‘I give away half to three-quarters of my income every year’
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Version 0 of 1. Allan Saldanha, 41, on how he achieved financial security and now hopes to help save lives Name: Allan SaldanhaAge: 41Occupation: Audit managerIncome: £125,000 (salary plus investment income) From a young age I’ve believed in giving to charity. Visiting family in India and witnessing the poverty there encouraged me to donate to charities active in developing countries. At work I organised annual matching fundraisers for developing world charities such as WaterAid and Sightsavers and would offer to triple my colleagues’ donations. I knew that I could and should donate more, but always felt like I lacked the knowledge about the impact of my donations. That changed in 2014 when I made a donation to Against Malaria Foundation and was contacted by a volunteer from Giving What We Can (GWWC), an organisation that encourages members to donate at least 10% of their income to the most effective charities. I read a presentation by GWWC founder Toby Ord and was impressed with the concept and the focus on maximising the impact of donations by giving to charities that had been rigorously assessed and classed as having the most impact in improving human and animal welfare. I started off by donating 10% of my income but soon increased the amount after realising that I could easily give away more. The following year I gave away 20%, the next I increased it to a third, then to 50%. This year I intend to give away 75%. At times my wife has felt alarmed at the amount of money I’ve donated but she understands the reasoning behind it and knows I’m a fairly conservative and risk-averse person so she leaves it to me. We’re fortunate to have significant investments and financial security and she knows I’m not jeopardising that. My brother has just started trying it out and is giving away about 5% of his income. I realise I’m in a fortunate and privileged position financially to be able to do this. I earned good money for 15 years before taking the pledge and I have financial security including a significant sum in investments. I’m full of admiration for the many GWWC members who give away 10% when their incomes are at the national average or lower. Their dedication has motivated me to increase my own donations. In the last tax year, I donated £63,000 including Gift Aid to charities and non-profits such as Malaria Consortium and the SCI Foundation through an organisation called Effective Altruism Funds. Givewell, a leading independent charity evaluator, estimates the cost of saving a child’s life is just $2,000 by donating to the Malaria Consortium, a charity which distributes preventive anti-malarial drugs to children in Asia and Africa. As a father, I think the worst thing any parent can experience is to have to watch their child suffering or god forbid, dying. My children’s lives are priceless to me and so I find the opportunity to save someone else’s child’s life for less than £2,000 a compelling proposition. After donations and taxes, last year we had a disposable income of about £50,000 left over. About £800 leaves my account every month for bills and council tax. Fortunately we paid off the mortgage about eight years ago. I look after the food shopping and we spend about £60 a week on groceries. We eat out at restaurants and pubs once a week which comes to about £50. As for holidays, we usually go to India every year. Last year we also went on an all-inclusive holiday to Tenerife that cost us £2,500. Luxuries like that give us a good quality of life. Saving for the future is still important to me. Our twin boys, aged 11, each have a junior Isa into which we put £4,000 a year. I also have a decent work pension. I plan to donate at least 75% of my income for the remainder of my career. As long as the kids are provided for, I intend to give away most of my savings and my investments. Even if I do have financial security now and could retire, I still plan to continue working so I can help others. I won’t work myself into an early grave but my career and salary gives me an opportunity to potentially save more than 1,000 lives. |