Dream Collision: Philanthropist and Parenting

One of my secret dreams has always been to make lots of money to give lots of money away. But as a kid I always remember my Mom saying, "if you can't manage $10 you will never be able to manage 10,000 or 10,000,000. And if you can't give away 10 cents of your dollar you will never give way thousands of your milions" I always took that to heart. It's funny what you remember when you are little.

The last month I was turned on to this new website. www.kiva.org It is incredible! You can loan as little as $25 to a person trying to start a small buisness in a developing country. Here is how it works:


And the payback rate is 98% I believe. Pretty cool!

I don't make much money. And, in fact, I have been kind of stressed out about how little I make as I think about my future. (Do you see why I named my blog what I did?) I live in a city that constantly, non-verbally tells me I have to make money and I have to do it fast. LA is full of people trying to make money, making money, and dreaming about making money. Yet I have plenty of food in my fridge, I have more clothes than I can wear, and I have a lot of extras. The KIVA process reminds me that I can be a Philanthropist no matter how much money I make it. My mom was right. (aren't they always?) If I won't do it making the little I make now, I will never do it if I make milions.

One of my dreams is to raise a family, too. Tonight that just isn't a reality...well because I don't have one:) But tonight those dreams can collide. I can help a mom with four kids trying to build a life start a business to support her family. So instead of sitting in traffic stressed out about my finances I can actually move towards making my dreams a reality. Tonight I sat on my couch and made a new business friend:



I guess in the end my mom was SO right. And now because she invested that wisdom in me I get to see two of the dreams of my life collide. My gut tells me this is only the beginning...