In today’s Wealth Tip there are some facts around creating abundance in my finances that I want to share.
How to Multiply Your Income Almost 4-Fold
An article in the Wall Street Journal July 6th caught my attention. “Giving 'Til It Hurts” discusses what people are calling a ‘new kind of philanthropy,’ though I doubt the phenomenon is truly new. It seems that recently charities have been surprised by people who give a larger share of their net worth away- seemingly out of proportion to the amount they have to give.
These “stretch givers,” it seems, are making universities and charitable foundations stand up and take notice. A 72 year-old retired conservator at the New York Met sells her small New York apartment to give $1 million gift to an organization that had helped her early on with an $8,000 grant. A tech tycoon, fallen on hard times, fulfill the promise of a $25 Million gift, almost his entire net worth, to AIDS research in the name of his dead brother. (The donor has a young family.) A retired GE executive, rather than buying a retirement home in Florida, lives modestly and gives away the proceeds from her stock options, as she has given money all of her career.
In all these cases, the gifts to charities made up the bulk of the givers net worth.
Why? Arthur C. Brooks, the author of Who Really Cares, a book on giving in America, shows that people who give are happier and healthier than those who do not.
And there is one more thing. According to Mr. Brooks' analysis, $1.00 donated to charity led to $3.75 in extra income for the donor. In other words, givers make almost four times more than non-givers. And this was reported in a very reputable, conservative even, New York paper.
Giving Really Does
Increase Your Income
Do you get it? If you are not yet giving away a
portion of your income regularly, you are
missing the wealth boat.
I admit I was surprised to see the size of that
number. I have studied the power of giving and
enacted it in my own life with great success.
But a 375% return on such a fun investment? That
seems HUGE. (A friend reminds me that this
calculation is likely quite conservative,
actually.)
I remember when I first learned that giving sets
in motion universal principles of abundance. I
didn’t think I could afford it. I told my mentor
that I would give money away when I had excess
to share. “If you don’t give,” she told me,
“that will likely never happen.” And she was
right.
My first major gift was a ‘test,’ after I
learned about this principle. It was the first
time I went out on faith and gave 10% of my
income away and it was really uncomfortable to
me. I don’t even remember what
organization I gave money to. I do remember the
result, because they were more specific and
tangible than I ever expected.
Within three weeks of that $2,000 gift leaving
my hands, I came home to find an unexpected
check in the mailbox for almost exactly the
amount of my gift. I was surprised and
delighted. Some might call it coincidence, some
will call it a fluke. I saw it simply as
powerful confirmation of a Universal Law that
has power over us all. As I continue to
build my own wealth, I see the this principle in
even more powerful and surprising ways.
Sitting here in East Africa, it makes me wonder.
Is the reason for U.S. prosperity somehow
related to the fact that we give more to
charities, per capita, than any other
population? I think it may be.
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