Giving back

One thing I did enjoy about Tony Robbins’ book Money was his focus on giving as a source of happiness. There seems to be a lot of evidence that helping others is one of the best ways to spend money to increase happiness.

I also think that anyone thinking about saving and investing is in a pretty fortunate position.

One thing Robbins wrote in his book that was fairly profound is that you should start giving now. Even if it’s a minor amount, like $5 a month, start now.

After all, if you can’t give away 0.5% of your income now, what makes you think you will be able to later? As your income rises, your expenses probably will too.

What I have done is identify charities and causes I support, and set up minimal monthly payments to them. This allows me to get used to the idea, and then all I need to do is increase the amounts later as I become more comfortable financially.

Here are the charities I am currently supporting:

In Search of Sanuk, a small organization in Bangkok supporting refugees. I met the founder a couple of years ago and he’s an incredible guy doing a lot of good with minimal resources. If you have ever been to Thailand or are interested in refugee issues, please watch this video.

The Severn Hospice looked after my mum for the last couple of months of her life. Thanks to their generosity, my brother and I were also able to stay with her on-site. They are doing really important work funded almost entirely by donations.

Amnesty International focuses the world’s attention on injustice, thus trying to make the world a little better one case at a time.

charity:water provides clean drinking water for communities. I can’t imagine not having access to clean water.

My monthly donations to these four charities are only about $30, less than 1% of my income. I hope to slowly increase this percentage in the future.