If you have the disposable income to do so, giving money to a charitable cause you believe in is never a bad thing - but it's important to only part with money you don't need, and to make sure you have enough cash to cover all of your monthly expenses before you play around with whatever's left.
And one man has left his family feeling uneasy with his own spending habits, as he has confessed he often donates around half of his income to various charities, leaving his wife to worry about whether they have enough left to make ends meet.
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The man insisted he earns enough to comfortably live with just half of his income, but his spouse is left to put all of her wages into their savings as he doesn't have enough left in his bank each month to contribute.
His wife has now complained that she feels their income is "restricted too much" because of his charitable donations, and it has made them worse off than they would be if he scaled back his giving.
In a post on Reddit, the man said: "I lost a relative to cancer a few years ago after a long struggle, and it really affected me. I'm a pretty emotional guy and unfortunately, I have trouble forgetting things, so I never got over their death.
"Since then I decided to donate a significant portion of my income to various charities. The bulk of it goes to hospitals and cancer research, and the rest goes to unrelated causes.
"At that point, I was earning around $90,000 (£83,000) so I was donating about $30,000 (£27,000) a year because I needed the rest for rent, other expenses, student loans, savings, etc. Now I am earning significantly more and can afford to donate about half of my pretax income and still cover all of our expenses with the remaining amount.
"My wife works part-time and all of that goes to our savings. But she feels that we are being restricted too much in terms of our budget because of this. It's not like we have to be extremely frugal or anything, we're quite comfortable. But we're not buying the newest MacBook model every year either.
"She is adamant that we should curtail our donations because a) it likely doesn't make much of a difference compared to the billions that already go into cancer research, b) it prevents us from living a better lifestyle, and c) I'm exerting too much control over our finances by allocating such a large amount of money to 'what I am interested in'. It's gotten so bad that for the past few days we've hardly talked because of this issue."
Commenters on the post were split over the issue, as while many of them commended the man for his charitable donations, they also said he was in the wrong for making such a huge financial decision without his wife.
One person said: "It's amazing that you want to be this philanthropic, but when you have a partner, financial decisions should be made together. There's a compromise here - but the two of you need to talk and find it."
While another added: "For me, point (c) is the kicker. Whether or not the donations are useful or valuable or make a difference, you are making an enormous financial decision that does affect your family without allowing your wife a say in the matter.
"That would honestly be a dealbreaker for me. I would never marry someone who thought that giving away what is almost half of our income without my agreement was acceptable."
And a third wrote: "You might think she's being self-centred so any harm is purely in her perception, but I think she's being rational. You're far from wealthy and you should be saving every dime possible for your own future."
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