There’s a long history in self-development and success literature of promoting giving as the path to getting. And as you’d expect, there have been naysayers all along who hold that it’s easy to give once you’ve already gotten, and that the whole theory is bunk.
Now it turns out that there really is some science to claims that giving makes you richer, not just the other way around:
Emerging evidence—crunchy statistics from real data, not the mushy self-help stuff—supports the contention that giving stimulates prosperity, for both individuals and nations. Charity, it appears, can really make you rich.
For a number of years I’ve tried to maintain a charity account, where I sock a little away, and give it something I think is cool and worthy (Don’t worry - my track record isn’t great on this. I miss a lot of years, too.). I can’t say whether or not it’s made me wealthier, but I can say it makes you feel a lot richer to be able to give some bucks away. It’s a nice value-added sensation on top of the do-gooder feeling. Give it a try.
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I have found that the charity account is the only way to be sure that I’ve got the $ to give when donation time rolls around in Dec. I’ve maintained one for about 30 years now. In a life that’s had it’s fair share of failures, I’ve found that the regular giving that the charity account has made possible has been a small but comforting success.
Dan - this is a GREAT post and I am glad to see you encouraging charitable giving!
At present, I don’t have that much expendable income but what I have decided to do is to write about a humanitarian cause or social issue on my blog every week. The series is called ‘Humanitarian Friday.’
I think it would be great if we could get more bloggers to start giving something back…
Happy New Year,
Mark
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[...] how similar things happen at similar times. Not long ago I posted on the link between charity and wealth - in essence, how giving makes you [...]