How Much to Give is a Pragmatic Question

From my point of view, the biggest issue that makes this question an everlasting companion for most is uncertainty. Even if I could currently give 50% away and have the same standard, how will that look like in a few years? What if I lose my job in my 50s and struggle to find anything? What if my abilities will become meaningless because of technological advancements even earlier?

I would assume for most it's not a question of consumption vs. donations, as many essays and books make it sound. It's about the balance between how much to put into your own financial securement vs. donating. This is probably much easier to answer for promising 80,000 hours supported geniuses, but a very different picture for the Average Joe who struggled in school and to find employment in the first place. It's probably impossible to give clear answers when taking that into consideration, though.

To follow on to your point, as it relates to my personal views, (in case anyone is interested,) it's worth quoting the code of Jewish law. It introduces its discussion of Tzedakah by asking how much one is required to give. "The amount, if one has sufficient ability, is giving enough to fulfill the needs of the poor. But if you do not have enough, the most praiseworthy version is to give one fifth, the normal amount is to give a tenth, and less than that is a poor sign." And I note that this was written in the 1500s, where local charity was the majority of what was practical; today's situation is one where the needs are clearly beyond any one person's ability - so the latter clauses are the relevant ones.

So I think that, in a religion that prides itself on exacting standards and exhaustive rules for the performance of mitzvot, this is endorsing exactly your point: while giving might be a standard, and norms and community behavior is helpful in guiding behavior, the amount to give is always a personal and pragmatic decision, not a general rule.

This is extremely relevant for me as I have been thinking a lot about when to start making more serious donations. I discussed some previous blockers here which haven't been resolved. I am therefore considering commissioning some research (ideally with others).

Broadly I'm interested in better understanding the 'donators dilemma': if you give money now, you forego the later opportunity to 'give better' due to having improved information, and to 'give more' due to passive income. Also to benefit from increased financial security that might enable you to have more direct impact (e.g., by taking a lower paid role that has higher impact, or starting a new initiative). 

I want somebody to systematically review the literature for to capture the different arguments and trade-offs for giving now versus later. Then to create some sort of accessible decision-making tool or process that people like me can use to decide on an appropriate threshold or strategy to have WRT to giving now versus later.

If anyone is also interested in funding this or knows some existing tools, then please let me know.

I just found that Sebastian Schwiecker had written a blog post on the same topic.
Because of

 I was hoping there were good EA blog posts on this topic, but after spending a while with EA Forum search and Google I didn't find any.

... I'm leaving this link here :) https://effektiv-spenden.org/blog/wie-viel-soll-ich-spenden/

Thank you for writing this. I have been struggling with this question myself, and your recommendation will hopefully give me motivation to finally getting around to creating a budget 

I like your posts. They are short and informative.

I really wonder how you manage to have the time to work, take care of the kids and do other stuff like writing... good posts. It is not only that the topic is usually interesting, but writing short informative posts is usually much more time-consuming that writing the same post as a long and not specific/without links version. How do you do it?