Donate
Don’t get me wrong! I love maintaining this website, however it helps to receive some donations for it. It really makes my day. It reminds me of 1. people reading my stuff and 2. people seeming to like it enough to support me further! So, donate when you can and want to support my work!
You might have been wondering how I keep this website alive and why it sometimes takes me forever to write the next post? It’s due to the fact that I manage this website during my free time (which I sadly don’t have a lot of these days ^__^”)
Transparency
(remember talking about money in a transparent manner should be something we should strive for as adults!)
To give you an idea of how much this ‘hobby’ costs me a year:
- Hosting: 48 euros/year
- Domain name cost: 12 euros/year
- WordPress Template: free version
- Keyword Research Software: 17 euros/year
- Image Design Software: 110euros/year
Total: 187euros/year, without adding the amount of time and hours I worked on the website already!
On top of that: A minimum wage per hour in Belgium = 9,7 euros.
If you know this, you can then calculate and compare, how much work I’m doing for free.
Since I’m constantly working on this website whenever I can, I’m not going to mention the hours. I simply want to be of value to those who needs it. If I really want money for something, I’ll put the price underneath the item. My goal for this website is that I hope to be able to use this website for my own kids one day.
About Value
So, I broke down how much maintaining a website looks like and how much an hour costs minimum-wage in Belgium. What else should we talk about when we break down the cost of things?
We need to talk about Value of course! Is the money you’re paying or (in this case) donating, worth the value you’re getting?
The economy has always revolved around the concept of “how much someone would pay for a certain value”, now there are many “economic values” to go over, but I’ll add a small pdf about this down below (once I’m done with some other articles first so please bear with me), for now let’s stick with the main thing about why we need to speak about value: because most of us don’t know and because of this can’t appreciate value accordingly. We’re not beggars and if we are, we should aim to be better than that. Adults don’t beg unless their very lives (or the ones they’re supposed to protect) depend on it.
Most of us don’t know about value because they either still need to know how it’s like to find a job, what it’s like to have one, or they never talked about money (and were never able to compare), or because they don’t know their own value, or simply because they don’t know how much time and energy it costs to make something (and by whom it’s made)!
That’s why I’d like you to ponder about this: we no longer live in a world where we don’t know what’s going on around us anymore and if you aren’t aware of the things happening around us, it’s probably because you chose not to know.
However, as future adults, we no longer can pretend that we don’t know certain things. We literally have zero excuses as to why we remain ignorant of certain topics! We can literally find a (e)book/audiobook about any topic everywhere and if that’s not your thing, we also have the internet!
Value when you can, not when you can’t!
When you need every penny to scrape by, it’s not expected of you to donate money. In fact if I knew you’d donate money for the support of this website, knowing you could use every penny, you’ll make me sad.
Donation stems from different cultures in the past (and they all have their reasons to donate), however the key to donations was that people with “enough” would support those who didn’t have enough. If you yourself don’t have enough, please focus on that first. Use this website to your advantage. The day when you do have enough, you can always donate then.
For those who do have the means, remember, you worked hard to get there (and if you didn’t try to avoid losing sight over how much something is valuable), you don’t have to give, it is however a privilege that you can. Not everyone can give without having to worry that they might not eat the next day, so enjoy when you do give.
For the opportunists among us, it’s one thing to try and get a bargain it’s another to either be a cheapskate or an ungrateful person. Be graceful, credit where credit is due.
Conclusion
To give money or not to give money, that is the question.
The Adult
As an adult, knowing how to use your resources and how to manage those is incredibly important. Not only for your survival but also your family’s. Always keep your financial statement in check! If you shouldn’t donate, you shouldn’t and if you can, you can.