I love reading personal finance articles on Yahoo! Finance. There are so many great stories on investing, budgeting, debt management, spending wisely, career development and so on. But it took filling out my 2011 Income Taxes to ask myself one of the most difficult personal finance questions a person can ask themselves: am I giving enough to charity?

In my mind, the five pillars of personal finance are income, spending, saving, investing and giving. Sadly, it seems as though giving is almost completely forgotten about when it comes to learning about one's own finances. What is the point of working to become wealthy if you aren't going to give some of your riches to those less fortunate? After all, a person can only take so many vacations or own so many boats before possessions begin to feel hallow.

Now back to my original question. When filling out my incomes taxes this year, I realized that I gave just over 3% of my disposable income to my favorite charitable organizations in 2011.

Comparable to Most Americans

According to Giving USA, Americans gave approximately 2.2% of their disposable income to nonprofit organizations in 2008. That comes to roughly $229 billion that individuals across America donated to charity that year.

So in comparison to most Americans, I am a little above average on giving. Though to be sure, there are millions of Americans that give 5, 10, 15 or even 20% of their incomes away each year.

Lacking from a Religious Point of View

From a faith perspective, my giving is severely lacking.

For practicing Christians and Jews, the act of tithing 10% of what a person earns is mentioned several times in the Bible. The most notable example is in the book of Genesis, when Jacob promises to give a tenth of what he receives back to God.

Practicing Muslims take a similar, yet different approach to giving. In Islam, the Koran specifies that people are to give a contribution known as Zakat, which amounts to 2.5% of a person's net worth, each year.

Read more:
First Person: Am I Giving Enough to Charity?