Forbes Billionaire's List and How Rich is Rich Enough to Give to Charity?

A few days ago Forbes posted its annual list of the world's richest people. While the billionaires gracing the normal list were mostly obvious -- Warren Buffett, Bill Gates, etc, the list that I found more interesting was the sidebar "World's Youngest Billionaires."

Many of the world's youngest rich inherited their wealth. Some, like Facebook's Mark Zuckerberg, are self-made billionaires. At just 23 (he's only a year younger than me) he's set for life. And a few other lives, as long as he can reincarnate and claim his savings on his return to earth.

As I've been figuring out my budget upon my upcoming raise, I noted that I feel like I'm almost making too much money, and I don't know what to do with it all.

Of course, that's not true. Now that I actually have money to put into savings, I can start seriously saving for things I want, like for the down payment on a house.

The other day as I was driving I was thinking about how nice it would be to make enough money that I could donate a substantial chunk of it to charity. Then greed clouded my head and I thought - why donate money when I can save the money? My Roth IRA isn't maxed out yet, and even then the extra cash put into a SEP Ira, a high interest savings account for the house down payment, a CD or some other saving mechanism would probably be a wiser move.

I always thought that charity should be given in time, not money. If you're going to be charitable, go do some volunteer work, help build a house with Habitat for Humanity, or volunteer to mentor in-need kids in a local town.

Then I got into the "real world" where I realized time is money and I have more money than time. Yet I still don't feel like I have enough money to donate yet.

Obviously, given my pay bump I could donate $100 a month instead of putting that to my investments and just pretend it never happened. It would probably make me feel all warm and fuzzy inside, but I don't know how warm and fuzzy I'll feel when I retire and the government has run out of money for social security.

At what point in one's wealth-building career does charity become a necessity? Does everyone donate to charity? How much is the proper amount to donate, percentage wise, of one's income? What if one's job is unstable and while he or she is making a good amount of money now (in the $55-$70k range, dependent on how many freelance projects are completed), but in a few months she might be unemployed? What if, as a freelancer, my entire life is lived like that? And then what if I have kids and more than just myself to worry about one day, financially speaking? When do I give to charity and when do I just be selfish and keep all my money?