When it comes to the next benchmark, this one will probably be the most surprising of all. As a recap, we have looked at living within your means, operating from a plan, and building an emergency fund. We have considered limiting or eliminating your largest expenses and using that to save and invest. Now, when you are building in these key components, it is important that you also build in a system for what your why is–what is a driving factor that is bigger than yourself, which brings us to benchmark #3:
Giving
Determining a why around this will enable you to limit your expenses, increase your saving and investing, but then be able to do what I find to be the aspect that is most fun of all–giving! I believe that giving must be a part of everyone’s financial plan. This is because giving takes the focus off of you and makes you aware of the needs of those around you and in your community.
Now you can give of your time by actively being involved in a cause that matters to you. Still, I would also look at this from the standpoint of your abilities and talent that you have a unique opportunity to give back with, as well as resources from a standpoint of being diligent to give to those causes, organizations, or people that matter to you.
This may sound like a strange component as a foundational benchmark to manage your finances, but I believe that money makes you more of who you already are, so you may be very generous and become even more generous as you build wealth. Or maybe you are stingy and need to train yourself to be generous. You will find that generosity is life-giving and does much more for you than you may realize. So spending the time to figure out how to best exercise the generosity muscle will reap great dividends.
You may have heard the popular saying that the most selfless thing you can do is to give or that it is better to give than to receive. All of which is true because it does so much for you.
Think about what ways you may operate as Scrooge McDuck, hoarding or greedy, and in what ways may giving actually give you the ability to gain perspective in order to build a compelling why for the what that you are working for.
So what is it that pulls at your so-called heartstrings? What is it that bothers you and inspires you to act on behalf of others, on behalf of a cause, or a mission that is much bigger than yourself?
I started giving consistently back in college, and I distinctly remember that I would worry about money less when I was consistently giving. It was almost like I was letting go of being so controlling and, therefore, allowing a level of trust to set in that it was all going to work out if I was making a priority of what mattered most to me to support.
Once defined, set aside a fixed amount you will give back with. Whether that is buying groceries for someone, repairing someone’s car, giving to a church or non-profit, giving to an emergency response organization, or even being a part of a grant or scholarship program. Whatever it is, make sure it aligns with your core values and what you want to be known for.
Now you may be thinking, I don’t make enough to give, or I have too much debt to give, or better yet, I don’t have time to give back.
Remember that you build margin for what is important to you. As in, what makes you who you are should be carried out in the way you lead your life. So are you living your life in alignment with who you want to be, and are you building margin for what matters most to you?
If you are struggling to figure out how much to give, I would start with a fixed percentage like 10%. This is a large enough amount to make a difference and be planned for, but I believe that what you will receive in return will be much more than what you feel you are giving up! Now, if that sounds like a lot, you can even start at a lower percentage and build up from there. It’s building in the perpetual habit or a system of habits in giving that will ensure that you are prioritizing this in your financial plan as you get established. Remember, it’s much easier to establish these types of habits early on than having to retrain yourself later in life.
CTA: My call to action today is to include a strategic plan to give to what matters to you. You can tier this up over time, but starting somewhere will make all the difference in your journey.
