Yesterday I told a few of my coworkers about our plans to give away our money. My supervisor, who is a bit of a cynic, made an interesting comment. He said, "isn't it convenient that you are starting to give away all of your money now after you have bought a new computer and gone on a big expensive trip." And it is true. It was my birthday last month and from Matt I received a netbook, a small but noteworthy expense. Also, Matt and I spent the greater part of the summer hiking the Appalachian Trail, a very expensive recreational trip (see our other blog 3millionfootsteps.blogspot.com). It was actually on our hike that we came up with the idea of giving away most of our money. I think that we realized that we could survive with barely any possessions, quite happily in fact. During our 2.5 months hiking we lived with 2 sets of clothes, our tent, sleeping bags, sleeping pads, food and water and very little else and we still lived SIGNIFICANTLY MORE comfortably than the 1.4 billion people living in extreme poverty.
And so yes, it is convenient that we are starting this project after spending a lot of money on extraneous items. Perhaps that is even greater of a reason for doing this challenge; that we live in a position where we can pick and choose the times that it is convenient for us to give.
On the other hand, would anyone give if they weren't allowed to decide on their own when it is the right time for them?
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Matt and Emily - this is a really good thing at this point in your lives. Seems to me like a rather unique union of voluntary simplicity (a movement with roots going back to the 70's) and good, old-fashioned Charity. If you haven't already, be sure to view (youtube) Annie Leonard's "The Story of Stuff"! All the best with this endeavour.
ReplyDeleteMike Z.
Good for you guys! This is an awesome idea. And of course you have to pick a time to start, and it is almost always going to be "convenient". It would be really easy for you to go the other way too, I'm sure you both loved that trip and want to do more travelling - and instead you're going to give all your money away for a year. The usual reaction seems to be "ooh, this feels good, I want more!", while you guys are going the opposite way and saying "ooh, this is great, I wish the whole world could share!".
ReplyDeleteI'm really really curious to know how this works out for you. We've got almost the exact same rules for spending money right now, but for selfish rather than altruistic purposes.