Here’s an interesting article I came across just now by googling “becoming a philanthropist”.
http://www.inspirationinc.com/articles/article/1089310/34728.htm
I think I’m gonna try something like this. I need to get my taxes sorted out for this past year, and then I’m going to once again try setting up a budget. Every month, I’ll have a set amount of money that I can spend on my friends, and every month I’ll have an equal amount of money that I’ll give to different charities. Although maybe I’ll do it in quarters…we’ll see. Whatever I’m left with can then be put toward my savings or my own purchases.
For now, the money I’ve saved up over the past year is going to my RRSP’s…and very possibly to a midi wind controller. I can imagine getting a lot of value out of such an instrument.
Now I just have to figure out how to become independently wealthy.
Another suggestion: what I did for charities which make’s it really easy is to set up monthly contributions to a few different charities. This way, they come out automatically and you know you’re doing your part as you go along. At the end of the year, you can look at the total and say, hey, that’s not bad! As for the rest of your money, makes sense to budget for RRSP’s monthly as well and then that’s just one other thing that’s taken care of. Anything leftover you can choose to spend as you wish… If you insist on picking up the tab here and there, then you don’t have to feel guilty about it. In fairness to you, I think you should let others pick up the tab often enough too… The you’ll have more money leftover for silly stuff like a midi wind controller! 😉