does is it starts creating that habit. It starts allowing you to build that muscle of giving money away. So when you have a lot of money, guess what, It's not going to be any easier to get that money away when it's a huge dollar amount. It's it's if anything, it's gonna be harder. And so you want to get into that habit of being generous and being charitable. Yeah, and giving your money away changes you. It lessens your

attachment to money. And that's actually a good thing, I think, especially as people that are frugal want to say for the future, that think about you know where their money goes often, you know, and if you're listening to this podcast, you're probably one of those people. It can be hard to give your money away. And so I think it's really important because it changes your heart and it changes the way that you view money in a really positive way.

That's right. And and for those folks out there to who really literally don't have any money that then give away, consider volunteering your time. There's a lot of organizations that need people more than they need money, And with our lives becoming more and more busy, time is becoming more and more valuable. So yeah, that might be something that you have that you can give away. Yeah, and be picky about the charities that you choose to give to.

Charity Navigator is an awesome site. They do an amazing job of helping you understand where the money that you're giving is actually going. They kind of hold these nonprofits feet to the fire and will help you understand whether your money is going through overhead or actually going to the people and the places that you wire money to go to for maximum effect. Great tip, Joel. And then lastly, uh, be sure to budget the amount of money that you

want to give away every month. It might seem stiff and you know, kind of overly formal to do that, but like you don't have to decide exactly where that money is going to go per se every month, just decide that you're going to give a certain amount at least every month, and you need a plan for it. You need to have a plan. You need to make that part of your life. Anything that's worth doing right, anything that you are trying to achieve or that's a

goal for you, you plan for it. And so, uh, you know, giving your money away should be no different. If you want to do it, make sure you plan for it so it doesn't blow your budget and so that you can go into it with more intention and so that gives you the ability to give proactively versus reactively with guilt, no doubt. So thanks for listening everyone, or home on the web is how to money dot com. We'll have show notes up there for this episode, and

if you like what you hear, let us know. You can review and subscribe on Apple Podcasts, which, by the way, we're almost hitting the three digit mark on the ratings and reviews, which is pretty sweet. Yeah, man, you're getting getting to be pretty legit. Thanks to everyone who writes a review for this podcast. We appreciate that, cool man. So that's it. Best friends out, Best Friends Out Man