Tycoon gives up his money, trades it in for happiness

[Mari333]

PARIS: An Austrian tycoon is giving away every penny of his £3 million ($5.3 million) fortune, having realised that his riches made him unhappy.

''My idea is to have nothing left. Absolutely nothing. Money is counter-productive - it prevents happiness.''

He will move out of his Alpine retreat into a small wooden hut in the mountains or a simple bedsit in Innsbruck, surviving on £800 a month while the proceeds go to a charity he set up in Latin America. He will draw no salary from it.

''For a long time I believed that more wealth and luxury automatically meant more happiness. I come from a very poor family where the rules were to work more to achieve more material things, and I applied this for many years















http://www.theage.com.au/executive-style/luxury/tycoon-trades-high-life-for-bedsit-20100209-npsx.html


wow just wow

[MrScorpio]

1. I take it that he's not a Christian fundamentalist n/a

[Duke Newcombe]

5. You in town all week? n/t

[HCE SuiGeneris]

9. !

:rofl:

[Joe the Liberal]

2. Wow indeed. n/t

[KamaAina]

3. He got ripped off

Money may not be a guarantee of happiness, but poverty sure as hell isn't, either.

[tinrobot]

14. He's not becomeing poor.

He's leaving himself enough to live off of, but not excessively.

[Commie Pinko Dirtbag]

4. Where does the £800/mo comes from? Did he get a job? The article doesn't say. -nt

[Mari333]

6. maybe he has to transition down to poverty

nonetheless, he says in the article that living a 5 star lifestyle is not happiness. if he is simplifying himself, good for him. I guess it is a matter of balance. too much money and one cannot see the forest for the trees or something.

[dysfunctional press]

7. he probably purchased an annuity to live on before liquidating.

the 800 he recieves would convert to about $1400/month- a little more than i receive each month from social security. but i'm guessing that he'll also have guaranteed healthcare as well.
i've got medicare, but it only covers 80%, and i can't get any supplemental coverage for the other 20%.

lots of people in this country live on a lot less than he'll be getting.

[happy_liberal]

8. WE need more of this shift...

“We must rapidly begin the shift from a thing-oriented society to a person-oriented society. When machines and computers, profit motives and property rights, are considered more important than people, the giant triplets of racism, extreme materialism, and militarism are incapable of being conquered.” MLK

[varelse]

10. He sure looks happy

I am glad he's found the key to his own happiness (and, apparently, his wife's as well).

[GliderGuider]

11. I totally get where he's coming from.

I did something similar.

http://upload.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=103&topic_id=516644&mesg_id=516657

[DemoTex]

12. So, why is he selling his stuff? Why not give it away?

He is making some rich real estate and aircraft brokers richer, ergo more unhappy (by his calculus). BTW: I'd take one of those gliders off his hands. That would make me very, very .. er .. unhappy.

Know what I mean, Vern?

[GliderGuider]

13. Because he's using the proceeds to fund his charity.

There's a double benefit. He sells his "stuff" at a loss, so both he and the buyer can get some satisfaction out of the transaction. Then the cash proceeds go towards something he feels strongly about. It's not just about getting rid of the stuff, it's about doing so impeccably.

It seems perfectly logical to me.

[Rebubula]

15. Money

It neither buys nor prevents happiness. Happiness is a state of mind. Some people are happy rich or poor....some are depressed rich or poor.

Money does not buy happiness, but it makes the life more comfortable.