There are LOTS of wealthy people in the world, but not many of them uses their wealth for other than themselves or their family. Bill and Melinda Gates and Warren Buffett are two of the most wealthy people in the world, and whose life can serve as a good example to all of us on how to spend our wealth. I just finished reading Melinda Gates goes public article, and felt kinda overwhelmed on what they are doing for the world. Bill Gates will retire from Microsoft in June this year, and he will concentrate on Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. The foundation currently has assets of $37.6 billion, have gotten $3.4 billion and will get an additional $41 billion from Buffett. I’ve read enough about wives of very rich husbands who spends their money lavishly, but Melinda Gates doesn’t seem to be such woman. If you read that article, you can see how passionate she is with helping very poor people in Africa and India infected with AIDS and other diseases that has no cure now.
Tell me, how many super wealthy people have that passionate heart to put their hand on one young woman suffering from AIDS and tuberculosis who was “just bones” in Calcutta? How many woman can make the richest man in the world to be less lopsided and more compassionate about the well-being of poor people half-a-globe away from US? The more I read that article, the more I’m impressed with Melinda Gates.
Another good point that I can pick up from that article is how they raised and educated their kids. I’ve also read enough stories about wealthy parents who didn’t educate their kids well enough by giving them too much money. “The Gates children are reaching the age where they want to understand their parents’ passions. In 2006, Melinda and Bill took the two oldest children to South Africa, showing them slums and an orphanage in Cape Town.” I’m sure that trip alone will have a big impact in their children’s heart. When you have LOTS of money, should you give all to your children? I don’t think so. Let me pick up the last paragraph from that article. “As Bill says about their children, “They know the money is overwhelming.” And of course the kids have asked whether their parents will provide for them as generously as they do for those poor people who receive their billions. “We say, ‘You’ll be fine. You’ll still be very well-off,’” Bill says. While he and Melinda plan to give away 95% of their wealth in their lifetimes, they have not yet decided how much of what’s left will go to the children. Melinda says they will follow Warren Buffett’s philosophy: “A very rich person should leave his kids enough to do anything, but not enough to do nothing.“
I like that philosophy 
Very nice post. I love it.
Comment by Bumblebee's Making Money — January 20, 2008 @ 11:12 pm