Should we all wait to donate until we're FI?

[FIREseeker]

Maybe I'm an anxious person. Maybe I'm crazy. You can decide. Probably a little of both.

Until I graduated college, I volunteered a lot. I've never really donated much money (probably <$500 total) but I've been generous with my time in the past. Nowadays, I'm seeking FI. I'm kind of anxious about getting there. I feel like I should only worry about myself and my future family at this time. Then after we all have our oxygen masks on, we can help the planet's other passengers. I haven't donated time or money in any great quantity for 3 years.

Is this the responsible thing to do? I asked a priest about this and he said I should donate and watch out for myself. Heh.

[FLA]

if you have extra, I would donate my time. Many types of organizations need warm bodies for an event, if you don't want to commit to a formal schedule. Or drop food you buy inexpensively off at the food pantry. Buy toiletries on sale (often free at CVS and others, using coupons and sales, but this is time consuming) and drop them off at the homeless shelter. See what the animal shelter needs, its often stuff you already have and were going to toss, old blankets and towels, etc. I did this at places I regularly drove buy, sometimes I left bags in my trunk, filled them as I got more stuff, then dropped them at the appropriate place. This stuff was super easy, cheap, went directly to organizations I believe in and they did not care if your donation was small.

[ua_guy]

Not sure what "FI" is, but I think the same advice that applies to rescue also applies to financial advice. Your life needs to come first, so you can help others. There are heroic moments, of course. But in terms of money, the better off you are, the more you will have to give, and the same applies to time.

[Jluke]

Give what you can, whether it's time or money or nothing at all. From a financial perspective one benefit is a tax deduction in most cases.

by the time you are financially independent, you will have less limitations on how much you can give; but you will probably lose the tax deduction.

Everything in moderation...

[FLA]

But in terms of money, the better off you are, the more you will have to give, and the same applies to time.

I agree with this, hungry mouths to feed down the road come first, but where does it stop and you get to the point you think you can give? When you've fully funded retirement accts and 529s? I would assume most of us with a moderate salary, could eek out $5 here and there by skipping a treat, stick it in an envelope and let it add up. I think it's ok to give these small amounts if you cannot afford large donations.

Taking a few bags of toiletries to the homeless shelter is not much, but if enough people do it, it is. Plus, walking through the shelter to get to the back to give the supervisor my stuff was an in your face reminder of how incredibly fortunate you are, and I found I had an extra $20 in my wallet to add. Eventually, when you have children, doing these things together are priceless teachable moments, and maybe you'll end up with adults who are givers. I don't know about you, doing even small things made me feel like I was pulling my weight, even just a little bit. Periods of doing nothing felt crappy.

One thing we often do in my family, at a holiday or birthday, the receiver makes it known they want a donation made in lieu of a gift. There are catalogs where you can choose what to give a third world family, my mother has so many goats donated on her behalf, a cow if it was a good year, it's laughable but not to the people getting them, right?

[phantom]

Assuming your meeting your own basic needs, I think it makes sense to start giving generously. By having your needs met, I mean having your needs met for the moment, not having them met forever. Even if you still have to work to put food on the table, keep a roof over your head, and put clothes on your back, I'd say your needs are met. So, I'd start say you should be giving well before you hit financial independence.

First of all, if you give small amounts when you don't have much, it's easier to give large amounts when you have more. Giving and generosity are skills that take practice. I think a lot of people tell themselves that they'll give more later, and later just never comes. It's hard to say, "Okay, I have enough for me, and now I can start to give."

Second of all, I think there can be an element of compounding to giving just like there's an element of compounding to investing. Help out someone who is down on their luck now, and you can stop the situation from getting worse and harder to fix. Help a parent of a young child now, and you may help that child to not need help in the future. Eliminate even a little bit of suffering in the world, and the joy that replaces it has the chance to spread like crazy.

[Joan.of.the.Arch]

My ten-year old self was my best self. So I asked what would Ten Year Old Me do? Well I remember exactly what I did at age ten. I skipped buying milk at school with the money my parents gave me. I gave it to charity. I did this probably 30 days a school year. I'm sure I never mentioned this to my parents. I didn't think it over, or wonder if I had enough nutrition without it, or think about how I could save it toward something I really wanted. I just gave it away and that was that. I really trust the judgement of Ten Year Old Me. I'm too messed up now to be able to answer the question, so I just look to that kid.

[FLA]

Eliminate even a little bit of suffering in the world, and the joy that replaces it has the chance to spread like crazy.

this, ten times over, this

[Fishindude77]

I think we all could probably do a bit more charity, self included.

This is a little rant, but something I see in my small community frequently is when a family individual has some type of catastrophic injury, illness, problem, etc. friends get together and throw a benefit party at the local elks lodge, tavern, etc. They might set up a band, have a charity auction, etc. It's always a big fun party, and people feel good about going and contributing something, but at the end of the event, after paying the food, band, etc. they might only raise $1000.

While I admire the effort putting these deals together, most of the folks attending will spend $50 or more drinking, then contribute $20 to the cause and feel all good because they contributed, gave the person a hug and a few bucks. The concerned person needs the money a whole lot more than they need the party. You'd be doing more for them by giving them that $50 you spent drinking too, and skip the party all together.

[disneysteve]

This is a little rant, but something I see in my small community frequently is when a family individual has some type of catastrophic injury, illness, problem, etc. friends get together and throw a benefit party at the local elks lodge, tavern, etc. They might set up a band, have a charity auction, etc. It's always a big fun party, and people feel good about going and contributing something, but at the end of the event, after paying the food, band, etc. they might only raise $1000.

First off, that's $1,000 more than they would have had without the event. Second, very frequently in cases like that, some or all of the services are donated by the vendors so the band may have played for free. The lodge may have waived the cost for the room or donated the food. All of the items auctioned were donated so no cost there.

I'm involved with a lot of fundraising for Give Kids The World and we have events like that. We get as much as possible donated to keep expenses down so that more of the money raised can go directly to the charity.

[snafu]

I believe it's important to help those struck by unanticipated disasters and those who have so little with donations of both time and money. In my mind it's vital to 'pay it forward.' I choose two organizations each year and do my best to donate a pre determined sum every month as well as working on any task they choose to assign. It's easy to donate to any food and bottle drives by Scouts, Guides [parents drive] kids go door-to-door. Donating old towels to SPCA is easy and fun. Dog walking for SPCA is fun but it's hectic. If your church has programs for parishioners you could offer to help out as more hands lighten the load.

[FLA]

donating to animal shelter is fun, best time I did it, it was an offer of free kids' movie tix with donation. they have big paws on the floor leading to the dogs, little paws leading to the cats. I swore up and down, I was really running in, donate, get tix, leave. But how could it hurt to stroll through dog room? Got a sick, abused, scared of everything dog no one wanted. She looked at me, I looked at her, she is the best dog I will ever have.

when I am better, I read about this Fospice movement, you foster a sick pet so it dies in a comfortable home. I am a hospice nurse, but when I am better, I kind of could use a break from people needing so much. I can foster a dying dog, keep it comfortable and have boundaries. If i can do it for people, i can do it for dogs. And I don't have to be 100% better because the dog likely is not overly active, I wanted to foster but this is better, there is no chance of fostering and saying I'll keep this one, when the dog is dying.