First off, thanks for helping me host an awesome conversation yesterday about charitable gifts and taxes. Y’all were polite and cool-headed, even if you didn’t necessarily agree with the person that commented above or below you. Well played everyone, well played indeed.

Anywhoozle, yesterday a reader suggested that anyone who lists charitable gifts on their taxes is not donating out of the goodness of their heart, but for the selfish benefit of receiving a tax deduction. I can understand why the commenter thinks this.

Truth is, the deduction benefits probably do encourage charitable giving. I mean when was the last time you gave $1,000 to a business or organization that didn’t qualify for a deduction? If you’re like me the answer is almost never. Sure I give $20 here and there to a homeless person, or I might give $100 to a friend for a missions trip, but I honestly don’t think I’ve ever just walked down to my local coffee shop and been like “Hey you guys do awesome work and I want to support the business, here’s $500.”

So yes, I guess most of us probably do only give substantial financial gifts to charities that allow us to deduct that gift from our tax obligation, but ultimately I have to disagree with the sentiment.

I might be wrong, but I’d bet most people donate because they want to help someone or something out, not because they’ll get a deduction. It just doesn’t make financial sense. If I’m in the 25% tax bracket and I give $10,000 to charity over the course of the year, my maximum benefit for making that contribution would be $2,500. Why the heck would I give someone $10,000, so I can save $2,500? It clearly would be to my benefit to never make the contribution, write Uncle Sam a check for an extra $2,500, and keep the remaining $7,500.

And that is exactly the point I want to make today.

Why do people get so jacked up on tax deductions like they are best thing ever? I mean people were telling me to keep my student loans because I could deduct some of the interest on the loan. They literally were trying to convince me to keep paying $2,000 a year in interest to Sallie Mae, so I didn’t have to send the government $500. I bet some of you with mortgages have probably had similar garbage preached to you, “Don’t pay off the mortgage, you’ll lose the deduction.”

Don’t get me wrong. I love me some deductions. If you are eligible, take ‘em. Just don’t do something stupid and give Person A $5,000 so you can avoid giving Person B $1,000… Unless of course you have so much freakin’ money you like wasting it, then by all means waste to your heart’s content.

Have you been told to keep a debt around longer than you wanted because of the tax deduction? Do you regularly give significant financial gifts to non-qualified businesses or organizations? Have you ever given a gift, purely for the tax benefit?

So information about Mit Romney’s tax return came out a couple of days ago and not surprisingly, the dude is freakin’ loaded. He made over $20,000,000 a year in 2010 and 2011. Most news stories I read seemed to only care about one thing, his effective tax rate of 15%.

Although I don’t like to identify myself with any political party (I think they’re both muy estupido), I don’t think you’ll be surprised to hear I am conservative by nature. I never drank before I turned 21, I didn’t move in with Girl Ninja until I married her, and I definitely didn’t jump on board with the Occupy Wallstreet movement.

Even though I’m relatively old-school, I understand and appreciate that you might not be. You wont see me on the street corners preaching “repent or go to hell” and it’s not very often I talk about anything even remotely political on this blog.

If I said, “I love Mit Romney”, half of you would have a hay-day in the comments section, tearing him and me apart. Likewise, if I professed allegiance to the Obama Campaign, I would expect similar reactions from the other half of you. The problem with politics today is no one is willing to have a conversation, and no one is willing to say, “You might be right.” Instead we call each other stupid, ridiculous, ignorant, and any other insult we can think of to make ourselves feel better.

Oh man, I’m on my fifth paragraph and I haven’t even gotten to what I want to talk about (sorry today’s post is going to be quite a bit longer than average). Okay here goes…..

I noticed on Mit Romney’s tax return he gave $3MM, of the $21MM he made in 2010, to his church and other charities. That means Romney gave 14% of his wealth away. I’d be willing to bet if you looked at Romney’s tax returns for the last ten years, they would all tell a similar story; He made a ton of money, and probably gave between 10%-20% of it away.

Obama’s tax returns tell a different story. In 2009 and 2010, the Obamas donated about 14% of their income to charity. Not too shabby. But if you look at his tax returns prior to becoming El Presidente (2000 to 2008) he never gave more than 6.5% to charity, and two of those years he gave less than 1% of his earnings away. Makes you wonder if he is giving more now because he knows he will get hell if he doesn’t. The Biden’s have never even pretended to be charitable givers, only donating around 1% of their income each year.

I side with the democrats in that I DO believe the wealthy have an obligation to help the less fortunate, and that they should redistribute some of their wealth to those in need, but I find it hard to take Obama (or Biden) serious when their personal actions don’t necessarily reflect the message they preach.

If they really, truly believed the wealthy have this moral obligation, why don’t they act on their own beliefs? Why wasn’t Obama donating 14% of his income to charity between 2000 and 2008? Why hasn’t Biden ever given more than 1% of his income away? Why must the government force them to do this when they are completely capable of doing it on their own?

Does anyone else at least find this a little odd? I guess the big take away from this whole situation is that the only REAL way for America to prosper is for people to THINK like Obama, but ACT like Romney. Why are politicians (both democrats and republicans) incapable or practicing what they preach?

p.s. Just to be clear, I think Romney is kind of a tool and this post is not in any way, shape, or form an endorsement for his candidacy for president. Although I do admire the dude’s commitment to giving. 

p.p.s. I realize by talking about politics today, I’m opening up a can of worms. My only request is that we do our best to keep the comments related to this topic and avoid saying things like “Obama is a Muslim that wants to murder babies” or “Romney is a Mormon whackjob who only cares about his bank account”. Comments like that provide no value and only make you (and the party you represent) look bad.

p.p.p.s. If you want to know why I said I’d bet Romney has given at least 10% to charity for the last decade, see this comment I posted below.

p.p.p.p.s. I just wanted to p.p.p.p.s. this because I don’t think I have ever PS’ed something this much

Remember how I vented about my frustrations with retail stores jumping the gun on Christmas 2011? Costco had decorations up before Halloween. It was craziness and I wanted no part of it. But now, Thanksgiving has past, and it is completely appropriate to go bananas for Christmas time.

Being out-of-town the last two weeks put a severe damper on our Christmas spirit. We weren’t able to get our decorations out of storage until last week, and since we were both gone last weekend, we had no Christmas tree either. That all changed last night.

They say opposites attract, and that couldn’t be more true for the Ninja household. Even when it comes to something as simple as picking a Christmas tree, we weren’t seeing eye-to-eye. Girl Ninja wanted a real tree. I wanted a fake one.

Needless to say Girl Ninja won that battle and we are now the proud owners of a beautiful six-foot Noble fir named Herbert (Girl Ninja thinks it should be named Nina). While I would prefer to not have to deal with the hassle of buying a real Christmas tree; you know, things like: finding a tree lot, deciding which tree to get, buying a stand, hoping the tree fits in the stand you bought, praying the thing doesn’t sit at a 45 degree angle, constantly vacuuming up the needles that fall off, and remembering to water the dang thing, I can’t say no to the wifey.

Man, trees are almost as high maintenance as pets, or kids.

For me it was purely a financial decision. Last year we paid $50 for a real tree, this year we paid $46. When I was in Target the other day I saw a handful of fake trees priced around $100-$200 that looked awesome. One more Xmas from now, we’d have a fake tree paid off and no need to buy another one for a very long time. A fake Christmas tree is a solid investment.

For Girl Ninja, the desire to purchase a real tree was purely emotional. She loves real trees. She likes that they are never cookie-cutter perfect. She likes the fresh Christmas tree scent. But most importantly, she likes that the money we spend on buying a real Christmas tree has benefited charities the last two years. In 2010 the proceeds from our purchase went straight to a local church. This year 100% of the $46 we spent went to a nearby food bank.

So even though I may not have won the “real or fake tree” battle, I’m fine conceding in the name of charity.  You know what they say “Happy wife, happy life.” One of these days though, I’ll actually win one of these little disagreements. Mark my words Girl Ninja, you will be defeated…eventually. Mwahahahaha!

Are you rocking a real, fake, or no Christmas tree this year? Do the holidays bring any silly debates in to your house (like where to celebrate Xmas day, how much to spend on presents, etc)?

p.s. Here’s a picture of Herbert all dressed up. What a beaut….

I’ve come a long way in regards to my stance on giving over the last few years. Girl Ninja has a generous heart, I have a frugal one. She frequently reminds me there are only four things we can do with money.

1. Make it.
2. Spend it.
3. Save/Invest it.
4. Give it.

It’s the fourth point I want to focus on today.

While we have always given a portion of our income to our church, we are really excited about the other ways in which we can start to give back. About a year ago, we instituted the following household rule “Ask and you shall receive.” This does, of course, have some caveats. If you say “Hey Ninja, can I have $10 to buy a pack of smokes?” I will punch you in the face. But if you say, “Hey Ninja I’m raising money to build a well in Africa, can you spare some change?”, I will gladly open my wallet. The other caveat is that “asking” must be intentional. A general “give me money” request emailed out to your entire Facebook contact list wont cut it. A phone call, text message, personalized email, or face-to-face meeting is what it takes.

In the last year, Girl Ninja and I have been specifically asked to… help build a well in Africa, support a friend going on staff with Campus Crusades, donate to Young Life, buy a magazine subscription from our landlord’s kid to help raise money for his school, and support Krochet Kids International. (The magazine subscription was only $24, so it’s not like we are always dropping big bucks.) We don’t take our income for granted and we make our best efforts to give back whenever the opportunity presents itself.

Moving on.

Have you ever hosted a party? That crap can get expensive real quick. In fact, upon closer look at our astronomical food budget last month, I’ve realized a good portion of this expense was used serving other people. Girl Ninja and I are both heavily involved in a high school outreach program called YoungLife. I lead freshmen boys, she leads freshmen girls. That means every week we have about 30 kids coming to our house for Bible study. We’ve recently learned the quickest way to a kids heart is through their mouth. Nothing says “welcome” like fresh-baked cookies, a few pizzas, or some candy. Our grocery budget has never been higher, but ya know what? I’m totally cool with it.

But what if you aren’t in a position to be able to help financially? That’s totally fine. It doesn’t make you a bad person. You can give your blood, your time, or your talents. Don’t make “giving” a strictly financial practice. I helped coach boys Varsity tennis this last season and it was by far one of the most rewarding things I have ever done. You have something to offer. Go offer it.

So reader, why don’t you take a second to share in the comments below ways in which you have given. What charities or organizations have you supported? How do you decide who to support and who to ignore? Have you volunteered your time or talents lately?

Ask and you shall receive. That’s our new motto anways. Two years ago Girl Ninja and I had to do one of the hardest things we’ve ever done; Ask our friends/family for money. We volunteer for a high school ministry here in San Diego called Young Life. Most of the kids we’ve gotten to know over the last few years, come from low income (I’m talking like REALLY poor) families. Every winter, we try and take a group of kids to camp in Utah for a five day snowboard/ski trip. Can you believe the majority of these kids have never seen snow!

Most of the kids that come to Young Life want to go on the trip, the only problem is they can’t afford it. Throughout the year we’ll host fund raising events like car washes, selling raffle tickets, auctions, etc hoping to raise enough funds to reduce the cost of camp to a more reasonable level, like $100.

Two years ago, after some pretty unsuccessful fund raising campaigns, us leaders decided to reach out to family and friends and try and raise a little more. Here’s how a typical phone conversation went…

Me: Hey mom.

Mom: Hey Ninja, my most favorite child of all time, what’s going on?

Me: Well I’m calling to see if you think you and Dad Ninja could sponsor a kid to Young Life camp.

Mom: We would love to sponsor a kid.

Me: Thanks

Mom: No problem son. Dad Ninja and I think you are the most wonderful son in the world. We are honored to be called your parents.

Asking my parents for money was easy. It’s my parents, I knew that I could pretty much guilt them in to supporting me. It was having to reach out to my friends that freaked me out a little bit. How was I suppose to ask my friends to donate money to kids they’ve never even met? Thankfully, I have some pretty awesome friends, and just about every one of them was able to provide at least some financial support to our area.

Girl Ninja and I learned a lot that day and are glad we went through the experience of asking people for money (although we hope we don’t have to do it again anytime soon). We now know what it’s like, and we feel better prepared to help those that ask us for help.

It’s for this reason, we’ve decided to ALWAYS give money to friends and family when asked for charitable contributions. We know it isn’t easy for them to ask us, so the least we could do is help them out.

- Friend raising money for a breast cancer walk? Give ‘em money.

- Friend’s kid selling candy bars to raise money for a school trip? We’ll buy a box.

- Friend trying to provide clean water to people in another country? Count us in!

Don’t get me wrong. I’m not saying we’ll donate to every solicitation we receive (especially any annoying mailers). But what we will do is SUPPORT those that are close to us. We see this “rule” as a friendly (pun intended) reminder to be generous with the income we’ve been given.

Have you ever been asked (by a friend or family member) to donate/sponsor/give to an organization or charity? Did you do it? Do you buy lemonade from the local neighborhood kids that set up their stands in the summer? What giving/donating guidelines do you operate by?