Spending The Kids Inheritance and ELYSIUM
Without Prejudice
By all accounts it's generally not a good idea to assure your children that they are going to inherit your wealth. Most rich kids need to know that they are expected to work. We are all tempted to want our hard work and sacrifice to go to our kids, it's only natural. However it doesn't teach them anything.
By all accounts it's generally not a good idea to assure your children that they are going to inherit your wealth. Most rich kids need to know that they are expected to work. We are all tempted to want our hard work and sacrifice to go to our kids, it's only natural. However it doesn't teach them anything.
Anyone that watches any of the celebrity rehab shows will have noticed that rich kids are often admitted, suffering alcohol and drug issues. In a world where they are the recipients of immense wealth and no challenges it seems drugs and alcohol are a panacea to ennui and boredom. One of the worst addicts, Adam, grew up privileged, spoiled and from young knew he would never have to work.
He was told this by his parents and grandparents, almost as if it was a good thing. He heard it all his life. He now shows himself to be heftily overweight, lazy, indulgent and one of the worst addicts the show has ever seen, his long term prognosis is not good.
My lovely brother in law has always said,
" A Boy needs to have a purpose to get up, every day"
And it's hard to NOT indulge your kids. We don't want our kids to have the same life as we had.
My brother says that he admits he did the wrong thing with his kids and when I ask what he means, he replies,
" I gave them everything "
The first rule to raising healthy kids is first comes love, second comes discipline.
My siblings and I were lucky enough to be profoundly poor growing up. If we didnt work we didn't get anything. My brothers did paper rounds in the snow in the U.K. I had to leave school and go to work at 15 as Dad was unemployed and mouths had to be fed.
I thought at the time it was what I wanted, but I missed school terribly the job as a junior mail clerk was mundane, boring, hard, dirty and the step up was the typing pool. I went back to school at 32 with four kids and a husband and a Business to look after, and passed Year 12 with the prize of the Year in Humanities, English.
My older Sister left school at 14 and went straight to work. My younger Sister also went back to School late in life. My older brother as a soldier brought home rations for us when we lived in Mount Martha and I was 12 then. We were always aware we were poor, that our parents were not responsible with money and we all then had the driving force to get out of the poverty trap. It's not funny being poor.
None of us can now stand debt.
My brother and I jumped onto a train at 16 and 18 respectively and without our parents knowledge left Wagga where there was no work to travel to Sydney to get jobs. The dole at that time was $2.00 and my Mum wanted a dollar of it, that was a fortnight.
By 16, I was living in Melbourne, without my family, working as a shop assistant at Myers Chadstone. I lived in a boarding house in Caulfield, earned $17 a week after paying my HBA and worked five and a half days a week. My Mum after getting used to the idea of me leaving home, gave me a cheque for ten dollars and wanted it paid back within the following fortnight. Which I did.
I was never homesick, never thought about returning to my family if things became tough. I was earning money, surviving, and feeling like a grown up. I never felt scared even though I was living among strangers, forging a life, it just was the way it was and had to be done.
Here, following are some very wealthy people who are refusing to hand over their wealth to their kids, a lot goes to charity as you will see and that is so much more worthwhile. Seeing your money be able to actually transform lives, no feeling better in the world.
Matt Damon reflected, recently, on his new movie, Elysium, part of which was shot in the slums of Mexico. 2,500 people living on a dump in Mexico City, terribly poor, beyond poor, living their lives. A sub culture where babies are born, people are married, traditions are kept, the dust mainly consisting of fecal matter which would collect on the actors skin at days end.
The shitty towels the cast would wipe themselves with at the end of the day, hurled at each other in a black humour. Not able to change things for the 2,500. And knowing at the end of the day's work, they would be going out for a wonderful dinner, after a hot shower, fluffy towels, clean clothes and the irony never escaped Matt. And the next day, filming would start again in the dump.
He said it was surreal and the scenes shot there in the dump are the most powerful in the movie, using real life people and not extras. No one can make that stuff up.
He was told this by his parents and grandparents, almost as if it was a good thing. He heard it all his life. He now shows himself to be heftily overweight, lazy, indulgent and one of the worst addicts the show has ever seen, his long term prognosis is not good.
My lovely brother in law has always said,
" A Boy needs to have a purpose to get up, every day"
And it's hard to NOT indulge your kids. We don't want our kids to have the same life as we had.
My brother says that he admits he did the wrong thing with his kids and when I ask what he means, he replies,
" I gave them everything "
The first rule to raising healthy kids is first comes love, second comes discipline.
My siblings and I were lucky enough to be profoundly poor growing up. If we didnt work we didn't get anything. My brothers did paper rounds in the snow in the U.K. I had to leave school and go to work at 15 as Dad was unemployed and mouths had to be fed.
I thought at the time it was what I wanted, but I missed school terribly the job as a junior mail clerk was mundane, boring, hard, dirty and the step up was the typing pool. I went back to school at 32 with four kids and a husband and a Business to look after, and passed Year 12 with the prize of the Year in Humanities, English.
My older Sister left school at 14 and went straight to work. My younger Sister also went back to School late in life. My older brother as a soldier brought home rations for us when we lived in Mount Martha and I was 12 then. We were always aware we were poor, that our parents were not responsible with money and we all then had the driving force to get out of the poverty trap. It's not funny being poor.
None of us can now stand debt.
My brother and I jumped onto a train at 16 and 18 respectively and without our parents knowledge left Wagga where there was no work to travel to Sydney to get jobs. The dole at that time was $2.00 and my Mum wanted a dollar of it, that was a fortnight.
By 16, I was living in Melbourne, without my family, working as a shop assistant at Myers Chadstone. I lived in a boarding house in Caulfield, earned $17 a week after paying my HBA and worked five and a half days a week. My Mum after getting used to the idea of me leaving home, gave me a cheque for ten dollars and wanted it paid back within the following fortnight. Which I did.
I was never homesick, never thought about returning to my family if things became tough. I was earning money, surviving, and feeling like a grown up. I never felt scared even though I was living among strangers, forging a life, it just was the way it was and had to be done.
Here, following are some very wealthy people who are refusing to hand over their wealth to their kids, a lot goes to charity as you will see and that is so much more worthwhile. Seeing your money be able to actually transform lives, no feeling better in the world.
Matt Damon reflected, recently, on his new movie, Elysium, part of which was shot in the slums of Mexico. 2,500 people living on a dump in Mexico City, terribly poor, beyond poor, living their lives. A sub culture where babies are born, people are married, traditions are kept, the dust mainly consisting of fecal matter which would collect on the actors skin at days end.
The shitty towels the cast would wipe themselves with at the end of the day, hurled at each other in a black humour. Not able to change things for the 2,500. And knowing at the end of the day's work, they would be going out for a wonderful dinner, after a hot shower, fluffy towels, clean clothes and the irony never escaped Matt. And the next day, filming would start again in the dump.
He said it was surreal and the scenes shot there in the dump are the most powerful in the movie, using real life people and not extras. No one can make that stuff up.
From Business Insider
THEY'RE among the world's richest people, but don't expect them to share their incredible wealth with their children.
Some plan to donate their millions to charity, while others just want to teach their offspring the value of hard work.
As Business Insider reports, the kids of these cashed-up 15 tycoons - including actors, company founders and musicians - won't be living the high life on their parents' coin.
TV personality Nigella Lawson
She came from a wealthy family and made her fortune through her best-selling books and TV shows. But Lawson expects her children to support themselves once they finished school.
"I am determined that my children should have no financial security. It ruins people not having to earn money," she said.
Microsoft founder and CEO Bill Gates
Gates and his wife Melinda – who have three children - founded the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation in 1994, with assets of over $US37 billion ($40.9 billion).
They set up "The Giving Pledge," inviting other wealthy individuals to donate half their money to charity.
"I knew I didn't think it was a good idea to give the money to my kids. That wouldn't be good either for my kids or society," Gates once said.
Iron magnate Gina Rinehart
The richest woman in Australia, who inherited her company from father Lang Hancock, believes three of her four children are unfit to manage the family fortune.
“None of the plaintiffs has the requisite capacity or skill, nor the knowledge, experience, judgment or responsible work ethic to administer a trust in the nature of the trust in particular as part of the growing HPPL Group,” she once claimed in court papers.
Investor Warren Buffet
The billionaire investor has pledged to give away 99 per cent of his wealth.
“I want to give my kids just enough so that they would feel that they could do anything, but not so much that they would feel like doing nothing," he wrote to the Gates Foundation, to which he pledged 83 per cent of his wealth.
eBay founder Pierre Omidyar
The father of three continuously gives eBay shares to the Omidyar Network, his philanthropic investment firm.
He and his wife Pam are the single biggest private donors to the fight against the human trafficking industry.
New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg
Worth $19.5 billion, the avid philanthropist has donated millions to Johns Hopkins University, the Carnegie Corporation, and thousands of other non-profits.
“The best financial planning ends with bouncing the check to the undertaker," the father of two once said.
KISS bassist Gene Simmons
The rockstar wants his kids Nick and Sophie to work as hard as he did to build his $300 million wealth.
“In terms of an inheritance and stuff, they're gonna be taken care of, but they will never be rich off my money,” he told CNBC. “Because every year they should be forced to get up out of bed, and go out and work and make their own way."
Actor Jackie Chan
The movie star announced two years ago he would give away half his money to charity when he dies, instead of his son Jaycee.
"If he is capable, he can make his own money. If he is not, then he will just be wasting my money," he told Channel NewsAsia.
Actor Jackie Chan announced two years ago he would give away half his money to charity when he dies, instead of his son Jaycee. Picture: Mark Ralston/AFP
Home Depot co-founder Bernard Marcus
Marcus doesn’t want to share much of his $1.5 billion with his children “for their own good”.
He plans to give most to the Georgia Aquarium and his own charity, the Marcus Foundation.
Businessman Chuck Feeney
The co-founder of airport stores Duty-Free Shoppers Group transferred his billions to his foundation, Atlantic Philanthropies, in the 1980s.
He reportedly forced his children to make calls on payphones and to work through their holidays.
"I want the last check I write to bounce," he told the New York Times.
Media mogul Ted Turner
He made his fortune founding media outlets like CNN and TBS, and has given billions of dollars to causes such as the United Nations Foundation.
Turner has five children from three marriages but rather than leave them with anything, he said he wants just enough money to cover his funeral expenses when he dies.
Hedge fund manager John Arnold
Arnold, 40, closed his hedge fund, Centaurus Energy, last year after amassing about $4 billion.
Now he and his wife Laura want to give it away through their foundation rather than to their three children.
"Because of our backgrounds and because of our own experiences, we just don't believe in dynastic wealth," Laura Arnold said.
British composer Andrew Lloyd Webber
Webber wants to use his millions to encourage teaching the arts, rather than funding the lifestyles of his five children.
"(A will) is one thing you do start to think about when you get to my age. I don't think it should be about having a whole load of rich children and grandchildren," he said.
Director and producer George Lucas
The father of four signed on to the Gates' The Giving Pledge in 2010, promising to give at least half of his wealth away by the time of his death to improve education.
Texas oil and gas magnate T. Boone Pickens
The corporate raider has a net worth of $1.4 billion and as a signatory to The Giving Pledge, plans to donate at least half of it to charity.
"I'm not a big fan of inherited wealth. It generally does more harm than good," he said.
