Yahoo Finance How to Put Your Money to Good Use
One of the best things about nailing frugality is that it often leaves you with a surplus that you can do with as you please. As we approach Thanksgiving, lots of people start to think about ways to give back.
In fact, finding a way to give back is so popular that it has its own hashtag. First comes Black Friday, then Cyber Monday and finally Giving Tuesday. You can plaster your good deeds all over social media with the hashtag #GivingTuesday.
That being said, we're smart consumers here, so you want to make sure that any money you donate is actually being used to help the people you want it to help and not just adding to the pockets of the non-profit's CEO. One great strategy is to research any charities you're considering donating to on Charity Navigator.
Charity Navigator combines information on thousands of charities, including about their financial state to what they pay their CEO. They also break down how donations are divided between programs that help people and administrative costs.
By checking the site, you can avoid charities with low ratings and stick with the ones that come highly recommended. You can also check out the site's top ten list for more ideas.
One of the benefits to making a financial contribution to a charity, besides being the quickest way to help out, is that it counts as a tax deduction for qualified charities. Charity donation limits for tax deduction purposes are pretty high, too. They're capped at 50 percent of your adjusted gross income. Adjusted gross income is what you made minus personal exemptions and taxable deductions. So essentially, if you brought home $30,000 last year, you could donate up to $15,000 and still get tax deductions for it. However, once you donate more than 20 percent of your adjusted gross income, the amount of the donation that you can claim changes and gets very complicated.
If you're going that route, you probably want to talk with a tax professional. It seems like a safe bet that if you're able to donate more than 20 percent of your income to charity, you can also afford a tax accountant to figure out those exact numbers for you.
If your donation is more than $250, then you need to make sure you have documentation from the charity. A cancelled check or credit card statement is not enough. Most charities will send you a form with your contributions for the previous year during January.
If your financial surplus hasn't been that great this year, you can always volunteer your time (and if you've got small children that can volunteer with you, this can be an even more valuable experience than spending a dime).
As much as it looks like a 1990s TV sitcom setup, soup kitchens are very real and do need people to help serve meals. Habitat for Humanity is all over America and needs volunteers to help build its houses. You don't need any sort of carpentry background to assist; there are lots of jobs for people willing to just put in a few hours of work. Even a quick trip to donate blood with your teenagers can help put the spirit of thanks back into the holiday.
If you're still looking for ideas, here are some of Charity Navigator's highly rated charities that rely 100 percent on private donations: Midwest Food Bank, Books for Africa, India Development and Relief Fund, Asha for Education, Robin Hood Foundation, Acadia Center, Palestine Children's Relief Fund, Cure Alzheimer's Fund, Feed My Starving Children and FSH Society.
And if you're looking for a more traditional charity, or one with nearby branches where you can volunteer time, some very popular ones with great rankings include Direct Relief, United Nations Foundation, The Rotary Foundation of Rotary International, Compassion International and United States Fund for UNICEF.
With all of the hoopla and consumerism surrounding Black Friday and the month after Thanksgiving, it's more important than ever to stop and help others around you.
Mel Bondar blogs at brokeGIRLrich, where she explores topics including how not to totally panic over adulthood, working in the arts and retirement strategies that don't involve living in a cardboard box under an overpass.
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