dsmWealth: November 21, 2024

Give it up for Giving Tuesday!
BY STEVE DINNEN

Black Friday is right around the corner. But please consider saving some money for a more worthwhile cause. (And no: That’s not National Espresso Day, which is Saturday.)

Giving Tuesday lands on Nov. 26 this year. It’s one of the high holy days of what organizers call the global generosity movement, and it’s intended to inspire Iowans, Americans and people around the world to pitch in their time, skills, money and more to help others. The day shows that everyone has something to give, and every act of generosity counts.

Giving Tuesday started in 2012 as sort of a counterweight to Black Friday. The lore around its origin suggests that it started at the 92nd Street YMCA in New York as a way to pull focus from the rampant consumerism that often dominates the holiday season. And the new tradition has sparked some success: Organizers believe an extra $3 billion flowed into charity coffers in 2022 as a result of Giving Tuesday campaigns.

But it’s not just about cash. The American Red Cross uses Giving Tuesday to encourage folks to donate blood. The United Way of Central Iowa promotes many ways to celebrate the day by volunteering time and donating goods to local charities. Here are two specific efforts:

Hope for the Holidays. The United Way collects household cleaning products and housewares for Hope for Stable Families, a United Way program. This initiative supports families by helping them set goals, overcome barriers and tap community resources to help parents achieve long-term financial stability for themselves and their kids. You can find more information online, including suggestions for donating specific items.

Holiday Helping Hand. This is a guide to volunteering and giving opportunities that you can do with family or friends. The United Way works closely with local nonprofits to make it easy for everyone to get involved and give back this season.

And, of course, there’s always the Salvation Army. You can always drop some change in the bell ringers’ red buckets, which the nonprofit uses to help folks pay rent, utility bills and the like. The Salvation Army also runs a half-dozen thrift stores in Greater Des Moines and Ames, where they’re encouraging people to donate clothes on Giving Tuesday.

“If you have money, drop it into a kettle” said Salvation Army Lt. Mike Raes. “If you have a bag of clothes, bring it in.”

Revenue from the sale of donated clothes supports the Salvation Army’s 64-bed residential rehabilitation center above the thrift store on East Court Avenue. It houses men who are struggling with homelessness and drug or alcohol addictions, and provides them a place to work through a six- or 12-month rehabilitation program. It doesn’t cost residents a penny, thanks to community generosity on Giving Tuesday and throughout the year.

Before you donate, see how your money will be spent
BY STEVE DINNEN

The other day I got a call from a telemarketer who was trying to secure some funding for a law officers' support organization. I took a little time to ask some questions about who they were, what they did and how much they spent on that support.

Turned out they spent about 20% of their money on programs that support those officers. The other 80% was overhead, burned up on phone banks, marketing, and commissions paid to those telemarketers. At that point, I politely hung up and scratched the group off the list for Giving Tuesday.

There are tens of thousands of local and national charities that would benefit from Giving Tuesday largesse. So how do you determine the best organizations?

At the national level, Charity Navigator is a great tool. The team who runs it pores over tax records and reports of thousands of nonprofits to see how each one is administered and how they spend money. Charity Navigator then rates all the charities according to how much money they spend on programs versus fundraising and administration. (The more money spent on programming, the better; 70% to 80% is a pretty good score.) Charity Navigator also reviews how much nonprofit spends on its executives, and how independent a board of directors might be.

Closer to home, the Community Foundation of Greater Des Moines manages GIVEdsm, a program that vets local nonprofits. So if you’d like to pitch in, just scan the list and get started, knowing your contributions will be spent wisely.

No one can find safe-deposit boxes anymore
BY BEN EISEN FOR THE WALL STREET JOURNAL

Good luck getting a safe-deposit box.

Longtime deposit-box renters are getting kicked out of their boxes by banks that are shutting down or scaling back the service. Customers say they have been struggling to find the small boxes traditionally kept inside vaults to store family heirlooms and other valuables.

Kris Wall called 13 branches around the San Francisco Bay Area over the past 18 months, and visited another six or seven, in her unsuccessful search for new boxes. The 49-year-old gemologist and jeweler uses them to store her work, but was told to vacate her extra-large box at a First Republic branch last year.

A decade ago, she got on a wait list at one bank that said it expected an opening in nine years. It never called. She recently learned the bank got rid of deposit boxes completely.

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Retiring soon? Plan a budget before tapping into your 401(k)
BY RIVAN STINSON FOR THE WASHINGTON POST

You might know how to save for retirement. But do you know how to spend your savings after you retire?

For decades, the “4% rule,” laid out by renowned financial adviser William Bengen, served as the North Star for financial planners. He estimated that a withdrawal rate of 4% a year would allow a retiree to safely spend down their investment account without depleting it.

To get his estimate, Bengen used historical data across three decades, which included boom markets, downturns and swings in inflation, as well as various types of portfolios. However, the model didn’t consider how much retirees actually have saved, which is often far less than they expect to stash away during their working years. In fact, just 29% of retirees say their 401(k) or IRA is a major source of their income, according to Gallup.

Americans between 60 to 64 have a median balance of only $66,900 saved in their employer-sponsored 401(k), while those 65 to 69 have $63,100, according to Fidelity, the largest administrator of workplace retirement plans. Meanwhile, the average balance — which is skewed upward due to the retirement wealth concentrated among the richest Americans — is $239,500 and $244,000, respectively, for those cohorts. And the share of 401(k) millionaires is relatively small, at 2%, according to Fidelity. (Those numbers don’t account for an individual holding multiple retirement accounts.)

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