<prompt> Human: So, the background is that I am a college student in my 5th year at school. I have a decent part time job 11hour and my parents help pay for my rent and bills while Im in school.Two years ago I was in a car accident I was the passenger, it was a date that obviously ended poorly and while I walked away, it was with a concussion that caused some damage. My lawyer informed my parents and myself that they are reaching a settlement with the insurance company. After everything is paid for medical, lawyers, its expected Ill have about 15,000 for personal could be more, depends. 11,000 will be going into the Roth account my dad set up for me, 1,000 will go towards my credit card bill, and at least another 1,000 will go to my savings. Out of the money thats left, I want to donate 1,000 to my college marching band, or do 500 to the band and 500 to my high school band. Both were very important to me, and I want to give back. My parents are passively discouraging me from doing this, or at least donating much less. I know I need to save and that this is something I can do later in life when I have an actual job. However, I have the mindset of if I dont do this now, then I wont do it at all. Additionally, and to be frank, receiving this much money is rather unreal to me, and I want to do something that feels good with it.So, thoughts? The money shouldnt be taxable, because its medical. Im working on a budget with my current income, so the money isnt factored into that right now.  <response>: Im inclined to agree with your parents. 15,000 is not very much money at all, and I would suggest getting yourself onto a solid financial footing before doing charitable donations of significant amounts of your money. Theres no reason you cant set a future budget goal to save several thousand dollars or more to give back to your school once you have a solid emergency fund, have paid off any debt you may have, and are on track for retirement and other important personal savings goals.See the Prime Directive for a good sequence of steps to be personally on track financially. Charitable giving would come after these. 