Poll:Have you been a Scrooge to reach FIRE ?

[JoeWras]

Whether you're religious or not, being part of something bigger that yourself is good for the soul. And giving generously is the anti-greed, because by definition, it makes us think less about what we have and more about how we can help.

Right. There's room for all of us, the faith and non-faith based givers.

As someone who works and puts time into a small community based non-profit, I can tell you that people who give time are wonderful. We need you! But I can also say it doesn't pay the insurance bill. We need money too. Insurance is our largest cost. Unfortunately, even handing out bottled water (for example) exposes a group to lawsuits.

I suppose we can leave it all to the government as it seems that many want to do. But that takes out the element of being able to work for a cause, religious or not.

And yes, I know about the big non-profits and some of their issues. "non-profit" does not always mean good.

 

[robnplunder]

I was a scrooge but kept making adjustments as my asset grew. Toward the end of my work career, I was generous to families to a fault. In EA starting tomorrow, I will be more careful on being "generous" part.

 

[braumeister]

I was just thinking recently about how good it is to have our donor-advised fund. It was established nearly three years ago and has been filled with appreciated stock several times now. There are two big advantages that I see (beyond the large tax deductions).

First, it has enabled us to be considerably more generous with our giving than we ever were before. Having that large pot of money available to donate seems to make it easier. Plus, it keeps appreciating between donations. And further, we can donate with a few clicks instead of writing and mailing checks.

Second, the vast majority of our donations have been anonymous, so we are gradually dropping off the lists that send out annual (or more frequent) begging letters and emails.

Fidelity makes it very easy to set up a DAF and they are more flexible than Vanguard about how to use it.

 

[Willers]

Overall, we're in the moderate range all the way around. We are what I'd call careful both with ourselves and others. We do lean toward pretty generous with people or organizations we really believe in. I'm hoping that doesn't need to tighten up in retirement. I guess we'll see how that sequence of returns pans out...

 

[Keim]

I give sparingly of my money; generously of my time. Have made a career out of helping others-just started an addiction and mental health recovery center-can't afford to be overly generous monetarily! Not sure how that would fit in the poll.

 

[Chuckanut]

Scrooge? Before or after his life changing experience?

 

[Badger]

Although I make donations to select charities I have always given something way more valuable than money for most of my life. In the last 20+ years my time has been averaging about 8 hours a week helping others. So I guess there is no place for me on the survey.

Cheers!

 

[panacea]

I'd say our giving is "moderate", with most going to United Way through work until recently. With our increasing increasing significantly in the last couple of years we've started to rethink our charitable goals. We've been obsessed about hitting our financial targets for FIRE but we feel like we should be able to comfortably step up charitable giving now and continue to hit our other planning targets as well. I've always felt we should give a little less now until we've prepared for uncertainties like death and disability, etc. and more once we're fully protected and financially secure.

 

[daystar]

I'm in my mid 30's and have been giving 2% to 4% of my income to tax-exempt organizations for the past decade. Most of the money goes to my local church. This year, I had a good opportunity to provide clean drinking water and the gospel message to a village in Africa, so my giving went up to about 8% this year.

 

[Nodak]

I give moderately with monthly donations going to a couple of children's charities for the last 30 years.