No Questions Asked
I receive this question from time to time, but several people asked it on the heels of my recent post about impulsive generosity. In short, here's the question: "How do you be impulsively generous if you're also budgeting?"
On the surface, the idea of being impulsively generous seems incongruent with the notion that every dollar of our income should be planned before the month begins. If all of our money is already accounted for, how in the world are we supposed to give like this?!?!
When I teach this concept (and implement it in my own household), there are three key ingredients that bring it to life:
1) Budget for impulsive giving. While the majority of our family's giving is routed through our donor-advised fund, we have a separate budget category called "other giving." This is a catch-all category designed to give impulsively. In other words, even before the month begins, we have money allocated toward impulsive giving.
2) Create a sinking fund for impulsive giving. In addition to our monthly allocation toward impulsive giving, we have a sinking fund category for the same purpose. We call it our "giving fund." Whenever there's extra money left over in our "other giving" category in a given month, this cash is scraped into our giving fund, where it waits for a good home.
3) The no-questions-asked rule. In our marriage, the only category either of us has a green light to blow past our budget is impulsive giving. If Sarah feels called to give, she gives......period. Same for me. If we don't have any "other giving" money left this month, and our giving fund is depleted, we figure it out. We move money around. We reallocate a portion of our personal spending, or dining out, or entertainment. We make some additional sacrifices to realign the numbers. But at the end of the day, it's an infinite green light.
Impulsive generosity will rock your world. It will gut you in ways you never fathomed. It will rewire your brain and the way you think about money. It will humble you. It will help you take the focus off yourself and instead place it on others. It will erode your materialism and boost your contentment. Impulsive generosity will unlock a new gear in you that you never knew existed.
Test it. You'll see....
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