If You Had Extra Money

After you use your paycheck to pay for shelter, food, clothing, outrageously priced health insurance premiums and tuck a little away for savings, what do you spend your money on? Necessities or extravagance? We all draw the line between the two in a different place.

Some people think extreme dog grooming is vitally important to their well-being. Many of us like to buy one little luxury each fashion season to feel a little more special. Nothing "green" about these $1,500 Christian Louboutin platform boots but they will attract attention at your favorite bar or club.

OR you could donate your extra income to your favorite non-profit. I just read a book called The Life You Save by Peter Singer. The author teaches ethics at Princeton University and makes the case in his book for donating money to help end extreme poverty for the 1.4 billion people on this planet whose basic needs of food, shelter, clean water, sanitation, education and access to a doctor are currently unmet.

Singer runs through various ethical questions about giving such as:

• Why don't we give more?
• How much does it cost to save a life?
• How can you tell which charities do it best?
• How much is enough?

I like the public standard Singer proposes at the end. The 5.10.5.10 standard from Fair Share International suggests:

• Giving 5% of your gross income to help those in extreme poverty
• Reducing your environmental impact 10%/year until you can't reduce it more
• Donating 5% of your time to improve your community
• Making 10 political actions/year (such as writing a letter to an elected representative)

Once the U.S. economy moves back on track, what do you think about this as a public standard? Share your thoughts here.