Until recently
I
thought Julia and I were digging a bit into savings to
donate more. With the tighter funding climate for effective altruism
we
thought
it was worth spending down a bit, especially considering that our
expenses should decrease significantly in 1.5y when our youngest
starts kindergarten.
I was surprised, then, when I ran the
numbers and realized that despite donating 50% of a reduced
income, we were $9k (0.5%) [1] richer than when I left
Google two years earlier.
This is a good problem to have! After thinking it over for the last
month, however, I've decided to start earning
less: I've asked for a voluntary salary reduction of $15k/y
(10%). [2] This is something I've been thinking about off and on since
I started working at a non-profit: it's much more efficient
to reduce your salary than it is to make a donation. Additionally,
since I'm asking
others to fund our work I like the idea of putting my money (or
what would be my money if I weren't passing it up) where my mouth is.
Despite doing this myself, voluntary salary reduction isn't something
that I'd like to see become a norm:
I think it's really valuable for people to have a choice about
where to apply their money to making the world better.
The organization where you have a comparative advantage in
applying your skills will often not be the one that can do the most
with additional funds, even after considering the tax advantages.
I especially don't think this is a good fit for junior
employees and people without a lot of savings, where I'm concerned
social pressure to take a reduction could keep people from making
prudent financial decisions.
More
issues...
Still, I think this is a good choice for me, and I feel good about
efficiently putting my money towards a better world.
[2025-08-16: I've now increased my reduction from $15k to $135k going
forward, on an annualized basis, as a result of (a) my salary
increasing and (b) Julia's employer deciding to no longer support
voluntary salary reductions.]
[1] In current dollars. If you don't adjust for inflation it's $132k
more, but that's not meaningful.
[2] I'm not counting this towards my 50% goal, just like
I'm not counting the pay cut I took when I stopped earning to give.
Comment via: facebook, mastodon, bluesky
1