question for those of you who tithe

[Anonymous]

Question of those of you who tithe to your church or do other charitable giving--

Do you do it at the expense of college savings?

We make about $240K. Save for retirement. Have a $3K mortgage payment on a $450K loan (1 million dollar house).
Have saved $0 for college for our 3 kids (under 5). Tithe approx. $20K year. Get back 1/3 or so in tax savings.

My husband is very dedicated to tithing. I think we should be putting that money towards college savings. I recognize that his conviction to give the $$ away is very important to him but
still ??

What do you do?

[Anonymous]

The Bible says to tithe. I would tithe. Leave the college savings in God's hands. He will honor your decision to tithe. My parents have told me they tithed early in their marriage when things were tight, and over time, God multiplied their income such that college savings and other needs were not an issue. God always comes first.

[Anonymous]

I agree with pp.

[Anonymous]

There's a gap between tithing 10 percent and giving the church nothing. On my income, I can't afford to tithe, but I make it a priority that the church gets something every month. I'd split the difference -- 5 percent to college, 5 percent to the church.

How much is your childcare? If you are currently spending a lot on childcare, as soon as each one enters school, you take that money and put it into college savings. You are already used to living on what's left, so keep it going. If you're not paying for childcare, I have to ask where the heck your money is going. If you're on that level of income and only paying $36k per year toward a mortgage, you should have money to tithe and save more.

[Anonymous]

Suckers.

[Anonymous]

Man I'm creating a religion so people can give me 10% sheesh easy money!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Suckers.

+1000000000000000000000000....................

[Anonymous]

Seems like you could still work in college savings and keep your tithing around $20K, which is admittedly less than 10% of your income. Do you also contribute to other charities? Contributing to your own retirement is very good. You can open 529 plans in your state and get state deductions on your income tax. You have to do your state's plan, though, not a 529 plan in another state.

[Anonymous]

PP again. I say this given your income level, which is about $50K-$60K more than our HH. We have 2 accounts (mine, spouse's) for each child and contribute the max that our state allows for the deduction.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Seems like you could still work in college savings and keep your tithing around $20K, which is admittedly less than 10% of your income. Do you also contribute to other charities? Contributing to your own retirement is very good. You can open 529 plans in your state and get state deductions on your income tax. You have to do your state's plan, though, not a 529 plan in another state.

OP here. Yes, we can probably do both. I need to run the numbers. We have always tithed at this level (around $20K a year) and only recently reached this income level (we were making ,$190K ~5 years ago). I'm not sure where all the money goes--we've been hit with some out-of-the-blue expenses in recent years (unexpected health care bills, infertility including IVF, stolen car that ended up costing us $5k out of pocket, other car being hit by an uninsured driver, etc. etc.). Childcare has been a huge check (we have twins and preschool was easily $30K).
Anyway, thanks for the thoughts. $20k cash out of $240K (pre tax) is not insignificant.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The Bible says to tithe. I would tithe. Leave the college savings in God's hands. He will honor your decision to tithe. My parents have told me they tithed early in their marriage when things were tight, and over time, God multiplied their income such that college savings and other needs were not an issue. God always comes first.

This just blows my mind.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The Bible says to tithe. I would tithe. Leave the college savings in God's hands. He will honor your decision to tithe. My parents have told me they tithed early in their marriage when things were tight, and over time, God multiplied their income such that college savings and other needs were not an issue. God always comes first.

This just blows my mind.

Yes, my parents didn't tithe and the exact same thing happened to them! How bizarre!!

[Anonymous]

My principle with tithing is to give 10% to charity- whether that be the church, the poor, etc. We're really bad about it. We used to give a set amount to our church every month and then I became very disillusioned about it... I felt like all they cared about was expanding the church building and I was increasingly dissatisfied with our denomination in general. My mother was very strict about tithing (she gave way more than 10%) and she totally neglected my college savings and it worked out so that I got scholarships and grants and made it through law school without a single loan. I dunno.

[Anonymous]

I do not understanding this thing called tithe. Why do you give 20% of your income to the church? What's it for? I'm catholic (well I consider myself what I call "catholic lite") my church is constantly asking for $$ and constantly asking me to up my weekly offering, I stopped doing it all together, I give when I please and write a check so that I can track my donations.

[Anonymous]

Tithing is biblically based -- giving back a portion of what God's given to you (traditionally 10%). Many people don't strictly follow this, but many do. it seems to be a Protestant thing.