You’ll feel free, the “opposite of heavy” if you do!
Ask yourself: does money buy happiness? Sure shopping and new gadgets bring you excitement. But we should know that you can still be sick, lonely and depressed while rich.
After thinking of it that way, would you be surprised to see this news heading:
“Millionaire gives away fortune which made him miserable”
Well it’s true, there you have it. Having money doesn’t buy you happiness. This millionaire from Austria, Karl Rabeder, is giving away every penny of his £3 million fortune. Why? He said he realized his riches were making him unhappy.
The story definitely caught my attention. In Graphic Design class I actually just finished a Propaganda Poster assignment, and the issue I chose was “The Influence of Affluence – Are We Really Happy?”. So, this piece of news was perfectly relevant!
Rabeder is selling his luxury 3,455 sq ft villa with lake, sauna and spectacular mountain views over the Alps (£1.4 million), his beautiful old stone farmhouse in Provence with 17 hectares overlooking the arrière-pays (£613,000) and has already sold of 6 gliders (£350,00o) and a luxury Audi A8 (£44,000).
The incredible thing is that he wants to have NOTHING left, and in a Telegraph article he boldly stated:
“Money is counterproductive – it prevents happiness to come.”
Clearly he came to a tipping point in his life, was sick of consumerism, and just wanted to be happy.
The best part, I find, is that he’s giving ALL of the money to charity. He has his own microcredit charity that offers small loans to Latin America and builds development aid strategies to self-employed people in developing countries.
Do you think you’ll ever get to the point where you feel you’re slaving for things you really don’t even need? Will you live modestly, make a difference in other’s lives and be satisfied? Will you re-think your goals and money-hungry attitude? Or will you get out there and make big bucks (but perhaps be lonely or feel empty later)?
I’m not saying money is bad, someone else said that already. But I’ll definitley encourage us to take Mr. Rabeder’s life-changing story seriously!
