- Monday 04 March 2024
Last year, we worked with the family of a ‘bachelor’ who passed away peacefully at the age of 85. The value of his estate, made up of cash, investments and property was more than €5m, but no one, other than his solicitor, had any idea of his wealth. He lived in a modest suburban home, drove a 10-year old car and never displayed any material signs affluence. That said, he was loved by his family, well regarded by his community and by all accounts a very happy individual.
I remember speaking with a colleague after we had completed our work with the family and being asked if I thought it was a ‘waste’ that he had passed away with such a large estate rather than using it in his lifetime.
I didn’t know at the time, and in many ways I’m still not sure.
At one level, he demonstrated that creating wealth isn’t necessarily about how your background, education or job. It’s mostly (with some caveats of course) about having the right behaviour – patience, control over greed and fear, long-term thinking, etc. This is what we try to communicate to our clients all the time.
But is it possible he would have been happier if he had lived in a bigger house, wore expensive clothes, travelled the world, ate at nice restaurants, and donated or gifted his money while he was alive to see its impact?
Of course. It’s possible. There’s no way to know without a deeper knowledge of the man himself. It’s possible even he didn’t know. Maybe he was ‘miserly’, depriving himself and others of a better life because of fear or anger. Or maybe he was financially independent, and that was simply enough. I have no doubt that many would look at him and assume his frugality was excessive, almost to the point of mental illness. But I think it’s absolutely possible that they was absolutely content and living his best life.
I always speak to clients about the perception of wealth. The world tells us– explicitly or not – that everyone should want the same things: A big house, a nice car, advanced education, credentials, social standing. But, I explain, much of their appeal is an attraction to status, which can be completely different from happiness.
Chuck Feeney is a name synonymous with charity and frugality, achieving almost saint-like status in Ireland for his financial donations to a wide range of organisations. The well-known part of his story is that he gave away 99.99% of his $8 billion fortune before he died. He and his wife lived in a small apartment, flew economy, and gave the rest to charity.
The less well-known part of Feeney’s story is that he didn’t always life like that. Back in the early 1980s, when he was newly rich, he had luxury apartments in New York, London and Paris, holidays in Aspen and the French Riviera. He socialised with the other Ultra-Wealthy on yachts and private jets. If he wanted it, he could afford it.
He soon realised that life wasn’t for him. Society told him he should want those things. But it wasn’t what actually made him happy.
Giving money away was.
“I’m happy when what I’m doing is helping people and unhappy when what I’m doing isn’t helping people,” Feeney said.
That is Financial Freedom.
He didn’t follow a typical path of what other people told him to like or how to live.
He found what made him happy.
If you would like help turning your money into meaning, we have tailored programmes designed specifically for this purpose
