My investment income is close to $90,000 annually. I give between 50% and 100% of it away. It means I’m spending down my capital to cover my living expenses, but I’ve got a financial plan & I’m certainly not going to want for anything in my life – even if I live to be a hundred.

I have health insurance and a comfortable home; my education is paid off. I have no children and my parents will be well cared for as they get older. With my needs met, it is easy and rewarding to support organizations and individuals who turn that money into art and flyers and good public policy. I give to individuals with some regularity. I try to provide at least a little of the educational access, time flexibility, and good medical services that I have in my own life. I give to organizations that work to make those and other human necessities – like food and clean water – available to all of us.

I’ve been giving for almost twenty years. In that time I’ve regretted a million little purchases but I’ve never regretted a gift. Not once.