Tithing, Charity More than 10% of your AGI or combined incomes?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Do you and your spouse donate more than 10% of your combined total income to your church or temple?

And, do you also donate to charities?


For instance, you and DH make $450,000
Tithing: $45,000 or $50,000
Charitable A organizations: $5,000
Charitable B organization: $2,000

How has this impacted both of you in the spiritual, emotional and financial senses?
How are your retirement and educational expenses for your children faring?
How often do you vacation?
What’s your rainy day fund like?


Thank you.

We give close to 5% financially to our church and spend the other 5% (time, talents, and finances) elsewhere (charities, etc.). Our pastor says tithing consists of not only your finances but your time and talents as well.

1. I found that when we started to tithe regularly (it's a line item in the budget and I pay before I pay any other bills for the month)...we gained a certain level of peace. I can't articulate it well, but by regularly tithing and seeing where our money goes to support the community, it gave us a sense of inner peace and we better understood the feeling that God will provide. Since we began tithing regularly years ago my spouse lost his job due to reorganization and we never paid a bill late or suffered during that time. That stuck with me. He ended up getting a job that was even better than the one he had.

2. I have both a pension and a retirement investment account. The spouse has a retirement investment account. They're doing well. The kids' 529's are fine as well.

3. Pre-pandemic we vacationed twice a year. We don't now, because it's not really safe.

4. Our rainy day fund is solid. Being at home helped us beef it up even more.

[Anonymous]

Since everyone is being so 'honest' I will admit we don't contribute 10%. We are late 40's with a HH of roughly $300K but due to some large healthcare costs in our 30's we are way behind in saving for retirement and for our kids college. So we contribute around $300/month and we donate our time a few times each year to help with church events. Everyone can judge, but we're ok with this choice.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We aim for 10% on the nose, but we do net income, not gross. So, 10% of our take home pay. And even then we are often falling short these days between childcare and a fairly new mortgage - we're at more like 8% right now.

I think it's actually really good - it's so easy to be constantly thinking about more, more, how you don't have enough to make ends meet and the truth is - everyone feels that way, even people who make a million dollars. Your wants will always exceed your means, and they will feel reasonable and borderline like needs. Having a charity line item helps focus on gratitude for what you have, that others do not.

this is how i do it as well. its 10% of my "spending" income, after I've contributed to my TSP, my son's 529, FSA, etc.

I give to my church and then I also give to charities that I care about.

I liked someone's comment that volunteering also counted as tithing. I hadnt thought of it that way previously.

Its amazing how it does come back to you. The peace you do obtain from it.

"to whom much is given, much is required"

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Since everyone is being so 'honest' I will admit we don't contribute 10%. We are late 40's with a HH of roughly $300K but due to some large healthcare costs in our 30's we are way behind in saving for retirement and for our kids college. So we contribute around $300/month and we donate our time a few times each year to help with church events. Everyone can judge, but we're ok with this choice.

We spend close to 10% a year on medical costs. Once those problems are more under control and I have more time for being thoughtful about what and to whom to give I intend to do that. Otherwise a pretty small amount.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:DH and I donate 10% of our AGI to church each year* and make much smaller contributions to secular charities. Our retirement and college savings are excellent. We expect to retire before age 50. We have always been really frugal and have always given a good amount to church.

Christians are commanded to support the Church according to the Bible, but I don't believe you have to give 10% of your AGI. Give as you feel called. I think that "Where your treasure is, there will your heart be also" is both descriptive and prescriptive. You care more about the Church when you have money "invested" in it and it is true. Worldly bonus is that you have to get your finances in order to do this well, but the truth is it will drag down your savings.

*Since the TCJA we actually just donate 20% every other year.

You sound like someone who could make good use of a donor-adviser fund. Try Fidelity perhaps. Then you can do one big one every 3-5 years and take the standard deduction the rest of the time (assuming your mortgage and taxes are at the standard or less)

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:DH and I donate 10% of our AGI to church each year* and make much smaller contributions to secular charities. Our retirement and college savings are excellent. We expect to retire before age 50. We have always been really frugal and have always given a good amount to church.

Christians are commanded to support the Church according to the Bible, but I don't believe you have to give 10% of your AGI. Give as you feel called. I think that "Where your treasure is, there will your heart be also" is both descriptive and prescriptive. You care more about the Church when you have money "invested" in it and it is true. Worldly bonus is that you have to get your finances in order to do this well, but the truth is it will drag down your savings.

*Since the TCJA we actually just donate 20% every other year.

You sound like someone who could make good use of a donor-adviser fund. Try Fidelity perhaps. Then you can do one big one every 3-5 years and take the standard deduction the rest of the time (assuming your mortgage and taxes are at the standard or less)

I am not the pp, but I am wondering more about donor advised fund. Please tell me more about your personal experience with this.

[Anonymous]

250K HHI. We give 10% of gross to church and maybe another 1% to other causes. I started when I was a grad student making 20K and living in a HCOL. If I hadn't started back then, it would be hard to start now. Oddly it feels harder at times to do it now we have more $, but I'm glad we do.

We used to give more (maybe an extra 5% to other causes) but scaled back when we bought a house. Perhaps advice to younger people--save a lot but also build a habit of being generous, and you can make some of that your cushion if there are times you need extra funds (instead of doing lifestyle creep and spending more $ on random stuff). I wasted a lot of $ as a single person.

[Anonymous]

HHI $190k, we give about 2% of gross to our church and 8-10% to secular charities. Our income has gone up significantly in the past 3 years, and so has our giving %. Before we always gave something and it was a goal to be able to give more generously, but we were pinching pennies a lot more. Now we're setting annual giving goals just like we set retirement and other savings goals, and we automate our donations as much as possible (same with savings -- if it comes out of your account without you having to do anything, it's much easier to stick to it!). Sounds corny but it really is a joy to be able to give. Also both my DH and I are involved at church and other community orgs, but with little kids at home it definitely feels easier to give money than time at this point in our lives. Hopefully as we get older and the nest empties, we'll be able to give more of both.

[Anonymous]

DH used to give at church, but we've grown increasingly disaffected with organized religion over the years and our charitable giving is now directed to non-religious charities. I watched my mother give generously to the church and then not have enough to fund medical expenses and other necessities so the lesson that I took from that was to take care of our needs first and then increase charitable giving once everything else was covered.

[Anonymous]

We are retired so our income isn't what it use to be. In anticipation of that a few years ago when my husband had a good size stock payout we put a lot of it into a donor advised fund. Our strategy is pretty simple which is to each year donate about 80% of the prior years gains (not 100% because we need to cover a market decline) and since we set it up we have averaged over $100,000 a year in charitable contributions. About 70% goes to a handful of charities that mean a lot to us and the rest is generally $1,000 contributions to many charities. It was a very big decision to put that much into a DAF but it really insures we maintain a high level of giving even though our income is lower.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:250K HHI. We give 10% of gross to church and maybe another 1% to other causes. I started when I was a grad student making 20K and living in a HCOL. If I hadn't started back then, it would be hard to start now. Oddly it feels harder at times to do it now we have more $, but I'm glad we do.

We used to give more (maybe an extra 5% to other causes) but scaled back when we bought a house. Perhaps advice to younger people--save a lot but also build a habit of being generous, and you can make some of that your cushion if there are times you need extra funds (instead of doing lifestyle creep and spending more $ on random stuff). I wasted a lot of $ as a single person.

This is such wise advice!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We are retired so our income isn't what it use to be. In anticipation of that a few years ago when my husband had a good size stock payout we put a lot of it into a donor advised fund. Our strategy is pretty simple which is to each year donate about 80% of the prior years gains (not 100% because we need to cover a market decline) and since we set it up we have averaged over $100,000 a year in charitable contributions. About 70% goes to a handful of charities that mean a lot to us and the rest is generally $1,000 contributions to many charities. It was a very big decision to put that much into a DAF but it really insures we maintain a high level of giving even though our income is lower.

OP, thank you for this. DH and I would like to do something similar when we retire.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Since everyone is being so 'honest' I will admit we don't contribute 10%. We are late 40's with a HH of roughly $300K but due to some large healthcare costs in our 30's we are way behind in saving for retirement and for our kids college. So we contribute around $300/month and we donate our time a few times each year to help with church events. Everyone can judge, but we're ok with this choice.

You do what you can do. For families facing college expenses, health care expenses and retirement you simply do what you can do. The only people who bother me are those who say I pay taxes and that’s enough.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We are retired so our income isn't what it use to be. In anticipation of that a few years ago when my husband had a good size stock payout we put a lot of it into a donor advised fund. Our strategy is pretty simple which is to each year donate about 80% of the prior years gains (not 100% because we need to cover a market decline) and since we set it up we have averaged over $100,000 a year in charitable contributions. About 70% goes to a handful of charities that mean a lot to us and the rest is generally $1,000 contributions to many charities. It was a very big decision to put that much into a DAF but it really insures we maintain a high level of giving even though our income is lower.

OP, thank you for this. DH and I would like to do something similar when we retire.

PP - it was a very big decision to put that much of our “future” towards charity but I’m so happy we did. Now our decisions are not about what we can afford, now it’s all about who we support. I did think my husband was a bit nuts when he proposed it but he was absolutely right. Eventually our children will “inherit” the DAF and it will be the gift that keeps on giving if they follow our 80% model.

[Anonymous]

PAY MONEY TO GO TO CHILD MOLESTERS AND THOSE THAT PROTECT THEM?! NO THANKS. they dont even bother to wear masks at my church. I give my money to real charities.