I was listening to the song “billionaire” by Bruno Mars and Travie McCoy last night and it got me thinking how everybody wants to be a billionaire. Of course, who don’t want to have the money to buy all the things he never had? Being wealthy is what everyone wants to be, although we do not really have any clear idea on how to achieve that goal. Having those riches is a dream all of us have in common.
The big question is; what are you going to do with your money if you have billions of it? I know you would automatically picture yourself being in Paris, shopping fancy clothes, buying a luxury car and having a mansion or cruising around the world.
Fascinating! Isn’t it? How one simple question could give you a whole bunch of ideas, and believe me just thinking of what you could do with such amount, can be so tiring. So let’s just give that burden to the real billionaires.
Talking about real billionaires, what are they exactly doing with their money? Well, here’s what I found out from a research I made. They are actually giving a portion of those billions away! Yes, they are giving away billions for a good cause. They usually do it by putting up their own foundations that provides aid to those who needs it the most or they donate it to certain institutions which are making studies in preserving life or finding cure to a cancer or some deadly diseases.
The most generous people in the world
Forbes actually listed down 19 of them and they are called “The World’s Most Generous People for 2011.” First on that list would of course Bill Gates who has donated a whapping $28 billion since 1999 when he funded his family foundation with $16 billion in Microsoft stock. Now money goes to Harvard’s computer science department, libraries, pilot high schools, and staff like that.
Next to him was none other than his friend, Warren Buffett with donations totaling to $8.3 billion. Buffett actually have said before that he would only give his money when he dies but had changed his mind in 2006 and pledged to give more than $30 billion to the Gates Foundation over 20 years. Last year alone he turned over $1.9 billion and he even teamed up with Gates to create the Giving Pledge that made 69 of the wealthiest individuals and families to commit in donating the major portion of their riches to philanthropy.
Trailing on them on the third place was George Soros who has donated $8 billion since 1979. He supports causes as diverse as clean-needle clinics in California and scientific research in Russia and in helping the Roma or Gypsies in Eastern Europe. He has given $1.7 billion to human rights causes and in helping promote democracy through his Open Society and $1.6 billion for education.
An inspiration
Though these billionaires have all the money in the world to have the ability to donate billions, it doesn’t mean ordinary people like us, cannot be as generous as they are. Whether you’re just earning a thousand, or just even hundreds, we can be as kind as these extremely rich people. Besides, it’s not only money that the world needs. Our children need time and our planet also needs our attention. I hope this story serves us as an inspiration to all of us.
To view the entire list of the world’s most generous people and biggest givers, you may visit the list at Forbes.com.
Lyza is a correspondent for a local newspaper, full time news writer for a local radio station and a part time web writer. Her ultimate dream is to become a novelist but for now she’s joggling all those three jobs to further enhance her writing skills. She earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in Mass Communication and is incorporating all she has learned at school and through her personal experiences in her work.
Good night vic, artike interesting to be discussed tonight, I think there are many generous people in this world. But I think the real example of all this is how a man who contributed most of his wealth was generous indeed to help others, not merely to make him famous course. It’s all in my opinion. Hopefully, more and more rich people like Mr. minded. Bill Gates and his best friend. Let’s pray about it.