3 Ways To Become A Generous Giver

17 posted on October 17, 2008

POSTED IN: Makes You Think

On Wednesday I wrote about poverty for the Blog Action Day. I’ve found that most people by nature want to give to those in need. We saw that during the tragedy of September 11 or in the aftermath of hurricane Katrina. However most people will tell you that they’re already stretched to their financial limit and couldn’t possibly give any more. Here are 3 strategies every one of us can apply to our lives to increase our giving.

3 Financial Strategies to Becoming A Generous Giver
We live in a world that is full of poverty, disease and death. On Wednesday we talked about how almost two in three people in the world today lack access to clean water and survive on less than $2 a day. One in three live on less than $1 a day. We have the opportunity to wipe out the most hurtful forms of poverty in our lifetime. But how can we give more when we struggle to make ends meet? Here are 3 strategies to becoming a generous giver.

1. Spend Less Than You Earn
Spending less than you earn is one of the best financial moves you can make. We live in a country that is used to financing everything.

That’s a big part of what got our country into the financial pickle it’s in today. It’s not rocket science. When broke people buy houses they can’t afford there’s gonna be problems!

To become generous givers we must first reduce our spending and begin to recognize the difference between the things we need and the things we want.

Start a plan now to ELIMINATE YOUR DEBT! If you don’t start somewhere it’s never going to happen. There are excellent resources available to you to help you start chipping away at your mountain of debt. Read Dave Ramsey’s 7 Baby Steps and find a Financial Peace University group near you.

2. Learn To Manage Your Money
Shortly after Lisa and I were married we got wrapped up in several bad financial decisions leaving us with over $20,000 of debt. Not a good way to start a marriage! Again, this is all common sense stuff here, but when you’re in debt up to your eyeballs, it’s generally a good idea to stop adding more debt! In plain English that means cut up your credit cards, buy only the things you need with money you have (cash) and stay away from the same-as-cash, no-money-down offers.

Be especially aware of the ways your money “sneaks” out on you. The biggest form of disappearing money is “stealth fees” that banks charge, more commonly known as overdraft fees. Here’s a scenario:

Suppose I go to lunch with some friends and I think I have at least $10 in the bank not knowing I really only have $9.50. I buy lunch at Panera for $9.65. I present my debit card, the transaction is approved, I eat my lunch and leave, never knowing that I just paid $43.65 for lunch! A week later, I deposit a check for $75 and notice afterward that my balance is negative $6.65. How? Not only did I pay an extra $34 for lunch last week, I was also being charged $8 a day on every day since then for being continually overdrawn. So my lunch actually cost me $91.65!!

The New York Times reported in 2003 that Washington Mutual Bank customers paid over $1 billion dollars in stealth overdraft fees! That’s nearly $3 million a day!! And there are six other banks in the country larger than Washington Mutual.

If American consumers learned to manage their finances and started giving even a small portion of billions of dollars we give to the banks in needless fees every year we could make a real difference.

3. Give Yourself A Voluntary Pay Cut
This is probably the hardest principle for most people to live out. Many people in America are only a couple of paychecks away from losing their homes so how in the world do we live on less? Personal finance blogger No Credit Needed recently asked his readers:

What would happen if your boss came into your office tomorrow morning, and told you that your salary had been reduced by 15%? Furthermore, what if he told you that a new law had been passed and you couldn’t change jobs for one full year – and you couldn’t borrow any money, for any reason? What would you do?

Some people would have a very difficult time adjusting to a 15% (or other) decrease in pay, but the reality is most of us would find a way to get by. We would make adjustments, trim down on the extras and make it work. He asked this question to get people thinking about how much they spend vs. how much they really need to spend.

After we stop spending more than we make and learn to manage the money we already have in the bank better, the final step is to eliminate wasteful spending.

Make an agreement with your family that you’re going to take a voluntary pay cut in order to eliminate spending on things you don’t need so you can give more generously to things that matter.

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Don’t Wait, Start Now
There are so many great organizations that are making a real difference in world today. Lisa and I are strong supporters of Compassion International and I urge you to check them out. Sponsoring a child through Compassion only costs $32 a month and is an excellent first step towards becoming a generous giver.

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This entry was posted on Friday, October 17th, 2008 at 8:59 am and is filed under Makes You Think. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

12 Comments

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October 17, 2008

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1 Abbey said:

This is good. I spend a lot of money on stuff I don’t need, especially new clothes, just because I don’t like the old stuff. It’s good to have a reminder that there are tons of more important things in life. Thanks! ^_^
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2 Adam said:

Great Post. Don’t you just love Dave Ramsey?!?! Dude is no nonsense when it comes down to finances. He is the best. When people hear the word giving they run the other way. But there are so many PRACTICAL things out there that we can do to make a difference in the world.

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3 Mark LeHew said:

Thanks for some good practical advice Brad. By the way, sorry I missed the bloggers meet-up at Catalyst. I ended up working stage security and didn’t get out of there until late. I’m sure I missed a good time.

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4 Travis Thompson said:

Good stuff Brad . . .

It’s not really anything new, but you put it in a simple concise way – I’ve already forwarded your post to a few friends

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5 Brad Ruggles said:

@Travis – You’re right, nothing really new. All kinda common sense stuff. But these days common sense isn’t all that common!

Too bad we can’t get our government to start adopting some of these common sense principles.
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6 Mike Ellis, Church For Men Florida said:

Okay, I am not going to get invited to any of your Christmast parties with this thot. Why oh Why do we always think about poverty overseas when there are people dying in our own neighborhoods. What about the homeless, the widows, the orphans, etc. in our own communities? Across the street? The church spends way to much time talking about missions to other countries and not enough time talking about what we can all do in our own communities.

Nuff said.

Mike Ellis, Church For Men Floridas last blog post..Why I will never be able to call myself a Christian
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7 Brad Ruggles said:

@Mike – True, we do have poverty here in America. But the kind of poverty we have here pales in comparison to what people experience in third world countries. We at least have access to clean water, food and shelter. There are well-funded, resourced homeless shelters and missions here in United States that offer food, clothing, and job training (as there should be).

We need and should volunteer at those type of organizations serving the needy in our own country. But to compare the “poverty” we have here in the United States to what children growing up in Rwanda or Hati experience every day…well, there is no comparison. There are different levels of poverty in the world and the poorest of our poor are rich in comparison to many around the world.

That being said, I strongly encourage people to give generously to organizations that are working to eradicate poverty wherever it exists – in our own city or around the world. We should be volunteering at and donating to homeless shelters in our community. Just remember, there are over 6,000 people (mostly children) who die every day from a lack of clean water and over 5,400 who die every day from preventable diseases like Tuberculosis (more facts here).

That’s something I just can’t live with.
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8 Kristen said:

Hello from West Lafayette, IN!

Just a quick message to tell you that i love your blog. awesome stuff.

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9 Sarah W said:

Great post!I find that when you release the control of your funds over to the Lord then it’s so much easier to give it away and bless others. As missionaries we also support other missionaries because it’s important to us to give it back and we always get back in return. If everyone followed these three steps, I think the world would be a happier place……I know a few missionaries that could take some money off of people’s hands.

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10 carolyn said:

we are bracing for a layoff at the end of the month. i have been amazed as we have taken a good hard look at our finances, the numerous creative budgeting techniques we have overlooked. we have gone for so long feeling we have been living super close to the bone. we are finding sizable cuts that still leave us quite comfortable by global standards.

though not fun, i am thankful for difficult times that teach us valuable lessons like these. i fully anticipate having to cut our spending even more – - to a standard that may no longer be “comfortable” (laughable, huh? we americans are so spoiled). but the beauty of living for god is the supernatural peace and trust in his provision that comes in the midst of it all. we still tithe and will continue to do so and we will be as generous as we can beyond the tithe. because god has proved himself faithful time and again. you just can’t out give god. btw, you have to budget your generosity – can’t just write a check for $50 when your bank account is at $10 and expect god to just zap it in there. um, it doesn’t work that way. i know… that was a little of a tangent. but that little piece of information seems to be news to more than a few people. generosity is not supernatural – it’s very calculated.

the coming months will be hard no doubt, but i look forward to the growth that always comes from being stretched beyond our perceived limitations. someday my husband will have a new and improved job and we will have a new and improved standard for money management which will allow us to be more generous than we ever felt we could be before.

the voluntary pay cut thing is brilliant. wish we had tried it before it all became so involuntary.

wow, i obviously haven’t blogged in a bit. sorry, that was a kinda long. but great post, brad. thanks!

p.s. dave ramsey is the deal. and there are few things more life changing than breaking free from debt. we’ve done it twice now. anyone here struggling with it… HANG IN THERE AND STICK TO IT and keep tithing. it will be SO worth it.

carolyns last blog post..‘to know’ changes nothing… ‘to act’ changes everything
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11 carolyn said:

{sheesh} – sorry. i knew it was long. but i didn’t think it was THAT long.

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12 tam said:

carolyn – praying for you.

brad – since the beginning of the year we have been on a pretty good budget. it has transformed our lives. we dont use credit, so everything is paid for in cash. so…if we dont have it, we dont get it. that alone helps with compulsive buying. its tight. but we can never say that God has not provided for us, for our needs.

since our budget began, we found that we could in fact give to compassion. we sponsor a sweet little boy with eyes that can melt the hardest of hearts.

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