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Dan Slagle  00:00

Okay, we've identified some some blockers into making charitable contributions. Or, as you also said, it excuses. Like, as we talk about it, like, there's just like this guilt I feel like that that comes along with it. Are you

Natalie Slagle  00:14

feeling that too? Absolutely feel a guilt of not giving away more of our wealth. I am a firm believer that giving away your money, you know, not all of it, but giving away a lot amount, will actually feel like you have more

Natalie Slagle  00:35

Welcome to Money Dates, the podcast that makes money, conversations with your partner feel a little less taboo. I'm Natalie Slagle, a certified financial planner, and I'm joined by my husband and business partner, Dan Slagle, also a Certified Financial Planner. Say Hi, Dan, hello. In each episode, we'll share honest stories and practical tips to help you and your partner feel more connected and confident on your financial journey. So grab your drink, get comfortable and join us for our money. Dates. Hey, Natalie, Hi, Dan, how are you? Oh, good. It is sweater weather. Thought I would celebrate by wearing a sweater

Dan Slagle  01:16

as the viewers can see, those listening on audio cannot see the amazing sweater that you're wearing right now?

Natalie Slagle  01:24

It's very chunky. It's essentially a blanket that they morphed into a sweater because it's, well, earlier I didn't have my arms in it because I was warm when I walked inside after walking my daughter to school, and so I, like, kind of had it over me, and you thought it was a scarf. So this is a sweater that can be many of things.

Dan Slagle  01:45

Well, to be fair, I was sitting on your side. We were in a meeting together. I was right by your side, and I didn't look or I couldn't see your arms, or I could see your arms, but I couldn't see the sleeves of your sweater, and it was up around your neck, and I was just like, that is a really big scarf. That's interesting. I, like, grabbed it and I pulled at it, and then, like, during the meeting, you put the sweater back on. I was like, I had no idea you were wearing a sweater. Oh, funny. Well, let's jump into today's topic giving. I want to talk about giving because it's that time of year, especially when we hear from our clients that they're inclined to make charitable gifts before the end of the year. Obviously, with it being the holidays, that's something that's top of mind for for a lot of people. And I want to first hit on you know, why we feel like high earners like struggle to give, and maybe provide some context into how we can at least start right like going back to that, that thought of what are some micro steps that we can make today or this year to help incorporate this going forward in our life, if that is what we choose to do when it comes to charitable giving,

Natalie Slagle  02:57

yeah, it's really fun from our seat, because we Get to strategize with our clients on how we want to approach this, and we'll talk about the tax side of things, because, you know, I always like getting into that. To your point, the first thing we need to do, though, is get started, and I to be very transparent to those listening. I feel like our I know, I know our income is very solid. I don't believe our amount, Dan and Natalie's amount of charitable donations match an amount that I feel proud of in comparison to our income.

Dan Slagle  03:37

And there's reasons for that, right? Like, why? Why why we view it like it's so hard to donate, even, like a couple that makes 300,000 which we've had a whole episode on that right and, and I think the first bullet point of like, why we personally feel like it's hard to donate, is like, there, there can be sometimes a little bit of, let's call it lifestyle creep. We can call it scarcity mindset, like, and how they coexist together. So even if you're a high earning couple, like, it can just feel tight, right? Because there are fixed costs. We talked about this, I think it was in our last episode, yeah, when we shared, like, when in depth of our finances, remember that conversation, and you were like, our fixed expenses are, I think you said $8,000 and I'm like, I hold, held the phone. Bs, like, no way. And then we met immediately after we left the podcast room. I'm like, Oh, that is true, right? So, like, the fixed costs have started to really scale up. It's consuming a lot of our monthly cash flow. When we talk about fixed expenses, we're talking about a mortgage or rent. For us, the big one now is childcare, tax payments, whatever it may be like, it just feels tight. Even if you make a lot of money, there are ways like it can still feel tight, and you don't necessarily want to be giving away cash flow when it's like, I feel like you can barely go to the grocery store. You. And afford it, right? So I think, I think that's something that's important to mention.

Natalie Slagle  05:03

Yeah, yeah, absolutely. So the making 300,000 or more feels like an amount that you should be able to give a good amount of money. And we'll talk about, well, what is a good amount of what is an amount that is good? And we can talk about some of those parameters, the lifestyle creep, though, because as a couple who gets to that $300,000 mark or more, what's also happening, and to your point, is the added expenses of life as well, whether it's children or buying a new home at today's interest rates like those, are also increasing, and then I feel like we're gonna go through the list of excuses. That's kind of what it feels like, to be honest, because there's also this like you and I just chatted yesterday about how much kind of surplus we should have left over at the end of the year, and we mapped out everywhere it will go. One of the things that didn't go to was charity. And I feel like there's this kind of lack of, maybe it's like not the first thing I think of, or I don't have full control of that aspect, whereas having control over our Christmas budget, I don't know there's just this like it's not like coming to mind, and it's not feeling so in control, which make it hard to donate.

Dan Slagle  06:27

It's not even like what we're talking about specifically today is our donations, like financial donations, right? We're not even talking about our time, right? So there are ways to give outside of your finances. This episode is specifically talking about the money in the context of why it's why it is hard sometimes to donate. Why else do you feel like it's it's hard to donate for a couple that maybe is making, like, $300,000 outside of lifestyle, call it lifestyle creep and scarcity mindset.

Natalie Slagle  06:58

You hear about other people making donations, and even, I mean, I we just worked on someone who took $60,000 from their brokerage account and put it in their donor advised fund. Now those are big words, and I'm happy to explain those in a little bit, but essentially, they made a $60,000 donation. And so you hear these massive donation amounts, and you're like, Well, what? What does $100 a month really do for an organization? And that's that is a poor mindset, right? But it can be a mindset of like, well, is $20 a month really worth? Me going through the rigmarole of setting it up, and speaking of setup, I think some folks can feel like they're doing it wrong. So for instance, you know, like I was just talking about when we did the $60,000 contribution to the donor advised fund. We use highly appreciated securities, and we transferred the highly appreciated securities to the donor advised fund, so the liquidation happens there and not in the brokerage account. Lots of tax reasons and strategies. We went about it that way, and it makes sense to be very strategic and tax minded when you're dealing with 1000s and 1000s of dollars, right? And so all of these tactics and things to be aware of can kind of just put someone in this spot of like, analysis paralysis, and then just not make a decision because they don't feel like they're doing it in the most strategic way possible.

Dan Slagle  08:29

Yeah, and like you're saying, a fear of doing it wrong. So thinking about, not only like, how do I go about it if it is a little more complex, like you're talking about with the donor advised fund. But even, like, if we just scale it back and it's just as simple as cutting a check or going to the website, right? Like, I think that the fear of doing it wrong is also like, am I donating? Is this the right charity that I want to be donating? Yeah, right. Like, if you're a couple that maybe isn't as not, I don't know if I want to use passionate here. You know, there are some clients that we work with that are that are like, No, I'm giving to these three causes throughout the course of the year, because I truly believe in them, right? And sometimes that may be a missing link into, are they going to be using my finances? How I would, I would hope, right, like, in better understanding what you know if you sign up or donate to a charity, oftentimes you can get a better understanding of, like, how are my funds likely going to be used or allocated, right? Like, whether it's like, operational costs or serving out the mission, whatever it may be. I think a lot of times one of the blockers is like, how do I identify or, like, how do I make sure this is the right charity that I do want to support?

Natalie Slagle  09:46

Yeah, and that can be such a exploration, which is why, going back to the donor advised fund, one of the perks of that is you can get the tax benefit in the year that you make the contribution to. You don't actually have to give the funds away in that year. So when this podcast comes out, we're going to be towards the end of the year. And so instead of letting that you know now, I want to kind of pick apart all of these reasons, right? Like, let's go through them. But one of the things, if choosing the actual recipient is a blocker here, well, let's remove that and say, well, we don't have to make that decision just yet. You know, it's the end of the year. If we're trying to do this for financial and strategic reasons, let's just get the money in the donor advised fund, and then we can decide who to give it to. We can give ourselves plenty of time to do the research and all of that.

Dan Slagle  10:39

Yeah, and we'll talk about, we'll break down the donor advised fund here in a little bit, thinking about, Okay, we've identified some some blockers into making charitable contributions. Or, as you also said, it excuses. Like, as we talk about it, like, there's just like this guilt I feel like that that comes along with it.

Natalie Slagle  10:59

Are you feeling that too? Absolutely feel a guilt of not giving away more of our wealth. I am a firm believer that giving away your money, you know, not all of it, but giving away a lot amount, will actually feel like you have more. And I think if you hoard money, just like when you hoard things, you actually feel like you have less. So there's this, and I don't have any science or anything, but I just from what I witness and from what I've seen and experienced in life, those who give just they seem to be fulfilled in various various aspects. And I will say we have a handful of clients who are faith based in various facets. And one commonality, and regardless of what religion or spiritual beliefs they have, is that I see a much higher percentage of their wealth or of their income going towards organizations, you know, nonprofit churches, whatever it may be. And there's something about this underlying, I don't know, just belief that if you're faith based, or there's something there, that I'm so intrigued by and in awe of as someone who's who's not faith based, but I have so much respect for those who will talk about cash flow, and I'll see this huge line item, and it's their giving, and they're just like, oh, that's a non negotiable. Like, that's the same as looking at Rent and saying, Oh, you got to spend less on rent. Well, at some point it's just this is as little as it'll go. And that's kind of the conversation. The type of conversation I have with some of our clients is, oh, we're we're not giving any less like that. That's the amount, and it's just okay moving on. It's, I'm just in awe of those people, and I aspire to be like that,

Dan Slagle  12:52

two things. So going back to what you were talking about before, like the percentage of monthly income that's being contributed to a charity, and that's non negotiable, like I think about charitable giving, and in the same light of when we have clients that give money to like the next generation, while they're living or even making charitable donations later in life, because we've mapped out the financial plan, mapped out longer term projections, and solve for here's how much you can give, whether it be to children, grandchildren, to organizations. The thing that stands out to me with those conversations that is that is missing here and what we've talked about is the idea, when we help clients, frame it as Do you want to see more of the wealth that you're likely to pass on enjoyed while you're living or do you want like you're the next generation to receive your legacy when you're no longer here? Right? So like mapping out longer term projections, even for clients in their 30s and 40s, is helpful, because we can solve for how much should you give? Not how much should you give, but how much are you able to give? If that is a path you want to go down, right, and it's the idea of experiencing that joy, of seeing your contributions go to work, whether it be for religious organization, whether it be for a nonprofit that you support, that maybe you serve on a board for, and you can actually see the things that are being implemented or done with the funds that you're donating, right?

Natalie Slagle  14:29

And then having the assurance that all the other aspects of your financial plan are set up, they're doing what it needs to be doing, and you can afford to do that. You're talking about

Dan Slagle  14:39

clients tithing, right? Like I think that's what stands out. Where it's traditional, I believe give 10% of your income, and we do have a few clients that do that, and it is admirable, because you look at the line items, you look at how it impacts cash flow, and again, it's a non negotiable. So to me. Tithing, 10% is on the upper end of what we see. We do have a lot of clients who make monthly contributions. If you could help the listeners, like, think about, how much should you donate? Or, like, what are some frameworks that we could offer to lend some support

Natalie Slagle  15:15

the tithing is. The reason why that framework works is because it's easy 10% and so I really do appreciate the percentage approach, because it will grow with you. It'll also reduce with you, because we've had our clients who tithe, who've gone through income reductions, and so it was easy for them to say, okay, my tithing amount is now lower because our income is lower as well. So the percentage approach, to me feels like a very easy way to just get into it and start, you know, just depending on where you're at now, whether it's zero or whether you're just doing $1,000 a year of these random things, I think looking at, you know, we're at the end of the year. What was your income for 2025 could you depart from 1% of your income, you know, just look at 1% of your income and say, how would that be mapped out in 2026 so I really, really like the percentage approach.

Dan Slagle  16:18

Yeah, I think that's a easy place to start, right? So if you're a couple making 300,000 the idea around starting with 1% is, is 3000 check my math is that correct? Okay, okay, great. So that that's a place you could definitely start. We've had other clients choose a different route, more of like a like a fixed number approach. I don't know better way to describe it, but it's like choosing an annual gift goal, and it doesn't again have to be just for one organization. It can be spread across many organizations, but they but clients often may have like a fixed number in mind, right? So that could be 510, $25,000, you name it, whatever you decide. I think that's another easy way to think about, how much should we give of our wealth, right?

Natalie Slagle  17:08

Right? And the other is just paying attention to the organizations that mean a lot to you, and picking an amount that feels good or they could be having a campaign going on. This is happening with one of our clients right now. They are pledging $10,000 a year for the next three years because of this very specific campaign of an organization that they're going to support. And so I whatever amount works really well for you. I personally, I like the percentage approach. It just feels easy, and I think it would be an approach that would work well for our household.

Dan Slagle  17:47

Dan, yeah, something maybe we'll talk about after this episode in private, not on episode of money dates. Okay, so we've, what? Okay, yeah, yeah, we've, so we've identified, identified some blockers right into, why? Maybe we, personally and others, don't donate towards charitable causes. We've also identified approaches to donating in terms of thinking about $1 amount, percentage amount. Let's get to the mechanics Right. Like after you've thought about it, you talk about about it with your partner, you identify. Are we facing some of these blockers, if so, overcome them, we've now decided on how much we want to do. Like, let's start talking about some like, of the technical side. Like, what are your options for donating?

Natalie Slagle  18:32

Well, option number one, as I'm sure everyone is familiar with, is just donating cash. It's clean, it's simple, just putting your credit card or your debit card and having them run the transaction. So that is like, just go do that. That's easy, right? That's, yeah, that's a really, really nice way to do it, especially if you're just getting started, especially if you're just getting started, don't just again. Don't let all the decisions prevent you from making a decision. The next thing to review and to consider for donations are appreciated stock. This is our client base. This is a really fitting avenue for donations, and so we can either directly transfer appreciated stock from our brokerage account to essentially the charities brokerage account. So most charities will have a custodian that they accept highly appreciated stock. And again, what you're doing is, if you have a stock that's worth $100 per share today, and you bought it at $10 per share, that's a $90,090 gain per share, you're transferring the $100 value, and you'll get the donation for the market value of the transfer $100 and you never realize the capital gains. And then when the charity accepts the money, obviously they don't pay the capital gains either. So it's a really nice way to give quite a bit and to avoid any. Future tax bomb. So another thing to consider with the appreciated stock, like what we're doing for one of our clients is they were planning to use their cash balances for these donations that they wanted to have this year. But when we looked at their brokerage account, we were like, well, what you could do is actually take your cash and invest it, and then we're going to take your highly appreciated stock and donate that, because the cash that's getting invested into the stock, well now we're resetting the basis, so we're making your base, your cost basis, be higher. Eventually you would have had to realize these gains. So as you can see, it can get kind of complicated fast. So it's good to review this, but the appreciated stock is a really great avenue to donate. And another item to think about is your required minimum distribution. So this is for our older audience. If you have required minimum distributions, which we have handful of clients with, those, you can do what's called qualified charitable distributions, where you have to take money out of your IRA, and instead of that money going to you, it goes to the charity, and you reduce ordinary income that's happening that would have happened on your tax return. So fun things.

Dan Slagle  21:14

Can I just put a disclaimer out there for anyone who's thinking about doing either of these items, if you're working with professionals, and I say this because maybe I'm traumatized from previous careers, make sure you do this in a timely manner, right? You don't want to be bombarding your financial professional or even investment custodian if you don't in the last week of December to be getting these things done, because they are time sensitive, right? So if this is truly something that you want to explore for 2025, and in future years, get a head start on it while, while you can and don't wait until the last minute to get this done, right?

Natalie Slagle  21:55

Because it takes you have to sign paperwork. There's analysis. If you're a client of ours, give us a call if you want to look at this. If you're not a client and need a professional, give us a call ASAP, because there's a lot of steps to get onboarded and to conduct some of these strategies. So we talked about options for donating cash, appreciated stock, required minimum distributions. There's also time, right? You know, obviously that doesn't hit so much on the financial aspect of things, although time is money, right? So that's a really important piece here, too. And I think the time aspect is really just getting, like, going to the charities, going to these organizations, and really seeing what they do, helping out what they do that just feels so fulfilling. Yeah. And lastly, in this bucket, donor advised funds. So you talked about donor advised funds earlier. I think it would be amazing if you could break that down for our audience. Yeah. So a donor advised fund acts. It is a separate account. So for our clients, they custody at Schwab. And so we create a Charles Schwab donor advised fund for our clients. And what we do is we could take cash or highly appreciated securities. Almost most of the time we're taking the highly appreciated securities and we are transferring them to the donor advised fund. Once they are there, we will then liquidate, and they can either continue to be invested if you want your charitable bucket to grow and grow, or we can take distribution. So for for some clients, it really makes sense to establish a donor advised fund in a highly, high income year, because we want to offset income. It just ranges on what amount that could be. And so let's say it's an amount greater than what you want to contribute into in a year. Then you would keep the funds in the donor advised fund, and then you can invest it. And the purpose of that is so that you know it's the gift that keeps on giving you. You can see your dollars grow on behalf of these charities that you're one day going to make donations to. And there's a lot more to it than that, but I don't want to get too complicated here. What else do you think is worth mentioning? Dan with the donor advised funds,

Dan Slagle  24:21

I think it's a great avenue to explore for for people at a at a certain point, I think where we see it most beneficial for our clients are, you know, tech professionals with equity compensation, with highly appreciated stock could be entrepreneurs with larger liquidity events and just even couples like unsure where They want to give, but know that they want to eventually that may benefit from a deduction now, as opposed to later. What I like about the donor advice from from from my side, is it does give you more flexibility in terms of controlling the gift when you want it to happen. So even if you don't have a charity in mind right now. So it's not to say you're not going to have some cause that you want to contribute to two years from now, five years from now, 10 years from now, whatever it may be. So it just really reduces that pressure to make a decision in a specific year if you are unsure about where you want your dollars to go,

Natalie Slagle  25:17

yes, absolutely. Earlier this year, I went to a presentation from a woman that helps families create donor advised funds. And one thing she recommended is that, if you're a family like ours, Dan, make you have good income, and maybe you have some kiddos, create a donor advised fund. And even if it's not a lot, just start putting money into it, and then as a family, pull up the account, review how much is in there. And then as a family, this time of year, around the holidays, decide where you want that money to go to. And so you might not be donating to the donor or creating the donor advised fund because you have this high, high income year, or this liquidity event, or something like that, you're more so doing it, creating intention in your household that you want your family, you want your children to see that you give away some of your wealth, and then as a family, you all decide, Okay, where is this going? The donation has been made to our family. Donor Advised Fund. But now where are the funds actually going to end up? And I thought that exercise was just so beautiful, like, I look forward to doing that with our daughter someday.

Dan Slagle  26:31

Wasn't the idea that each year, like someone in the family gets to choose where the dollars go, or, like, I forgot how that story went. Was that it? Or like everyone in the family had a say in, like you have to vote on.

Natalie Slagle  26:43

I think it could be however, however you want. Like it could rotate, okay, now it's Dan's year to pick. Or, to your point, like everyone puts forth a charity, and then it's just a voting thing. I guess maybe it depends. How many do you have? An odd number of family members? Do you have an even? You know it's but there's so to your point. There's so many ways to slice and dice it, and it can create, like a fun event, a fun family event, and just making sure that we're keeping Top of Mind The sole purpose and meaning behind the holiday season.

Speaker 1  27:17

Yeah, let's talk lastly, about tax benefits

Dan Slagle  27:23

of giving. Since you are the tax self proclaimed tax QUEEN, and i also proclaim you the tax I was gonna say that's not just talk to me. Talk to me about some of the tax benefits that you see with charitable

Natalie Slagle  27:35

contributions, with charitable contributions, if you itemize your deductions, and I'm just going to stay in the federal camp, because all all those states out there, they have different things going on, but in the federal side, on your when you file your federal taxes, if you itemize your deductions, you'll likely be able to deduct most of your charitable contributions. The reason why I'm saying you'll likely be able to is because it's subject to your AGI based on a percentage limit, so around like 50, 60% if you're doing cash gifts. So it's usually because that limit is actually pretty high. We don't see a lot of our clients reaching that. So that's why I say most of the time you'll be able to deduct all of your charitable contributions, if you are itemizing your deductions. Now, a lot of clients and friends and family, they don't even know. They're like, I don't know if I'm taking the standard or itemized, because my accountant always asks for it. Like, yeah, well, your accountant's always asking for the itemized deductions, the things that go on that list, because they just want to make sure. Can you do the standard or the itemized but for 2025 as we've already seen and started map out for our clients, Dan, a lot of folks were taking the standard deduction they did in 2024 and they're going to switch in 2025 because of that salt deduction, state and local taxes going up. We've talked about this in previous podcasts, but because that went up, it's going to open the door to itemize, which means all of our clients are now going to be tracking down all these charitable contributions they've made, right? And so the if you itemize, which a lot of listeners, you know, the kind of the folks who are at the 300,000 plus, who have a home, things like that, live in a high income state tax, high income tax state, you're going to be itemizing in 2025 very likely. And so that is where you're going to see the deduction for your charitable contributions. Yeah. And even if

Dan Slagle  29:37

you're not itemizing, right, like, I think you can still take up to 2000 of charitable deduction to under federal return, right? That's starting in 2026 in 2026 Okay, so we're talking about 2025 so save that for a later year.

Natalie Slagle  29:52

So in 2025 but the big change that's happening is a lot of folks are going to itemize, so they will get the charitable deduction. And if they're itemizing and subject to those limitations, in 2026 there's all these funky new rules. There's going to be a floor that you have to hit. So if you're making 300,000 the first half a percent of charitable contributions, you cannot deduct. So that's $1,500 of donations that you will not be able to count on your itemized deduction list. But the weird thing is, is that, to your point, Dan, if you're not itemizing, you're just taking the standard deduction in 2026 you get up to $2,000 as married filing jointly. So 2025 2026 is a really interesting they're two different years on what's going to happen from the charitable deduction standpoint, of course, that's my tax self, kind of explaining all of this. Donate because you want to donate, because you want to see your wealth spread really well across the world, and then leave the analysis and decisions to professionals to help you navigate how to be strategic with that.

Dan Slagle  31:03

Let's say I'm having trouble with giving and it's something I want to do, and maybe this is real life, maybe not. How do I convince myself? Like, if you were to give me some advice, not financial advice, listen to the disclaimers after the podcast. How would you provide advice for me to convince myself that I can part with this money, like my income going to another source or another cause, like, if I'm struggling with that, how can I better, like, deal with or understand the impact, or how I again, I can part ways with it?

Natalie Slagle  31:44

Yeah, I think making it again, going back to those who tithe, it's just a part of their financial makeup, right? I think about how when we go grocery shopping, we look for the healthy options. We always try to buy organic produce. I know it's more expensive. I know it is costing us, but it's a part of our values as a family, to eat really well and to take care of our bodies. And so instead of it being this mindset of like parting ways with this money, we have to flip the mindset to be this is a part of how our family reflects their values, the choices we make as a family is that we support those in need. This is it's not an expense. We're not losing the money. It's it's just a way of of living. It's a it's a way that we operate our financial household and start small, even just pick everybody can think of one organization that they feel they're very fond of, and just go and make a 50 $100 donation, just do it and notice the feelings that come up when, when you make that donation. And there's one thing when, if someone asks us to support their charity because they're going on a walk, or they're doing a run, or, you know, something like that. It's just so easy to like, just go and do it like, of course, because it feels like you're supporting that friend or that loved one. And I think there's something different about there's no one asking you, you're just, you have a value, you know, of an organization that supports that value, and you want to support them right without any outside pressure. So do a small a small gift, and just notice the feelings that arise as you make that donation.

Dan Slagle  33:32

You bring up a really good point, because there are many people in our life that, like you said, Walk for a cause, run for a cause. They do something for a specific cause that they are passionate about. Why I love the idea of supporting friends or family who are donating or fundraising for a specific cause, and it shouldn't be taken lightly, is because you are giving

Speaker 1  34:00

people the opportunity to

Dan Slagle  34:05

also give their money, right, like, for example. And this is something personal that I have become very passionate about, you know. And two years ago, I lost my mom to cancer. So how was I able to I thought like, How can I mix supporting something that was like, so detrimental to me and my family, supporting research among like around this, this item that's impacting so many people's lives, and how can I raise money in doing so while still doing Something that is challenging to me and reflects my other values in a certain way, where I get to, like, burn off some of the frustration from an event that happened in my personal life, right? Like, you know what I'm trying to say? Like, so for me, what I've actually found really helpful, and it's not, like, year end this, this happens, right? Like. I have to give money at a year end, or it's more like during the year. What I did last year is I ran the Chicago Marathon. I said last year it was like a month and a half ago, I ran the Chicago Marathon, and I ran with the American Cancer Society. And by doing so, in order to run the event with their team, I pledged a certain amount of money that I had to make, right? So how it worked on my end was I needed to raise $2,500 by a certain date before the race. Otherwise, I was going to make the charitable contribution. And I was totally fine with that, right? But in the same light, it also allowed me to share how cancer specifically has impacted me and my family, and being able to put it out on my platforms and see the support that came in to allow other people to donate and use their money like it was just like a it was a way To motivate people to again, support a charitable cause. So I love that concept of supporting your friends to support the cause that they want to support, and knowing still you are making charitable contributions. And I think that goes back to one of the first blockers, is like we don't always think of charitable support in that way, right? Some, sometimes these like micro gifts that you give during the year, they still count at the they still count as charitable contributions. And we can't lose sight of them when, especially as we get into year end, when we're thinking about like, how do we donate more, not just from a tax benefit, but to further the causes that we support.

Natalie Slagle  36:44

Yeah, I've always and I appreciate you sharing that, Dan, because if, even though maybe the 2500 didn't all come from us, if you didn't run, if you didn't pledge, that none of that money would have gone to the American Cancer Society. And so that you know, you're really combining your efforts, your time, your money, because we did donate as well to a cause that is meaningful to you, and then you also have the opportunity to share the story of it, so that those types of events, you know, and I think all of our clients, including us, we want to always be able to say yes when someone asks for money. That's been a thing very near and dear to my heart, even when you're at the grocery store and they say, Hey, you want to round up to, you know, send money to the local food bank. I always want to be in a position where I can say yes to and I know that's a small example, but when those friends or people are raising money for whatever it may be, I want to make sure our finances are always set up that the answer is, of course, like and how much joy is that, that I get to support you, supporting another organization, this is good.

Dan Slagle  37:58

I think for us, we need to have a conversation before year end and see how we can implement some of these tactics that we described, and see if we can further our dollars past us.

Natalie Slagle  38:10

Yeah, absolutely. Well, thank you for the conversation. Dan, bye.

Dan Slagle  38:14

Natalie, hey, if you've enjoyed this episode and are looking for personalized financial guidance, schedule a free complimentary consultation using the link in the description below. Natalie and Dan Slagle are the founding partners of Fyooz Financial Planning, a registered investment advisor. The information provided in this podcast is for informational purposes only and should not be considered investment advice or a recommendation to buy or sell any securities. Investing involves risk, including the potential loss of principal. Advisory services are offered to clients or prospective clients where Fyooz Financial Planning and its representatives are properly licensed or exempt from licensure. For more information, including our disclosures, please visit our website www.fyoozfinancial.com.

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