Donating 80% While It Still Counts

Julia and I had been giving half since 2014, but in 2025 we drew on our savings to donate 81%. It looks to us like we're in a critical window for keeping the introduction of very powerful AI systems from being disastrous, and we want to do what we can while we still can. Here's what that looks like in the context of our overall spending: table... Category pre-tax post-tax total Donations $0 $142,488 $142,488 Taxes $0 $35,808 $35,808 Housing $0 $24,264 $24,264 Childcare $0 $42,636 $42,636 Medical $2,712 $4,800 $7,632 Food $0 $11,568 $11,568 Other $0 $12,000 $12,000 Savings $51,564 -$72,000 -$20,436 On savings, there are two things going on. We're drawing down our regular post-tax savings to donate more (-$72k) but we're still putting money into retirement accounts (+$51k). It nets to -$20k, though mixing pre- and post-tax numbers into one sum isn't really correct. We've been prioritizing donations for a long time, but it feels very different now because of the AI boom. Some of this is that people who've made money in the boom will likely be giving more soon, and so money spent now can help set up organizations to spend future money more effectively. But more importantly, this is a key window of opportunity: transformative AI is coming very quickly, for better or worse. We want to push hard for "better". If you compare to previous years (2024, 2022, 2020, 2018, 2016, 2014), we're donating a lot less than we used to in absolute terms: table... Adjusted for inflation: 2026 2024 2022 2020 2018 2016 Donations $142,488 $77,088 $440,004 $294,000 $183,900 $197,832 Savings -$20,436 -$28,128 $86,664 $115,500 $23,376 $24,324 Taxes $35,808 $42,504 $186,672 $66,000 $64,680 $67,140 Housing $24,264 $34,920 $49,332 $48,456 $42,852 $30,324 Childcare $42,636 $53,436 $73,332 $41,256 $26,496 $56,268 Food $11,568 $9,156 $9,168 $11,256 $11,688 $3,732 Medical $7,632 $8,052 $9,480 $9,756 $11,628 $5,136 Other $12,000 $12,504 $13,332 $7,500 $17,460 $4,788 Until mid-2022 I was working at a big