Deep Dive
Shownotes Transcript
- I say it all the time, ravioli is just wet Pop-Tart soup. But this video is not about moist pastries. It's about this phrase you may have heard me say, "The most fun you can have with money is by giving it away." And I believe that with all of my little emo skateboarder heart. But here's an interesting question. If you're giving away money all the time, what does that do to your finances? Does it mean you have less money? Or is it possible that giving actually helps you become wealthy?
Not a chance. On today's video, we'll talk about the surprising connection between generosity and wealth and the science-backed benefits of being a giver. But before we jump in, I've got a great way for you to start being a giver, and that's by giving those like and subscribe buttons a little old tippity-tap. And share this video with someone who likes wet Pop-Tart soup to encourage them to be better.
Why are you the way that you are? Okay, so this goes without saying, but I'll say it anyway. You should be giving with pure motives, not expecting anything in return. But here's the deal. To be fair, there are some benefits that go along with being generous. For example, generosity is good for your brain. A study from Stony Brook University found that when you're generous, your brain releases happiness chemicals like dopamine and oxytocin. So it is scientifically better to give than
than to receive. It's science. Another benefit, generosity may help you live longer. Do givers outlive the greedy? One could make the case. Research shows that generosity lowers stress levels, which is a big deal since stress is a huge risk factor for chronic diseases and heart attacks.
And a study from Carnegie Mellon found that people who volunteer around four hours per week are 40% less likely to develop high blood pressure than those who don't volunteer. So ask your doctor if volunteering is right for you. Possible side effects include random acts of kindness, happy tears, and swelling of the heart, but in a good way. And by the way, generosity also benefits those around you. I mean, just think about all the stingy people you know. The Grinch, Mr. Krabs, Mr. Burns, Scrooge, both Ebenezer and McDuck. Not so fun to be around. Ain't nobody trying to hit up happy hour with Mr. Krabs.
Now, think about all the generous people you know. Not cartoons, but real people. They're incredibly fun to be around. Generous people are open-handed with their money, their time, their talents, and their words. And we want to be around them. It's attractive. So clearly, there are plenty of benefits to being generous, both to the giver and the receiver. But does giving money away actually help you financially? Well, someone asked this question recently in the Ramsey Baby Steps Millionaires Facebook group, which is a place where people following the Ramsey plan can share their wins, ask questions, and be a part of the
and encourage each other on the path to building wealth. And here's the question Charlene posted. Hey, millionaires, asking for a friend. Why would giving and being generous help you to become wealthy? Great question, Charlene. I mean, Charlene's friend.
I'm onto you, friend. Let's take a look at how people answered the question. Chris said, it doesn't. It gives your wealth purpose. Okay, this is an interesting take. All right, I like the part about your wealth having purpose, but I actually disagree with Chris that it doesn't help you build wealth. And we'll get to that strange connection in just a bit.
The spirit, though, I love. Thank you, Chris. Next up, Derek said this. Number one, it's like a magnet for good people in your life. When you're generous, people are generous to you in return. The golden rule. Number two, it takes planning. Generosity is very intentional, part of a written budget. It doesn't just happen on a whim. And the same planning it takes to be able to give generously also helps with investing regularly and is a huge motivation for investing for some folks.
Those are the two big ones to me. Love this. So the planning intentionality it takes to give can also help when it comes to investing. And the investing can enable more giving. It's like an endless, beautiful cycle. I love it. Oh, yeah.
It's all coming together. Next comment is from Micah, who said, I like this take, Micah. It's not all about money. When we talk about wealth and giving and generosity, it doesn't always have to be about money. It often is, and money can be a great tool to help others, but...
When you look at wealth and what it really means and what generosity means, it's about a posture, a posture of openness toward others, about being others-focused instead of self-centered. And that's one of my favorite parts, and it's a great reminder. Next comment is from Holly, who said, "'It shifts you from a scarcity to abundance. "'It also is an energetic exchange telling the universe "'I know there is more on its way.'"
And if we are all one, you are literally giving to yourself. It also feels so good and lets you know your problems just might not be that big of a deal. Okay, Holly, love the energy here. Aura points off the charts. But I personally wouldn't call this a cosmic energy exchange. I think that's what happened when the Death Star blew up. Don't want to do that again. But I like the scarcity to abundance piece.
And yes, it shifts your focus from yourself and your own problems to others. And that can help give you some perspective and gratitude for what you do have and how incredibly blessed you are. And guess what? The more content you are, the harder you're going to work. The less you're going to be complaining, the less you're going to be inward focused, going, woe is me. And the more you're going to be looking to serve others out there in the marketplace and in your community. Next comment is from Marcuse, who said, honestly, it helps shift your mindset to optimistic and proactive.
You have to give your hard-earned money to someone outside of yourself. By becoming optimistic and proactive and choosing who gets your charity, you are engaging in a spiral of upward positive energy. Countless examples of how positivity affects our life for the better exist. God bless you and us all on our journey. Just beautiful. May we all strive to be optimistic and proactive.
And I think there's a thread here already. Generous people, they're proactive, they have an abundance mentality, and they're optimistic. So if you're pessimistic and you're waiting for someone else to fix your life, and you have a real negative attitude toward the world and a real tight-fisted approach to life, you're not gonna have wealth, success, joy, or generosity in your life. Next up, Nancy said, "We are blessed so that we can be a blessing to others. Everything we have
comes from him. Love this, Nancy. And as a Christian, I do believe that everything I have belongs to God. And I'm just a temporary steward of those resources while I'm here on God's green earth. And here's what a steward is. It's not an owner, but it's more like a manager, someone who takes care of someone else's things. And having that perspective completely changed the way I view money because it caused me to be way more thoughtful in how I spend it, how I invest it, and how I give it. Be
because it's not all about me. And I love this verse from the book of Proverbs. A generous person will prosper. Whoever refreshes others will be refreshed. So back to our question, does giving money away actually help you financially? Well, all things considered, I'd say the answer is yes. Now, some of you are probably thinking, yeah, well, that's just a bunch of random people in a Facebook group. And to that, I say, hang on, Mr. Smarty Pants, because you're about to hear what a Harvard professor has to say about this.
But before we get to that, I want to tell you about something else that could benefit you financially, and that's switching to Tello, one of the sponsors of today's episode. They're a mobile service provider designed to save you money, and they've got crazy affordable plans with the same high-speed nationwide coverage you thought you could only get from the big guys. Their plans start as low as $5 and go all the way up to $25 a month for their unlimited everything plan.
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with Delete Me. And right now you can get 20% off any of their plans by going to joindeleteme.com/george or click the link in the description below. All right, back to giving. I recently had Harvard professor, social scientist and happiness expert, Arthur Brooks on this channel. And here's what he told me about giving money away.
One of the things that I've shown in my research going way back, this goes back 25 years in my research, is that the more you give to charity, the richer you get. And what do you find? Yeah, yeah. You find that in subsequent years when you give a dollar to charity, on average, there's about $1.60 that comes back to you in subsequent years. Now,
I was thinking when I first saw this, "Gotta be the hand of God. Nah, it doesn't make sense." I didn't believe it, actually. I thought there was something wrong with my data. And then I was working with this psychologist, I'm an economist, I was working with a psychologist. He says, "No, we've been seeing this for years and years. People who give more money away, they get richer. And they make way more money back than that which they give away."
Is this, you know, the wheels of, you know, cosmic... This isn't like a karma thing, like you give what you get. It's not one of those. What happens is when you give money away, you become a problem solver and your mind changes. You become a more effective person. People who solve problems and give their money away are people who feel more effective and they earn more money. Did you catch that? When you give a dollar, on average, about $160 comes back to you in subsequent years. So that's the science-y way to look at this.
But there's a more philosophical way to look at it that is just beautiful, and I think it really hammers home the point. Check out this analogy Dave Ramsey recently shared on Theo Vaughn's show. There's a lot of fear around generosity sometimes, you know, about like I have to have made this, I have to keep it all for me. I met this guy who's an Orthodox Jewish rabbi, and we've become good friends, Rabbi Daniel Lappin. He wrote a book called Thou Shall Prosper, and he said the problem is when you have that fear is you think money is like cake.
Like if I get a slice away, I got less cake. Money's not like cake. Money's like candles. When you light it, you still got your candle. When you light another one, you still got your candle. You light another one, you still got your candle. That's how money works. Money will grow around you when you're doing the right stuff that you're supposed to be doing. That's why it's a beautiful picture. Told you that that's beautiful. So I hope I've convinced you that giving is worth your time and your money. But how do you actually do it? Because it takes money to give money.
Wait, really? Well, you need a little thing called margin. You need money left over after all of your bills are covered in order to help cover someone else's bills. And that's what this channel is about, creating financial margin so that you can live your best life. And I believe your best life always includes plenty of generosity. And yes, giving is not always monetary. You can be generous with your time, talent, and other resources. But having financial margin allows you to be more generous with your money and your time.
So if you haven't already, make an intentional spending plan, aka a budget, so you can create that margin and incorporate even more generosity into your life. And the app that I use to do this is called EveryDollar. And in my EveryDollar budget, I have a giving section. And in that giving section, there's a line item that says, bless up. And here's what this is. It's spontaneous generosity. I'm intentionally pre-deciding to impulsively give in the future whenever I see an opportunity.
It's an awesome app and it's gonna help you create the margin and give with intentionality. So if you wanna check out the app for free, go to everydollar.com/george or click the link in the description. And if I piqued your interest with that clip, check out my full interview with happiness expert, Arthur Brooks, where he shares the one thing you might be doing with your money that doesn't lead to happiness. I'll also drop a link in the description below. As always, don't forget to like, subscribe and share this video with Charlene's friend. Thanks for watching. We'll see you next time.