Plot Generosity

I've mentioned before that you can think of your income as a plot of land for you to use as you see fit. For a great many of us, perhaps even most, that plot of land is large enough to cover all of our basic necessities and then some. Unfortunately, we tend to clutter up our earned plot with things that don't help us. We clutter it up with car payments, furniture on same-as-cash loans or even a space for pay-day lenders to stand and remind us that we owe them money.

After a while, our plot of land, no matter how much we make, can look pretty redneck.

Even so, while we take time and effort to clean up our plot of money land by paying off those loans and building ourselves a Money House, what if we allocated a section of our land to helping others? What if we each sectioned off a piece of our income to help others. Instead of allowing pay-day lenders to live rent-free on our land, wouldn't it be better if we purposefully allowed a charitable cause we believe in live on our land instead?

In practice, this involves taking a purposeful chunk of our income each and every month and giving it away. No strings attached and no payback agreement. Just free cash to someone in need or an organization doing non-profit work you believe in.

How would that make you feel? I imagine it would feel pretty good. Whether you are supporting family or friends in a tough economic spot or funding the supply of fresh water to remote places of the world, helping others can help us appreciate what we have more. Who knows, it may also challenge us to use more of our money plot for that purpose because it felt so good! I certainly believe that would be a better use of our money land than letting car payments and same-as-cash loans fill it up!

Going into another weekend, I challenge you to consider what causes you wish you could contribute to. Write them down, perhaps even in a priority order, then look to see if you can give to them regularly in your budget. Even small amounts can make a big difference over time. Those small amounts can grow as well as you work on cleaning up your budget.

If you are comfortable, please share in the comments below what causes you are passionate about and want to contribute to regularly. You may inspire others to branch out with more charity!