Each week BusinessDesk and the NZ Herald's Cooking the Books podcast tackles a different money problem. Today, the smartest ways to donate to charity. Hosted by Frances Cook.

You'll often hear the phrase that money can't buy happiness.

Which I agree with to a certain degree. Working yourself into the ground in order to have a pile of money that you use to simply buy more stuff, is something that won't bring most people happiness.

But there are certain things that researchers have shown do bring happiness.

Being able to cover the basic costs of your life, for one, can reduce a lot of stress.

Giving to charity or being able to help those around you is another way to spend your money that's been proven to genuinely make people happier.

But just because you want to give to others doesn't mean you splash your money around willy nilly and hope for the best.

If you're handing over money to a good cause, you want to make sure it actually gets to that good cause.

You also probably want to make sure your cash has the maximum impact once it gets there.

So if you're wanting to use some of your money to make the world a better place, what's the smartest way to do it?

For the latest podcast I talked to BusinessDesk senior journalist Victoria Young.

If you have a question about this podcast, or question you'd like answered in the next one, come and talk to me about it. I'm on Facebook here , Instagram here, and Twitter here

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