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Goals without target dates + question about charitable donations

March 31st, 2010 at 05:39 pm

There are a number of financial goals, or other goals that require money to accomplish, that are sort of stacking up, but our 2010 goals are already pretty aggressive considering the uncertain nature of our income and expenses this year. So they're sort of floating around in our minds and we bring them up once in awhile, but we don't know when we'll be able to fit them into our budget. Maybe later this year if our other goals go really well; if not, they'll become priorities for 2011.

I thought I'd list them so they're all in one place and it'll be easier to prioritize them if we do get to a place where we can address one or more of them. No particular order at present...and most money estimates are really rough.

* Consult financial planner about retirement, college savings ($200?)
* Consult CPA about UK & US taxes ($200?)
* Consult lawyer about how to secure AS's parental rights ($200?)
* Consult lawyer to set up wills, living wills, etc. ($200?)
* Begin contributing to charities (goal $150 per month)
* Get balcony screened in (approx. $1200)
* Get floor cleaned (approx. $85)
* Get floor "renewed" (approx. $1000)
* Look into FHA loan modification for mortgage (approx. $15K underwater)
* Paint & finish decorating/setting up AA's bedroom ($300?)

I may come back to this entry and add things as they occur to us...or maybe I'll start a separate blog page. I don't really want to overload my sidebar any more than it already is!

Oh yeah, and my question: Those of you who categorize your budget in order to make sure the ratios are acceptable to you, how do you categorize charitable contributions? For my working budget, my categories are: Mortgage/Utilities/Telecom, Debt Repayment/Savings, Spending/Entertainment/Travel, and Household/Groceries/Healthcare. I also recently looked at my total budget (including stuff that's taken out of our paychecks pretax) and broke everything down into three categories: needs, wants, and long-term savings/extra debt repay. Where would charitable donations fall in either of those scenarios? I mean, it's not a need, in that I don't need to contribute to survive, but in a cosmic sense, it is really a need that we try to make the world a better place for AA to live in.

7 Responses to “Goals without target dates + question about charitable donations”

  1. MonkeyMama Says:
    1270057352

    I think most my financial goals don't have dates.

    An estate lawyer consultation should be free, but it will cost a couple of thousand dollars easy, to get everything done right. Just FYI - save those pennies. It is SO important, though (IMO).

    I think it depends how you view charity. I would personally put charity as a luxury (or want). I think most people would lump it under "needs." I don't agree. There are plenty of low cost ways to "be charitable." Giving away my cash is not a need or a priority. SO yeah, it's up to you. I just always encourage people who feel it is a "need," to really think about the reasons they are giving. Because I see a lot of people giving away money they don't have, for a lot of stupid reasons. (I see a lot of financially stable people be very frugal with their giving, on the other hand). I guess I wouldn't put charity on the same level as food and shelter, and haven't seen a lot of people who that has worked out for.

    I can totally understand charity as a "cosmic need." This is why we volunteer so much time, instead. We view having cash to spare for charity as a luxury.

  2. MonkeyMama Says:
    1270057554

    P.S. No matter how you view it, I think in your case, it's just a label. But, can make quite the philosophical debate, yes.

  3. Suzanne Says:
    1270059253

    In my opinion, charity is a category of it's own, neither a want nor a need.

  4. ceejay74 Says:
    1270075800

    Gotcha, MonkeyMama. Like, cleaning is a need, but if you hire a cleaner, that goes in the "wants" category. Makes sense to me.

    Suzanne, I agree it doesn't fit neatly into any of my categories, but it's going to be such a small amount, seems strange to make it its own.

    In the end it doesn't really matter, but I was just curious to hear from other people who categorized their expenses and tracked percentages like I do.

  5. skydivingchic Says:
    1270092908

    I don't contribute much to charity - like Monkey Mama I tend to volunteer my time as opposed to monetary donations. So I can't answer your question directly, but I do have two thoughts. One, as someone already mentioned would be to make charity its own category. This would make sense especially if you have % goal you would like to shoot for. The other idea would be to split it somehow between wants and needs categories, since it seems to straddle those categories in your mind.

    Last March, DBF and I did our wills, advanced health care directives, and had the way our condo was titled changed. For all that, we each paid ~$350. I can't tell you how grateful I was for having done all that after DBF's accident last July. I was 1000s of miles away at the time but I was able to get his advanced directive sent to the hospital ICU so that they had some guidelines before someone got there. It ended up being a moot point, as there were no life or death decisions to be made and the life altering decision had already had to be made by the surgical team when he came into the trauma unit. However, as I was named as his first agent, I believe it did help me gain status in the eyes of the hospital staff despite us not being married. I know your family is also unconventional, so this stuff is doubly important in those situations. It would have been so much worse for me to be pushed to the side despite having been with DBF for 13 years at the time simply because we have chosen not to get a piece of paper. I can't stress enough to get this done ASAP.

  6. baselle Says:
    1270098717

    I budget my charitable giving as a need - I use payroll deduction, so it goes out of my paycheck off the top, along with the 403B deduction. Btw, your goal adds up yearly to a nice chunk of change that I'm sure your designated agency(ies) will be grateful to receive. On behalf on non-profit land, thank you!

    Another twist that might be a tad cynical but might tip it one way or another is to note that if you itemize, your charity can be used as a tax deduction. So you might (cynically) consider it a "need" to lower your taxes.

  7. ceejay74 Says:
    1270135905

    skydivingchic, that really drives the urgency home. I'm happy for you that you had that documentation in place when it might have been needed!

    baselle--right now it's just a goal, but I do want to make it feel like a significant amount. With baby, college and freelance work, volunteering would stretch us really thin. We really make a decent amount of money and as soon as I'm sure we're going to get out of credit card debt, I want to start giving to all the many organizations we admire. AS has worked in the nonprofit sector most of her adult life, so we really appreciate the importance of donations.

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