Currently maybe your company is doing automatic deductions for your health insurance and maybe your 401k. But there has been a lot talk recently about deductions for charitable giving. This seems like a good idea, but then again is it really something that is a good thing?

One of the main organizations that will accept your automatic deductions is United Way. This seems to be the best option because they distribute the donations out to all kinds of different types of charities.

However there are pros and cons to every situation. Pros being that you are able to contribute to your favorite charity automatically and still do it before taxes and have the deductions at the end of the year. On the other-hand there is another company reaching their hands in your bank account and taking out your hard earned money. Of course here the pros out weighing the cons is a matter of opinion. I would vouch to have my charitable donations go to where I feel like every month. I might see something on TV that has drawn my attention and maybe this month I feel like contributing to that cause instead. Or God forbid something like Katrina happens again and all of my monies are now going to be directed that way.

One of the only real great benefit to having automatic deductions is that there is no thought process that goes along with it. It is automatically coming out. Overall it is a decision that you will have to make for yourself, but I believe that it is best to do it manually