Good with a Little, Good with a Lot

Money.  It's always on my mind.  I like to make budgets, track my finances, set goals, invest, log my spending.  I spend a lot of time thinking about money.

I think I'm good with money.  I'm a Dave Ramsey disciple, though I've taken a few liberties.  I save a ton for retirement, have very little debt, and have a nice cushion of cash in the bank account.

One thing I don't do anymore: Give.  I used to give all the time.  I'd tithe.  I supported Global Giving.  I supported a friend's non-profit.  Now, I do almost none of that.  I support one charity at $38 a month.  That's it.  Mitt Romney gives a considerable larger percent of his income than I do.

The problem with money is that there's never enough.  There's always one more goal to conquer.  Right now I want to buy a second home as an investment house.  Then I could give, I think.  But not really.  Another goal would come up.  Then another.  Then another.

Maybe you understand my thinking.  We all probably think, "if I won the lottery."  But the truth is, if I can't give now with a little, I won't give then with a lot.  It's the same reason why many people who win the lottery end up in financial ruin anyways.  Or that  78% of NFL players end up broke eventually.  If you're not good with nickels and dimes, you won't be good with hundreds and thousands.  If you know how to budget and spend when you're poor, you'll do the same when wealthy.

My goal:  Force myself to give.  Carve some more room in the budget.  Find a project I'm passionate about.  Life is short, and its certainly not about things.  Examples of rich, unhappy people abound.  Where we spend our money really speaks to who we are. I want to be the kind of person who uses what resources I've got to make the world a better place.  I'll let you know how it goes.

Global Giving in the Times

My favorite Change The World organization, Global Giving, just got some love from the New York Times. But you heard it here first.

Project of the Week

It's becoming a weekend habit. I spent an hour today perusing Global Giving. It's hard to choose what to support with so many projects doing amazing things. From providing women in the Sudan with seeds to sow so they can feed their families, to reeducating former child soldiers in Colombia, to planting trees in Haiti, there's something for every taste.

It makes me feel guilty to click past them, like I'm walking by a starving child on the street with a ham sandwich in my pocket (we've all been there). If I were a millionaire I'd fund them all. Until then, I'll be posting a project every week that I find inspiring. If you feel inspired go check it out and give what you can, even if it's just $5 or $10 bucks. If you do, or if there's a project you want me to highlight leave a comment and let me know.

Today's project is the one I finally settled on today. Here's the info from Global Giving:
Turning Waste into Wealth (from Global Giving)
Summary
Engaging 1000 households in solid waste management, thereby improving the living environment for poor people as well as rejuvenating soil and safeguarding agricultural biodiversity.

Project Needs and Beneficiaries
With industrialisation and urbanisation, the quantity of waste is increasing and the composition of waste is becoming more diversified. Today, waste in India is being burnt or dumped; either producing hazardous smoke or leeching into the soil and water. Implementing solid waste management schemes in Kancheepuram District, Tamil Nadu, would mobilise entire communities around the waste-issue, while offering a simple solution for how to turn "waste into wealth" - e.g. vermicomposting and recycling.

Activities
We will implement solid waste management schemes where the community is mobilised and learns the importance of segregating their household waste. The waste will be collected and processed through e.g. composting, biogas, recycling, etc.

How You Can Help
$25 - Train one Green Friend, garbage collector, to mobilize and increase household segregation of waste in towns
$50 - Provide a Green Friend, garbage collector, proper uniform and protective gear to ensure the safety of the worker
$100 - Conduct awareness campaign for poor, rural communities on the benefits of solid waste management for public health, sanitation and the environment

Go check it out and change the world!

It's Mother's Day, time to save the world.

Usually I associate Mother's Day with flowers and chocolate, but this year I'm getting my wonderful mother (I have the best mom in the world) something different. While on a late night on-line chess binge yesterday I came across a link to Global Giving.

This amazing website connects donors with great projects all around the globe, ranging from environmental change to hunger relief to education. One cool feature is that it tells you exactly what your money will do. For $20 this project will provide clean drinking water to one Bangladeshi child for a year. Give $250 to the same project and you will contruct latrines for five families (I thank God for our sewer system every day).

Right now they have a Mother's Day giving campaign relating to women. So instead of flowers I made a donation in my mom's name to free one Nepalese girl from being shipped off by her family to work in the city. In Nepal, poor rural families will sell their daughters as young as 7 into servitude for $40 or so. As you can imagine, there is a lot of abuse.

The group I gave to uses donations to pay for the girl's education, and provides the family with a pig as compensation for the lost money. Everybody wins. Girl gets to stay home and gets an education. Family gets a pig. Mom gets a card that I personalized from Global Giving telling her that I loved her enough to free a child in her name!

When I woke up this morning did I think I'd being freeing a Nepalese girl from bonded labor? No. That's Global Giving's genius. It allows anyone with the internet and a credit card to make a difference anywhere in the world. And you don't have to give a lot to do something amazing.

Make mom happy and see what you can do today.