I've been thinking a lot lately about money, success, spirituality, human suffering, career choices and after reading the following article, I felt more peaceful:
An Austrian millionaire is giving away his fortune and all his personal possessions because 'they never made me happy.'
Karl Rebeder, 47, from Linz, claims he will use the money from his household accessory business - worth over $4.7 million - to fund orphanages and other help-the-poor projects in South America.
'I had the idea on holiday in Hawaii some years ago,' he said.
'My cars and plane have already gone and the rest follows very soon. I can't wait to be free of them.
'From this developed, less than a year ago, a greenhouse project which gives orphans the possibility to have agricultural training, to take up a small loan in order to make themselves independent vegetable growers.
'I set up a new non-profit micro-credit organisation to distribute these small loans to help these poor but industrious people.'
He told Austrian TV viewers of his plan to raffle his luxury Tyrol villa by lots - with all money going to the mymicrocredit.com foundation he started late last year - and shedding his fortune on the Stoeckl am Samstag chat-show programme, presented by Barbara Stoeckl, in an interview due to be broadcast in May.
Rabeder claims he is happy living in a small flat and surviving on the equivalent of $1,260 a month.
'My then-wife and I were on the plane together coming back from Hawaii in 2004 and I realized that I was dying through consumerism,' he recalled.
'It has taken me until now to realize that I don't need money and possessions.
'I learned as a child the value of money and how to get by without it.'
Rabeder's father was a painter, his mother an office worker.
He founded his first company in 1986 and soon became rich, adding; 'I thought the more money I had the happier I would become, but it was not the case.'
He now lives in a two-room flat in Innsbruck, is divorced and added; 'The worst that can happen to me is that I have to take a small job to get by.'
Of course, we all realize that we need money to live, but it seems no matter how much we worry about it, we always seem to have what we need (most of us). I believe it is everyone's duty to help those that don't have the basics: food, water, shelter.
Peace, love and joy to all of you!!
3 comments:
This is awesome - what this man is doing it and the lesson behind it. Something that has always got to me is how some people live in utter extravagance with 20 houses, 100 cars, boats, planes, etc....and know that there are people dying because they don't have clean water! It blows my mind.
I have learned in the last 9 months of unemployment that I can live without spending any money on myself except for the bare necessities. If it weren't for the generosity of my family, I would be on the street right now. No income, no more savings, no joke!
Love the new blog look :)
I always tell myself just what you wrote - we always seem to have what we need. I've found no matter how often at different times through life I've worried about money, God always sees me/us through. Years ago when my husband lost his job (for almost 2 years) I would worry and my mom would say, "Look at all those birds, God doesn't let them go hungry, He will keep you fed..." and He did!
Oh, I laughed out loud at "Squash"!!!!
God bless.
I learned somewhere in Andrew's addiction that money cannot buy the life giving things..happiness, health, a hug from someone I love, a hug from a stranger. When he was homeless, so many people gave him food, money, and warm clothes. Total strangers!!
It was a huge lesson for me to stop chasing the big 401K, and start helping others. I really feel now, God knew I would not learn that lesson any other way.
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