[Music] Riley's question is up next. It says, I'm 23 and I invest 65% of my income. Wow, my brother is undergoing cancer treatment right now and I would like to help out financially. How should I think about charitable giving early on in my financial independent Independence Journey? This wasn't your actual question but you said something trick because I had to straighten this up with someone else. Uh, charitable giving. When generally speaking, when people talk about charitable giving, they use that expression talking about the tax deductible version of charitable giving. When you are supporting family members or individuals, that does not, that's not a tax deductible expense. I'm just on out there because people don't realize that. Someone said to me, Hey, I've got a friend and they're in need and I want to give them some money. How do I do that in the most tax efficient way? And I'm like, O, there's not that doesn't, you know, that it's about that's gifting, that's gifting, but it's not, you don't get a

deduction for that. That part is right there unless it's legally structured that way because I have had somebody where there was like a scholarship fund that's right through a church that I've given money because they were trying to specifically help out this family so but most people exactly right but so what you're saying is hey I'm I'm what I love hearing rile is you're 23 years old you're saving 65% of your income. One of the things you've heard us say is that our goal for you is we want you to be saving 25% of your gross income well you're blowing that out of the water and for someone who's 23 I would argue that anything you're doing with your dollars above 25% is totally up to you you get to choose and it sound like you've been choosing to save that now you want to figure out how you can pour into the life of someone else and really be a blessing to them I think that's amazing I think that's

wonderful, and it sounds like you have a lot of room in your system to be able to do that really, really well. That doesn't give me a whole lot of pause at all. I don't think. Yeah, Riley, I'll give you more of the experience shares because y'all know with my youngest child, we've had to save. I don't save for one retirement. We're actually saving for two retirements because I have to. We have to do life decisions that will provide beyond when I'm no longer here, my wife's no longer here, and we need somebody to help out with our youngest daughter and um. I feel like sometimes some of this success and some of these good things that have come is so that I'm equipped and prepared to be able to be that generous. And I think that it's very, it's great to be selfless and be able to get outside of money 'cause money is not something you should worship or put the center of your life. And if you've got 65% of your money that you've it maybe

those were that was the preparation. And now you're able, like B said, get Beyond 25% to love on someone you care about and needs your help in this moment in time. Um, because Health struggles, I mean time is the most valuable resource in the world. You know, it's not only for Building Wealth but also for making memories for people that you care about. So for you to be there, um, I think that's pretty spectacular and amazing. And um, and I and I, we we commend you for being selfless. And I think, you know, at the end of the question, the actual question forras, how should I think about charitable giving being generous early on in my financial Independence journey. I just think it's worth mentioning that when we think about generosity, in our opinion, it's not a step of the financial order of operations. It's not something that once I get to, then I can start being charitably minded, then I can start being generous with my time, my resources. We consider that sort of a ground zero.

sort of an entry level because if you can learn how to be generous, whether it's with financial resources, or your time, or your skills, or whatever it is that you're able to be generous. If you can do that starting out early on at the beginning of your journey, there's a really good chance that it's going to carry through for the rest of your financial journey. And I just don't know a lot of people who said, Man, I was just too generous, or, Man, I wish I would not have done that thing. You even write a little bit about that when you're going through the ground rules in the book, right? Yeah, well also I think money is just an amplifier of who you are in a lot of ways, so if you can be good with a little and while you're why you don't have a lot, when you reach abundance, you'll just be a better version of yourself because sometimes I see people, they come into money, and if they haven't actually spent time reflecting on who they are and getting outside of the

selfishness of where where things can take you financially, and that's really we want you to be selfless. And that's why gratitude is a Step Zero. It's part of the ground rules because I do think it helps you navigate this well and become the best version of yourself versus someone that's kind of distracted by what they think money will do for them.

Where Does Giving Fit into My Financial Independence Journey?

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