Comments
Hi Brian, I think this is a great question! There are a few things to consider:
-Some people find that making a habit of finding and donating to highly effective causes helps them develop habits they use later in their life. For example, Giving What We Can encourages students to donate 1% of they earnings. https://www.givingwhatwecan.org/about-us/frequently-asked-questions
-Some people find financial independence from their parents either virtuous or important from a practical standpoint (for example if it gives you more freedom to make your own decisions). I think it's reasonable to care about that.
-You probably have a lower income as a student than you will at most other times in your life, and you certainly have less wealth. You might want to consider whether the money you earn could be used to save you time or help you learn more or make new connections as a student.
-You also might want to consider your financial security after you graduate. Could this money give you more time to look for a good job, rather than taking the first job offered?
Consider saving first, then giving.
This seems like a good idea to me. I didn't donate immediately when I had my first job because I still felt financially illiterate and I didn't have a great sense of my overall spending and income trends. A few years later, when I had a few months runway in savings and a better sense of my financial position, I went back and made donations proportional to what I'd earned in years prior. This had the additional benefit of clustering my tax writeoffs in a single year, resulting in a nice tax refund.