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

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote: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.

Dear, perhaps you should write a letter to the head of your church instead of aggressively writing in all caps and ranting against your church on here.

[Anonymous]

I'm curious how old you people are giving money? I don't know a single person under the age of 40 that goes to church other than my brother's wife. But she grew up Baptist in a small town in Tennessee.

[Anonymous]

I am 40. When I married my husband, I was shocked (and, frankly, dismayed) that he tithes. But as a Christian, I realized that I could not complain about it, even though I felt we needed the money to pay for house, kids, education funds, etc. The fact is, whatever your age, you can always convince yourself that you need that money fir yourself of your own family. In my case, as it turns out, my husband makes me a better person, and through him, I have come to realize that tithing really does actually help our own finances somehow. We have a lot of money, really, and when we share it freely with our church and those in need, we always seem to come up with more.

[Anonymous]

Our main charity is taking care of both sets of parents financially. As well as helping out other family members as needed. Sometimes it comes out to 10% of our income, other times a bit more or less. In addition we give smaller amounts to a few good causes.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I'm curious how old you people are giving money? I don't know a single person under the age of 40 that goes to church other than my brother's wife. But she grew up Baptist in a small town in Tennessee.

I am 28 and attend regularly--even during COVID.

[Anonymous]

Really surprised that people still tithe in this day and age. Good for you!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm curious how old you people are giving money? I don't know a single person under the age of 40 that goes to church other than my brother's wife. But she grew up Baptist in a small town in Tennessee.

I am 28 and attend regularly--even during COVID.

Interesting. Maybe my group of friends and family are just a bunch of heathens.

[Anonymous]

Do you and your spouse donate more than 10% of your combined total income to your church or temple? Comes out to about 9% AGI (GI around $130k)

And, do you also donate to charities? Yes, but about $1-2k yearly.

How has this impacted both of you in the spiritual, emotional and financial senses?

We tithe because the church is an important component of our faith. I think it shows recognition that everything we have is ultimately from God and that we can trust Him to provide what we need. It's been a discipline since I started earning money. Sometimes I wish we earned more/could afford a bigger place, etc. but I'm reminded that I have enough and to to be glad I can be generous.

How are your retirement and educational expenses for your children faring? These are doing ok; retirement is not maxed out but trying to save more.

How often do you vacation? Visit long-distance family, long weekend vacations, big vacation (international) maybe every three years

What’s your rainy day fund like? Have 6 months salary

Age: Mid-forties

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm curious how old you people are giving money? I don't know a single person under the age of 40 that goes to church other than my brother's wife. But she grew up Baptist in a small town in Tennessee.

I am 28 and attend regularly--even during COVID.

1045 here again. I should add that I grew up Catholic near Boston. Went to church every week and went to Catholic school from Kindergarten through 12th grade. I became very disillusioned with the Catholic church due to the abuse scandal.

[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 to our alma maters, kids' schools, and to a few local and environmental charities that are important to us. Our primary goal is saving money for our kids' educations and our retirement.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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 to our alma maters, kids' schools, and to a few local and environmental charities that are important to us. Our primary goal is saving money for our kids' educations and our retirement.

Why even respond if you aren't going to talk in %?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm curious how old you people are giving money? I don't know a single person under the age of 40 that goes to church other than my brother's wife. But she grew up Baptist in a small town in Tennessee.

I am 28 and attend regularly--even during COVID.

1045 here again. I should add that I grew up Catholic near Boston. Went to church every week and went to Catholic school from Kindergarten through 12th grade. I became very disillusioned with the Catholic church due to the abuse scandal.

I am not Catholic so most of my experience with Protestant church has been amazing and supportive.

[Anonymous]

We give 10% of gross income (not AGI) but only about 1% of our income to our house of worship. While it's an important part of my life, including going to services online during covid, and I want to support it, I think there are lots of people in DC and abroad who need money now more than ever and I want to support them too. Our congregation doesn't ask for 10% and announces the average and percentiles for pledges each year and we are right above the mean so I feel fine about it.

[Anonymous]

We give around 6 or 7 percent of AGI to charitable organizations each year, about half of which is to our synagogue between dues and other donations (in honor of the anniversaries of relatives' deaths, or for other random reasons). We give very little to either of our college alma maters, both of which have large endowments and are, in general, pretty undeserving recipients of anyone's charity; when we do give to them, it's almost always to restricted funds earmarked for undergraduate scholarships.

That's a slightly larger percentage of our AGI than we save for our kids' 529s each year, but we were fortunate to inherit large 529s for our kids that my grandparents had set up, so we don't need to put that much into them ourselves. It's about half of what we save for retirement each year.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I'm curious how old you people are giving money? I don't know a single person under the age of 40 that goes to church other than my brother's wife. But she grew up Baptist in a small town in Tennessee.

I'm over 40 but I've given money to my church every month since I got out of grad school when I was 25.