40. Give now or wait till I'm rich?

Welcome back to Spend Donate Invest. I know it’s not just me. There are a lot of things that keep me up at night. Climate change, anti-Blackness, the lack of gun control in our country. And what surprises me is that we usually talk about how we can vote, or even how we can protest. But I’m curious about the power of our money.

Every week I read a listener letter, do some research, talk to experts, sometimes I’ll read an entire book to be able to provide some thoughts. If you ever want to send in your question, please look for the email address in the show notes. I will never share your name, you have my word on that.

Here’s this week’s letter:
Should I wait until I am financially well off before I give?

No. Please don’t wait until you are “rich” before you take your giving seriously. We’ve talked about this before on Episode 24, you might never feel rich. In my observation, nobody hoards money more than a wealthy person. Give what you can when you can. Especially because people need help now. As of the end of 2021, 20 million Americans reported living in households without enough food. In America!

If you're doubting what your small donation can do, take heart, you can change someone's day. You can change someone's season with an act of generosity. You can step in to help right when someone is about to go down a spiral or you can set someone onto a different path with an intervention today. If your hesitation is that you think giving will hold you back from becoming financially well off, you can set boundaries for yourself. I’ve never met anyone who was donating too much except for people who have said they were giving too much to their relatives. Now that’s a concern that I do think warrants some caution. You’re going to want to get guidance from someone who understands your cultural background to be able to provide you guidance on how to help those that you love while still protecting your financial future. But I’m talking about helping your parents keep their house or your cousin fix their car so they can get to work.

But if you’re concerned that you giving small donations as you can on your path to financial security is going to hold you back from financial security, I just haven’t seen that to be true before. If you are worried you will become an impulsive giver, you can definitely think about setting some giving goals. There’s a very popular episode #2 about figuring out how much you want to give.

If your concern on the other hand is that you won’t be able to create meaningful change with small donations versus this hypothetical large donation you want to give at the end of your life, again I would shine the spotlight on the issues your fellow humans are facing right now. Because the reality is that you can do both. You can give in small increments as you grow your wealth and then your level of giving can grow as your wealth grows and if it is important to you to leave a big donation when you leave the earth, I think you can plan for this. Then again, much like saying how you feel about people while they are alive, and not waiting until their funeral. I would encourage you to give while you are alive and not wait until your own funeral.

Not trying to end on a dark note. But of all the things to procrastinate, please don’t let helping others be one of those things.

Thanks for joining for today’s discussion. You can always send in your questions by emailing the address in the show notes. You might be wondering about how you can support the show. There are a number of ways to do this. You can subscribe, on whatever platform you prefer for your podcasts. You can share an episode with a friend- that’s probably the biggest help you could provide right now. It turns out that’s how people discover podcasts. It’s not me telling people about the show, it’s actually you all- the listeners. You can click on the buy me a coffee link. You can also write a review for the show, or click around on your app and see if it let’s you give the show 5 stars. Thanks for your support and let’s talk again soon.

https://www.cbpp.org/research/poverty-and-inequality/tracking-the-covid-19-economys-effects-on-food-housing-and#:~:text=The%20COVID%2D19%20pandemic,remained%20high%20throughout%202020.