In the latest address from Warren Buffett to Berkshire Hathaway investors as part of the annual report for 2019, he acknowledges his own twilight years. A sharp mind at 89 years of age is indeed amazing. What’s even more interesting is the way he has decided to deal with his wealth post his death. 

Buffett has decided to use his wealth towards charity foundations and that too in a phased manner over 10-12 years. While many of us struggle to plan our wealth creation during our lifetime, he has managed to plan the use of his wealth till long after he is no more. 

Can you do this sooner rather than later?

Wealth creation is a conscious attempt at accumulating funds over many years, investing them in growth assets and remaining invested again for several years or even decades. An important part of this process is listing out your goals or your financial objectives for which you intend to use your funds. 

Here is what you can do. Identify how much you want to put aside towards charity each month. To arrive at the monthly figure, you can start with an annual objective and then break it down. For example, if you want to set aside Rs 10,000 a year towards charity then begin with Rs 850 a month. 

Often charity is considered from our leftover funds, but you can just as easily convert that into a goal. Use the same concepts of wealth creation, start early, and stay for long periods. 

Here is what you can do. Identify how much you want to put aside towards charity each month. To arrive at the monthly figure, you can start with an annual objective and then break it down. For example, if you want to set aside Rs 10,000 a year towards charity then begin with Rs 850 a month. 

Doing this means, you don’t have to wait till you have large sums of left-over savings to donate. Next pick a simple equity diversified fund with low risk parameters and start a monthly systematic investment plan (SIP). If you know the charity promoters well enough, then you can even think about opening the SIP account directly in their name. Alternatively, start this SIP at your end and keep accumulating funds each month for 2-3 years. This time will enable you to actually build a corpus that you can use towards different charities within a few years. Moreover, it does not disturb your other accumulated savings at the time. 

You don’t really have to wait till you retire to begin working with the goal of giving. Starting when you are young and starting small is also a way to give back to society and that too without disturbing other aspects of your wealth creation journey.