# October 2024
- Took 10% Giving What We Can Pledge effective 2 June 2024
- I've donated some amount prior to this, but will not be factoring this in and will not be calculating historical amounts owing (i.e. not backdating the pledge to my first paycheck).[^1]
- ...with one caveat: for simplicity I've treated my donations in all of FY ending 2024 against my pledge, which is not technically like-for-like: the pledge is for 0.97 months, so pro-rated I under-donated for that FY.[^1]
- I'm giving based on pre-tax income - i.e. what gets reported to the ATO.
- I'm excluding superannuation contributions as I will give 'from' those in retirement.
- I'm also not factoring in (not deliberately excluding per se) gifts etc.[^1]
- My system will be:[^2]
- Put 10% of any paychecks (or income, if I end up self-employed) that hit my bank account into a donations savings account (an Up Saver)
- Every month, donate a fixed amount approximating half of that (i.e. 5% of that month's paycheck)
- After EOFY, once income is finalised (e.g. with any bonuses), do a top-up donation. This will technically fall into the following year's tax return, but I'll account it against the pledge for the year in question. (The GWWC website makes this very easy, actually!)
- This also means there's an opportunity to review and diversify where my donations go!
- I might also set up a calendar reminder to review ~1 June, and to do a large donation before EOFY.
- Overall, we're leaning into the GWWC setup.
[^1]: This is purely pragmatic: I think worrying about this much bookkeeping would cause me to actually do *less*; it makes it too easy for me to procrastinate. Maybe one day if I get better I will revisit this.
[^2]: This is based on balancing (honestly, I think irrational) fear/risk aversion with 'locking in' donations/impact - respecting my gut feeling but hedging against any value drift... Not that I expect full-on intra-year value drift!
# Portfolio theory?
https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/2G8XfzKyd78JqZpjQ/fund-causes-open-phil-underfunds-instead-of-your-most?commentId=yXdYedDxpPjGhXCtm
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[[Towards a comprehensive portfolio theory of Effective Altruism]]