Personal Finances Decisions Making Tips
In a bad economy your charitable acts and contributions will also be part of your personal finances decision making. Use the suggestions below to stay true to your values and your budget in lean economic times.
Don’t consider charity optional in your personal finances because the personal benefits of practicing charity such as an awareness and respect for others as well as a reminder to be thankful for what you have are significant for your overall health and welfare.
Don’t give more than you can but be realistic about what you can give.
Consider non-money contributions you can make to charity including donating food, old clothing and other personal items, offering your time or helping publicize a particular charity.
Personal Finances – Saving Energy
Incorporate practices that are good for the earth such as saving energy or water in order to give back to the planet that supports your life.
Don’t give into tactics that make you feel negatively about a specific charity whether it’s endless phone solicitations or pressure in the workplace in order to avoid developing an excuse for not giving to any charity by attributing the tactics that annoy you to all charities.
Don’t consider a specific charity a bill you have to pay unless it’s a charity that you want to continue to support. There are many charities you can support that might make you feel that your contribution is more meaningful than your donations to others.
Use charity directories to determine the percentage of any contribution that goes to the charity’s work rather than paying salaries or other administrative costs. You can research a number of criteria including how much of a charity’s money is spent on paying professionals to solicit more charity instead of supporting the charity’s charitable purpose.
Consider supporting local charity work instead of charity work abroad so that you can see your charity dollars at work. There are many indications that charity work abroad in terms of costs of travel and so on could be better accomplished by donating money to a specific location and letting that location employ their own local workforce and staff to accomplish similar goals.
Don’t pay higher prices so that a company can afford to pay for certain charity work which means that customers are paying for a business’ charity efforts. You can purchase cheaper products and direct your own charitable giving.
Personal Finances | Saving & Spending
Consider whether money you’re spending and calling charity is actually charity such as money you spend on treating someone to a meal simply because the person claims they cannot pay for their own meal or paying for a friend’s expenses when the friend has other issues interfering with his or her ability to pay for expenses. This type of charitable giving is usually not charitable since your motivation for giving support can include your desire to have the person’s company or some other personal agenda.
Social consciousness and personal finances often connect in charitable giving. Use the suggestions above to manage your charitable giving and stay true to your personal financial goals.
