There’s a new rule — or guiding principle — in my life that I’m pretty excited about. Let’s call it the $5 Rule for now.
Here’s how it works: Every day, I plan to carry around a $5 bill in my back pocket. That $5 bill is reserved for small favors — thank you’s, gifts, donations, etc.
And it’s to be given to anyone who walks up to me and asks for it. Street performers. Homeless people. Yes, even that random guy outside of the local bodega who asks everyone for something. If that guy asks, he gets it.
With the $5 comes no snap judgements of character. I don’t ask what they plan on doing with it. Everyone qualifies (friends being the one exception, sorry guys). Even those I’ve seen before and given to. If they’re the person that day that’s asked for it, they get the $5 bill. For the next day, I simply replenish it with a new one.
And the idea behind it is simple: I love giving back.
As one of my great mentors, Dave Kerpen, frequently writes, giving back is often a very selfish act. It instantly makes you feel better.
But I’ve always felt that handing a person some spare change, or a dollar here and there was way too nuanced, and the contribution itself too negligible to really change anyone’s day.
But $5? Someone might notice that.
And so I created a hard-and-fast rule of $5 a day. Is that a lot? Sure. If I gave out $5 every day of the year, I would dole out over $1800 throughout the course of the year. That’s enough for a fancy new Apple laptop. Or a fat chunk in a savings account.
But for now, it’s a rule I’m planning on sticking to. I might turn it into a whole system — hand out handwritten Thank Yous with the $5. Maybe even create a stacking system that goes as high as $20 if I haven’t pulled a Bill out in a few days. Who knows.
But initially, I’ll keep it simple. Just $5 a day.
What’s your $5 Rule?
Kindness Blog 
Reblogged this on MrMilitantNegro™.
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Love this idea…but do people specifically have to ask for $5? What if they just ask for change?
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No they don’t. I’d say most of the people I ran into generally did ask for change — much easier than $5. If I still had the $5, they’d get it.
And thank you for reading! If you want to read more from me, check out my personal blog at mikekilcoyne.me.
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Just to add in Islam we have the saying when you give some one some thing you will not get poor because the more you give the more you will get.
I love this ideas only in SA 5$ for me would be to R50 so I would try with the R5 tip in my country thanks for the amazing share✌️
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Thank you 🙂
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Great point. I feel the exact same way as well.
Thanks for reading! Glad you enjoyed it.
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Wonderful idea. I think I’ll take you up on that one plus add I may just give when I see the need without being asked. Some days I don’t go out but today is not one of them!
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Brilliant, Elle! 🙂
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What a nice idea! I try to remember to tithe 10% my income and keep it in an envelope which is for “gifts”. If I give to some one on the street collecting or something I take it back from there, but to advantage of this for me it it tends to build up so when I hear of someone somewhere who needs help I can send a larger amount (since these needs tend to be international larger amounts are more practical).
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I think that’s brilliant, too — there was a group I read about a while ago (sorry I can’t find the link), but essentially they would build up a large sum of money through individual contributions, then randomly distribute that to a person in a given year. This is a similar idea.
And thanks for reading! If you’d like to read more from me, I’ll be focusing my writing at my personal blog at: mikekilcoyne.me
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I can’t spare $5 so I spread my kindness by being positive with all the blogs I follow. No negativity allowed. 😀
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That’s good, too — there are tons of other ways to help people outside of contributing money. I think money is just universally one of the easiest ways.
Thanks for reading!
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I’ve carried dollar coins to give away for similar reasons. It often gets a surprised response from the recipient.
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