I have been spending a lot of time trying to get my attitude to poker straight. I have decided I will donate a portion of my winning poker money to charity through out my life as a poker player; I wanted to ask cardplayers a few questions about doing this to see what your thoughts are.

-Do you think it is common sense to first put yourself into a position were you are more than solid Financially, "don’t have to work" before evening thinking about this? I work full time earning £25k a year but do have debts.

-Do you think you should just start any time and make a one off payment monthly say 0.5% of your roll or more %

What is the most affective way as a winning player to maximize the money I donate is there any pound matching schemes in the UK?

Thanks.


Bud

They say you should donate regardless of how much you make. Reasoning being is that part of the human condition is you always want more money, and you never have enough. If you don't just do it then you may put it off for a time that never comes.

A percentage is a good way of deciding how much.

Matching donations are usually through a 3rd party so it will depend on what charity you pick.

my money to charity is in the form of income tax
if i was rich i would do a lot of good for the world with my money, but considering how much I pay in taxes, giving more away insuring I have to work longer doesnt seem like a good idea.

part of me thinks it terrible that we are almost in the first couple of generations of knowing how other humans live in appalling conditions yet we do basically nothing about it. but then part of me thinks given i will give the vast majority of (any) money i have when i die to charity, i figure ill hopefully be helping out a lot of people then. so till then, ill try and have fun, plus give a little along the way.

John,

Poor people were recognizable long before the last two generations, I don't really get your point.

Jimbo

my point is in the modern era of the tv and internet, we can now witness with our own eyes the horrid way of life in the third world. we can see and read about the attrocities happening, which we may fly over when we're going on holiday. we can now easily live off basic food rations, live in relative discomfort, so that those people could live far better lives by easily giving the majority of our earnings to charity by clicking some buttons on a charity's website. was this possible in the say 1908? (okay more than 2 generations but you get what im saying), or in 1808? or in 1708? or...etc etc...

im certain in 80 years time, or however long it takes, that when most of the third world do have the equivalent of the internet or televisions, and look back at how the rest of the world treated them in the late 1900s and early 2000s, that we all knew the horrible situation of the third world yet our society basically ignored them, they'll be pissed. they won't be able to do anything about it, but i wouldnt blame them if they tried their hardest to.

sorry mods as this is going non-bfi, but may help regarding charitible donations.

and all just imo!

john

I admire people who are poor/in debt and still give money to the less fortunate.

Personally, I did not give any real money to charities until I had paid off my student loans. I don't feel either terrible or great about it, that was just the decision I made, FWIW.

"im certain in 80 years time, or however long it takes, that when most of the third world do have the equivalent of the internet or televisions, and look back at how the rest of the world treated them in the late 1900s and early 2000s, that we all knew the horrible situation of the third world yet our society basically ignored them, they'll be pissed."

Seriously, is there something in your DNA that just makes you make terrible predictions about the future?

what is wrong with the prediction? timeframe i assume, it'll be way less. but do you really think when generations have been stuck out in the middle of nowhere in famine and disease, and then they find out there we were, seeing them on tv and the phone number scrolling along the bottom asking to donate to help them, and instead we dont, and also they see us driving around in cars, going out blowing money on booze and designer clothes, do you think they wont care? im sure there are many cases in history whereby people have been horribly treated and its taken ages for such attrocities to be realised. this is another attrocity, the fact we choose to do nothing. maybe our grandkids will say us 'so wait, you all knew that these guys were starving, couldnt even drink clean water, and you sat on your sofa watching another tv programme and did nothing about it??!?' and we'd all have to reply 'well....errr...yeah...it was how the view was back then....'

Self-interest is not an atrocity.

You could have stopped there John. Until someone else parts a Red Sea I doubt a worldwide uprising of poor people is going to be a problem.

Jimbo

our level of self-interest is obscene though. take me for example, i spent about $200 last saturday night getting drunk. for that, i could have given 4 people their sight back.
i'd hate to go blind, i think it would be terrible. yet for $50 i could relieve someone of this. but i dont, it's easy for me to carry on the way i am. i sometimes feel pretty terrible when i think about it. if i were that blind person, hoping to be able to see his friends and possibly parents (if they havent died yet of disease), and i found that some guy spent it on a few double vodka and cokes, heck, i'd be pretty damn pissed. the only way i ease myself is that i can say to myself, well if i look after my money and try and make a lot, when i die it'll be able to help a lot more people, than if i had spent it helping people 70 years ago (assuming i invest it well ).

the developed world cant carry on pissing off developing countries. we've seen what's happened already, and it'll only get worse as their ability to cause damage increases.

sorry mods and OP for this, just it's something i feel is really important yet our society basically completely ignores it.

google 'gift aid', as you earn £25k, youll be paying the 20% tax band, so every 80p you give as gift aid, the tax man pays 20p. though i dont know the ins and outs of it, so best to google or wikipedia it.

gl

john

Here's what I want do be able to do:

Set up or contact a scholarship fund with it's 501(c)(3) in place which will allow me to donate to them, itemizing the donation as a deduction, and then grant the funds towards my sister's college education.

Possible or way illegal?

Perspective isn't your strong suit, just remember that JK.