> This person appears to be spending half of their income on charitable donations every year, though, which is admirable but not a smart financial decision.
The number of people in the world without sufficient food, clean water, basic medical care, and other human necessities is far too high. As someone lucky enough to be paid as well as I am, if I didn't try to do something about this I don't think I could live with myself.
Donating 50% is clearly not the financial choice that will leave us with the most money, but that's not my main goal.
I would find it challenging to make the same decisions you made. To place 10x the amount you spend on childcare in charitable donations is certainly your prerogative, but will your children feel similarly? How much have you saved to make sure they can go to college without debt? Perhaps start a business someday? How much of your charitable donation goes to direct aid of the end recipient, and how much is skimmed off the top in administrative overhead? Is the end organization subsidizing a wealthy individual minimizing tax exposure?
I don't think we're neglecting our children at all. They have good childcare, plenty of time with their parents, and everything they need. I don't expect they will resent our choices here.
> How much have you saved to make sure they can go to college without debt?
Saving for college doesn't make much sense: the good schools have a price discrimination policy where the amount they charge is the amount you can pay. If you're not rich enough to pay the sticker price, each dollar you save is a dollar more you'll need to pay to the school.
> Perhaps start a business someday?
If they have good ideas they'll be able to convince people to fund them. Capital is far more accessible than it ever has been. I'm not worried.
> How much of your charitable donation goes to direct aid of the end recipient, and how much is skimmed off the top in administrative overhead?
It sounds like what you're getting at is, what are the actual effects of our donations? The majority of our donations have been to GiveWell's top charities (https://www.givewell.org/) and their recommendations are extremely well researched, and the money goes a long way (ex: https://www.givewell.org/charities/amf).
As an aside, the fraction of the donations that go to overhead vs directly to the recipient isn't a good way to measure the effectiveness of a charity. For example, imagine two charities:
A) Spends 95% of your money building wells, and 5% on administration.
B) Spends 80% of your money building wells, and 20% on administration.
Sounds like A is better, right? Except if B is using that administration spending on making sure they build wells out of materials that will stand up to heavy use over years, in places where the wells are most needed, and on checking up on past wells to make sure they're still in working order, a donation to B could easily result in far more benefit than a donation to A.
> Is the end organization subsidizing a wealthy individual minimizing tax exposure?
I'm not sure why you would think this, or what sort of mechanism you're imagining. The charity we've donated the most to, the Against Malaria Foundation, distributes long-lasting insecticide-treated bednets in areas with high levels of malaria.
The number of people in the world without sufficient food, clean water, basic medical care, and other human necessities is far too high. As someone lucky enough to be paid as well as I am, if I didn't try to do something about this I don't think I could live with myself.
Donating 50% is clearly not the financial choice that will leave us with the most money, but that's not my main goal.
Here's what our spending looks like: https://www.jefftk.com/p/spending-update-2018