Discounts For Cash, Vetting Charities & Buying Happiness 👐

Happy #GivingTuesday everyone!! 👐

Now that Black Friday, Cyber Monday, Turkey Thursday, and Siesta Sunday (just made this up, but should we make it a thing?) are all over… it’s time to get back to what the holiday season is really all about!… GIVING and HELPING others!

“#GivingTuesday is a global generosity movement. It’s an opportunity for folks around the world to come together by sharing acts of kindness and giving their voice, time, money, goods, and advocacy to support communities and causes.”

Need some ideas of good stuff you can do today? Here are about 30 ideas from the GivingTuesday website, or, just make something simple up yourself.

Any giving = good giving!! 🤜 🤛

---

TO DO

Put Your Phone Away 👀

One of the best gifts you can give someone is: your full attention.

This week: Silence your phone, take off your watch, and focus on the people you’re spending time with. It has a huge impact on your family, career, life memories and overall mindfulness. Try it 📲🙅‍♂️

---

CHARITY

Where Do Your Donations Actually Go? 🕵️‍♂️

Imagine this: You give $100 to a children’s charity, then later find out they spent only $25 of it to help kids and the other $75 went to lining the pockets of board members…. How would you feel?! 🤬

Sadly, charities like this exist. They have comically high overhead which means much of people’s generous donations don’t actually create a meaningful impact for the cause they are trying to support.

Frustrating, right?

Well the good news is there are more good charities out there than sneaky ones. And sniffing out the subpar ones isn’t as hard as you think…

Here are a few ways to vet a charity to make sure your money ends up in the right hands:

• Check the Charity’s Registration and Tax Status– All legitimate charities must be registered properly in order to receive your donations. You can use the Tax Exempt Organization Search Tool on the IRS website to make sure your charity is registered properly.
• Research the Charity’s Mission and Impact- Many nonprofits publish annual reports which detail the work they’ve done in the past year. You can also search for news articles to get a better understanding of the work a charity has done in the past.
• Evaluate the Charity’s Financial Transparency- Charities are required to file certain tax forms, like 990s, available to the public. Form 990s contain information about how much money the highest paid employees make, as well as cover the organization’s expenses. You can find them on databases, like Candid or Nonprofit Explorer.
• Look for Ratings & Reviews- If you want to save some time, take a look at charity rating websites that have done some of the work for you. Give.org, Charity Navigator, CharityWatch, and GreatNonProfits are great places to see how much impact an organization has made.
• Talk to other Donors and Volunteers- If you’re looking to donate to a specific organization, talk directly to other donors or volunteers!

• Watch out for these red flags! 🚩🚩🚩

  • Using high pressure sales tactics to raise money
  • Making wild or exaggerated claims
  • Having no clear mission
  • Asking you to use weird donation methods (wire transfers or gift cards)

Not every charity out there is worthy of your hard earned cash. It’s worth taking a few extra steps (before you give any cash) to make sure your donations are making the greatest impact possible this holiday season.

Related stuff:

• 👩‍💻 HTM Blog: How to Vet Charities and why it’s important.
• 🎙️ Podcast Ep #752: Effective Altruism & Giving Well with Elie Hassenfeld
• 🚫 Worst Offenders: The 50 Worst Charities in America (Less than 4% of donated money went directly to aid. A little depressing, sorry!)

---

TOGETHER WITH DAFFY*

Less Fees = More to Give 🙏

We hate fees. I’m sure you do too. So we always search for the lowest cost providers to avoid those pesky fees as much as possible.

For our tax-advantaged charitable investment accounts that means we love Daffy! They have the lowest fees, which means more money compounds over time, and then those savings all end up in the hands of charities we support. Win win. 🤜🤛

If you’re interested in a donor-advised fund to manage your giving more easily and tax-efficiently, check out Daffy. Plans start at $3 per month (or they actually have a free tier for donation balances under $100 😉)

---

SAVING

Discounts for Paying with Cash 💵

Today’s graph is from chartr, showing a really cool trend…

Over the last ~10 years there’s a growing amount of cash transactions that come with a discount 👇👇👇

Although still a small share, it’s interesting to see that more vendors are encouraging folks to pay with good old fashioned greenbacks. It saves the sellers from having to pay swipe fees and passes those savings directly to individuals who keep their plastic in their pocket.

Cash has other advantages that are often overlooked… Using physical money helps you “feel the pain” a bit more when buying things, so it tends to limit overspending.

We’re certainly big fans of using credit cards to get rewards + the best protections, etc (as long as you pay attention to your spending and pay your bill on time & in full, of course). But, using cash might still be smart sometimes to get an even better return. It’s at least something to keep an eye out for!

Related Stuff:

• 📉 Podcast Ep #149: Cash, credit or debt? How you pay for stuff has a lot of implications.
• 💳 Travel Hacking 101: Traveling for free, completely with credit card points.

---

ICYMI

Newsy news news…

OverEmployed 👩‍💻
Working 2 or 3 different jobs is usually a situation for folks who are struggling with small incomes… But not anymore — A new growing trend, “overemployment” is when white-collar workers secretly hold 2 (or 3!) full-time remote jobs without their employers knowing. Cool concept, but is it sustainable/ethical (or worth it)? 🤔

Buying Happiness 🤷‍♂️
Empower just dropped a big financial happiness survey with some interesting stats, like: “71% of Americans believe that “having more money would solve most of my problems”.

Cellflation 📲
A new report from Doxo shows the average American spends $119 per month on their mobile service — a 5% increase from last year. 😳 Daaaang! (If you’re paying ridiculous prices like this, check out Mint Mobile, Visible, GoogleFI or Boost ASAP and cut your bill by ~70%)

Micromobility 🛴
Cool new data finds that e-bikes and scooters are making a far bigger green impact than electric vehicles. Makes sense I guess — about 50% of household travel is for trips less than 3 miles distance… and people are starting to realize that e-scooters/bikes are a more convenient (and cheaper) green solution than buying a brand new $50k+ EV.

One Medical 🩺
If you have a Prime membership, Amazon now offers health care benefits via One Medical for $9 a month (or $99 a year). One cool feature is the “Treat Me Now” to get fast service for common concerns — could be worth it if you’re seeing the doc frequently for small stuff!

---

FRIENDS OF HTM

Joshua Becker – Becoming Minimalist

Josh runs a popular blog, Becoming Minimalist, which teaches people about minimalism and intentional living. And one of the side benefits of minimalism is — once you realize you have “enough”, anything in excess can be shared or donated. Minimalism goes hand in hand with generosity.

(Josh also founded a non-profit called The Hope Effect, helping kids escape orphan care and find loving families (they’re one of the good charities 😉))

As we enter 2024, perhaps you’re interested in living a more intentional year with less clutter and more happiness?… If so, check out Josh’s site, or listen to our interview with him on episode 525!

---

Cheers for reading, and have an awesome week ahead!!! You are a legend 🫵

Best friends out! 🍻

The post Discounts For Cash, Vetting Charities & Buying Happiness 👐 appeared first on How to Money.