Charity and Personal Finances

This is a response to the plonkee money competition, which asks…

How does donating to charity improve your well-being, financial and otherwise?

I’m going to make a comparision here, and some people aren’t going to like it: putting money into a charity is just like putting money into your retirement. In both cases, you’re taking money away from yourself to help a stranger that you’ve never met. I, sitting here at age 20, have no idea who 50-year-old or 60-year-old Stephanie will be. I have no idea what she’ll be doing, and what she’ll want to do with her retirement funds. But I hope to give her money, anyways.

And it’s the same with a charity. I have no idea who the breast cancer patients are that I donate to, but I donate to them all the same. And for the same reason as I “donate” to my future self: because that person needs that money, and will be greatful for it. I am trying to create happiness for a stranger.

And they say you can’t buy happiness!

So if contributing to my retirement helps my financial well-being, then contributing to charity does, as well.