Video 3

Why

It’s Dave Ramsey‘s final, seventh step of Financial Peace University.

To-Do

This is certainly where the heart, the brain and finances come together.

When I was a Certified Financial Planner, life planning (including charitable giving) was a cornerstone of my practice.  I’d encourage you to figure out your “financial finish line”. That is,

What’s enough, where ‘working’ can be optional and you’re able to very conservatively fund everything you need to do during your and your spouse’s lifetime?

Most custodians have some basic financial projection tools that you can enter a lot of this information and calculate your probable outcome. For a much more robust tool, you’ll probably want to align with a Certified Financial Planner that has very in-depth analysis tools that can stress test various scenarios of your situation. Personally, when we were trying to balance all these things out, we ran several scenarios, including moderate or much higher levels of charitable giving to make certain that we never ran out of funds during our expected lifetimes.

It gave us the confidence to give at much higher levels.

It is tremendously satisfying to be able to help. I agree with Dave Ramsey, that the best and final step of financial stewardship, is being able to be generous. Although we personally can’t be all over the globe feeding, helping, educating, evangelizing, supporting, and medicating all the needs out there; through our giving we can.

You’ll also want to think through…

What type of legacy do you want to leave to your spouse, family, and loved ones?

This can also have some solid math to it to help you figure what’s “enough and not too much”. One can factor in assistance with education, buying a home, funding a business, providing a certain amount of financial cash flow or assets assistance. For some people these numbers are still far beneath their net worth. It really starts to open up the door and give you permission about how generous you could be while still being a good steward and fiduciary to yourself, your spouse, and your family.

Some of the more advanced planned giving tools can provide an income stream back to you. When you start to add your cash flows from Social Security, pensions, rentals, dividends, royalties, business interest, etc.; you might easily reach the point where you recognize there is extra.

The person that dies with the most toys is not the winner.

It’s the ones that have helped and not been a burden to their families and loved ones. It’s those that are good stewards.  It is those that have impacted the world for good and have practiced God‘s will through the generosity from the abundance that He has provided us with.