Hit FI, Donate 100% of Salary

[ldtwbd]

I'm trying to justify working one more year after fitting my FI number.

I've been lurking for about 8 years but seldom post on the forum.   I hit my FI number earlier this year and I've been kicking around the idea of calling it quits in January after bonuses pay out.  Work really isn't that bad, but I'm bored and need something other than money to justify sitting at my desk all day.  I've got all sorts of things to keep me busy, but I woke up this morning and had an idea to justify one more year of sitting in a desk:  What would it look like to donate 100% of one's salary?  If you don't need the money to fund your lifestyle, what could you accomplish with your money? Here are some thoughts:

About me:
-Just turned 35.  I've got 2.3MM invested.  I just sold my house and everything to relocate to a part of the country I want to live in. I now rent a 1BR apartment. I have no debt whatsoever.
-I make $200k a year as an engineer. My wife was also an engineer and just quit her job to run a non-profit. She took a 50% paycut and has no regrets whatsoever. She makes about 70k now.
-Our budget is about $80k per year, and we could probably squeeze a bit.
-No kids, not planning on having kids.
-I'm bored as shit in my job, but it is easy and the company is great. I work from home with no complaints from my boss. The boss is also pretty hands off which is great. I could work another year and not totally hate it.
-I still have plenty of time on weekends to do things I like to do, but I want more time to pursue skills and things other than corporate work.

I'll start with a question to the reader:
What would you do if you were in my shoes and had $200k to donate every year? Would this opportunity convince you to work one more year just to throw money around and benefit your community?  Share your ideas on what you'd donate. Or would you just pull the plug? I was in the pull the plug camp until I had this idea.

Some benefits for me as a person wanting to step into retirement:
-Now that my nestegg is built, I need a reason to stare at a monitor all day.  I remember working in highschool to buy stupid things like car stereo crap.  It was silly, but also very tangible to go to work with a specific goal or thing to buy.  So far, the goal of FI has been the driver.  I no longer have that driver, so the new "thing to buy" could be funding a non profit to buy a piece of equipment or food for events.  For example I buy sporting equipment for a youth sports team, or something that is tied to something I'm passionate about.

-This is a good way to test FIRE (well I think it might be) -- My income has been a safety blanket for me.  I like the idea of testing out a life with zero income. Granted, I would still have the income, but it would be earmarked for charitable purposes.

-I'd still get to keep my employer benefits like health care.

-If I want to, I can still quit whenever I need.

-I want twice as much time off.  I've been afraid to ask for this, but I feel like if I honestly plan to give all the money away anywhere, this could serve as a confidence builder to go ahead and ask.

[Turtle]

Having the option to take that extra time off as unpaid is something you should maybe bring up in the discussion.

In other words, start off with asking for additional PTO, and then ask for unpaid sabbatical as follow up if they shoot down that idea.  Or a downshift to a 4 day a week schedule perhaps?

Does your company do any charitable match?  That might be another reason to stick around an extra year or so, in addition to padding the 401k / IRA a bit more.

[FreelanceToFreedom]

Cool idea, and good on you for considering it!

I think I'd go for it. If boredom is the main drawback of your job, I feel like sticking it out for another year (or less - as you said, you can quit whenever) would be worthwhile to be able to donate such a huge chunk of change.

I would say make the charitable giving as tangible as possible, in order to provide motivation. For instance you could sponsor scholarships at a local community college, find a small nonprofit that's aligned with your values and give their budget a huge boost, etc. Just something to remind you that each day you're going into work, you're working on behalf of that kid who can't afford college, or the endangered tree frog that needs X, or whatever you're into haha.

You could even think about starting your own foundation or nonprofit if you have a particular passion, and then transition into that as your new thing after finishing work.

Logistically, I would talk to a tax advisor about this. For instance it may make sense to spread the donations out over a few years to maximize tax breaks (and potentially qualify for ACA subsidies, etc.)

[catccc]

Logistically, I would talk to a tax advisor about this. For instance it may make sense to spread the donations out over a few years to maximize tax breaks (and potentially qualify for ACA subsidies, etc.)

Or if you continue to work and ACA subsidies aren't a concern, it may make sense to do it all at once.  If you are renting I'm guessing you do not itemize deductions.  MFJ standard deduction is around $24K, that's a high bar to reach for making itemized worth it.  Starting a donor advised fund (DAF) will allow you to take the deduction all at once and decide later how to invest.  In fact, your DAF can be invested and it'll be like a mini-stash that you can continually make donations from in the future depending on your withdrawal/donation rate, but you can get the tax break now.

[lhamo]

I FIREd several years ago so no longer have a salary to do this with (nor do I want to mess up my free time with working on somebody else's schedule, so I probably never will), but I do have a pot of money (inheritance and its considerable earnings) that I am keeping segregated for now that I will likely eventually put toward charitable giving. 

There are a few areas I hope to focus my efforts, both in terms of donated time (now) and, later, money:

1)  Food security and food chain/environmental resiliency

I have picked gardening and am doing a lot of volunteering with local groups in this area.  I fantasize about having a productive market garden or regenerative ag based farm, but at my age/physical condition that is probably not realistic.  If I can find the right property for my next home I might do something with it as a small non-profit or cooperative.  I may also invest in other small farms in my region, especially those that have some kind of charitable. educational or social service outreach.

2)  Housing

We have an affordable housing crisis here in the Seattle area, and I'd like to help try to solve it.  Not sure what form that will take, but likely will involve either donating to or investing in land trust efforts.  I have a friend who has a lot of experience in this area so need to pick her brain a bit.

3)  Education

I benefitted greatly from scholarships I received, especially the one that allowed me to attend an international school to finish high school.  I have been donating small amounts over time as a payback, but what I would really like to do is to endow at least one full scholarship.  That will probably be a gift through my estate, but if I have extra money after my kids are launched  I may do it earlier.

[frizzywhiskers]

This guy did the same thing.  Worked an additional year past FI for charity.  You might enjoy his blog.

https://mrfirestation.com/2015/02/21/work-one-more-year-as-a-gift-to-charity/

[swashbucklinstache]

Others on the forum have done this before I think, and may have threads or journals. @sol, @seattlecyclone  maybe?

https://forum.mrmoneymustache.com/journals/working-to-give/msg2917711/#msg2917711

I'm partial to the idea of DAF plus some just in cash to give away easier, and taking a few years to do it. I'm also in favor of considering still maxing out tax advantaged space and possibly covering expenses too and just donating the excess. Or, to go the other way, what about 100% of your income + a permanently sustainable WR from your stache, say up to 2.5%, since your spouse's income will cover most of your expenses?

For transparency I'm thinking of doing something like this, but more like OMY in order to quietly put away 100k of investments to fund a low earning sibling's retirement in 30 years, or at least add 16k per year to their social security payments + any inheritance. I'm likely to hold off donating too much until 10+ years after FIRE just out of an abundance of caution (fear).

[Watchmaker]

Check out the recent thread working to give (https://forum.mrmoneymustache.com/journals/working-to-give/msg2921449/#msg2921449) which is similar to what you are thinking about.

We are fired at our current spending, but we have a handful of stretch goals (including additional giving) that we're paying for with extra work. Next year we'll be donating at least 25% of of our earnings to our DAF. And if I keep working beyond that I expect to increase that to 50%.

Do you know where you'd donate the money?

[boarder42]

Others on the forum have done this before I think, and may have threads or journals. @sol, @seattlecyclone  maybe?

https://forum.mrmoneymustache.com/journals/working-to-give/msg2917711/#msg2917711

I'm partial to the idea of DAF plus some just in cash to give away easier, and taking a few years to do it. I'm also in favor of considering still maxing out tax advantaged space and possibly covering expenses too and just donating the excess. Or, to go the other way, what about 100% of your income + a permanently sustainable WR from your stache, say up to 2.5%, since your spouse's income will cover most of your expenses?

For transparency I'm thinking of doing something like this, but more like OMY in order to quietly put away 100k of investments to fund a low earning sibling's retirement in 30 years, or at least add 16k per year to their social security payments + any inheritance. I'm likely to hold off donating too much until 10+ years after FIRE just out of an abundance of caution (fear).

I agree with delaying the giving to have a more secure fire then give away alot more when you know you've got way too much.

[SwordGuy]

We delayed an extra year so we could purchase and renovate an architectural gem of a house -- otherwise it was highly likely to be demolished.   Didn't plan to live in it, just wanted to restore it, flip it, and not lose money doing it.

That extra year got old.  I won't lie.   That last 7 months were a real drag.

But I'm glad we did it.   It makes us happy every time we drive by that home and our city is the better for it.

Even better, before we put huge amounts of work into it we found buyers who wanted to restore it themselves, so we gave them sweetheart financing to make it affordable for them to do that while they had to maintain their old mortgage during the renovation.    So not only did we get the good karma for fixing the place up, we didn't even have to do most of the work. :)