Men Gives Away Million Fortune , To Be Poor , Says Money Stops You From Being Happy .

[Mdm Tang]

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Karl Rabeder gives away $4.7 million fortune,
says money stops you from being happy



By Adam Sommers



Wednesday, February 10th 2010, 6:09 PM




Dear working stiffs and other people who have no money: Stop trying to be rich and get ahead in life. You don’t know how good you’ve got it.

That is exactly the message from a businessman named Karl Rabeder, who is planning to move into a small cabin in Innsbruck, Austria, after giving away a $4.7 million fortune he has spent a lifetime amassing, according to London’s The Daily Telegraph.

Rabeder grew up poor and thought that life would be wonderful if he had money. But when he got rich, he discovered that he was unhappy, so he’s giving away every dime.

"My idea is to have nothing left. Absolutely nothing," he told Telegraph. “Money is counterproductive – it prevents happiness to come.”

Instead, he will move out of his luxury Alpine retreat into a small wooden hut in the mountains or a simple dwelling in Innsbruck. His entire proceeds are going to charities he set up in Central and Latin America, but he will not even take a salary from these.

"For a long time I believed that more wealth and luxury automatically meant more happiness," he said. “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,” said Rabeder.

But over time, he had another, conflicting feeling, according to the Telegraph.

“More and more I heard the words: ‘Stop what you are doing now – all this luxury and consumerism – and start your real life’,” he’s quoted as saying. “I had the feeling I was working as a slave for things that I did not wish for or need. I have the feeling that there are lot of people doing the same thing.”

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Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/news/201...stops_you_from_being_happy.html#ixzz10c8EyJfb


Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/news/201...stops_you_from_being_happy.html#ixzz10c7upZQY

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[Mdm Tang]

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http://www.dailymail.co.uk/home/art...ods-postman-man-gave-away-millions-poor.html#

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Car smash kills 'God's postman', man who gave away millions to the poor
By Colin Fernandez



Last updated at 1:02 AM on 31st March 2008

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As a successful businessman, Benzion Dunner was not particularly interested in the trappings of wealth.

The 45-year-old gave away millions to the poor who would queue outside his home seeking financial assistance.

Now those he helped are in mourning after the devout family man was killed in a car crash.

The accident happened two days after Mr Dunner had handed £2million to the needy.

He had been writing cheques to those visiting his house in Golders Green, North London, to mark the religious festival of Purim, which celebrates the delivery of Jews from bondage in Persia.


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Tragedy: Benzion Dunner died only two days after writing out cheques for £2 million to the needy



His grieving father, Rabbi Aba Dunner, said: "He was singing and dancing with them and made each one feel special.

"He listened carefully and each one was given help according to their needs.

"It went on all Thursday night through to Friday morning. He saw himself as God's postman.

"He said to me, 'God doesn't give it to me to put in the bank. He entrusts me to do with it what he would want me to do'.

"He lived life to the full and described himself as a poor man with money. He wasn't looking for the bright lights.

"He was interested in people on the edge of society and bringing them back into the fold. I just hope it's drawn attention to what's possible when someone doesn't keep wealth for themselves."

The handout was an annual celebration for Mr Dunner, who made his money building a hugely successful property empire.

A family friend told the Jewish Chronicle: "He was one of the leading philanthropists, not only in this country, but in the global Jewish community. He gave away about £2million on Purim night alone.

"He gave away millions more during the course of the year."

Mr Dunner died after his £175,000 Bentley Amage collided with a Toyota Celica on a road near Bournemouth.

His passengers - two of his nine children, aged 20 and nine, and a 77-year- old woman - suffered only minor injuries, as did the two men in the other car.

Rabbi Dunner, executive director of the Conference of European Rabbis, added: "There's no comfort at all, just pride in learning about everything he did, some of which I never knew about.

"I've been learning new things from thousands of people coming to the house and pouring out their hearts. If it's supposed to happen, it's supposed to happen, if that's God's will."

The tragedy has stunned north London's Jewish community.

The funeral eight days ago was attended by more than 3,000 mourners.

Chief Rabbi Sir Jonathan Sacks said he was "truly heartbroken".

He added: "Benzion Dunner was an outstanding exemplar of Jewish values and Jewish responsibility.

"He was a person of exceptional chesed (kindness), much of whose work was done quietly behind the scenes and was all the more impressive for that."

Dayan Yisroel Lichtenstein, who prayed alongside Mr Dunner every day at the Sassover synagogue in Golders Green, said: "He was a very, very fine man, a real saint.

"There's not a man to have a bad word to say about Benzion Dunner."

Mr Dunner is survived by his wife Esther and his nine children, aged one to 21.

 

[Mdm Tang]

Re: Men Gives Away Million Fortune , To Be Poor , Says Money Stops You From Being Hap

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20 Millionaires Who Give Away Their Money

Written by Kathryn on September 10, 2009



There are over nine million millionaires in the world today with about three million in each the United States and Europe. What are all of these people doing with their money? Some of them may be selfishly living it up with a lavish lifestyle but a lot of them are also sharing the wealth. Every day there are millionaires who give away money. These aren’t just celebrities who have billions in the bank and who feel social pressure to give their money away. Some of these people are hard-working entrepreneurs who give back just because they think it’s the right thing to do. Others hang on to their cash until the end but decide to will it to charities or strangers upon their deaths. And some of them might even be willing to give theirs to you!



Why Millionaires Might Give Away Their Money



Why is it that millionaires are giving their money away? Some of the reasons may include:




• A desire to help others. Many millionaires do just give out of the kindness of their hearts. They figure that they have enough to spare so they should help others. These people may give to charities, organizations or individuals.

• Tax benefits. Let’s face it; a lot of people give money to charity because it’s a tax break to do so and that group of people includes millionaires.

• Social or political pressure. In some circles, it may be seen as somewhat of an obligation to give away at least some money to needier people.

• Personal tragedy. In other cases the millionaire has experienced a tragedy, such as an illness, and wants to contribute money to a specific cause related to that tragedy.

• Guilt. Millionaires who didn’t earn their money but instead inherited it may choose to give out of a feeling of guilt because they so easily got what others don’t have.

• Inspired by others who have given their money away. There’s a popular television show called Secret Millionaire which launched in the UK and then spread to the US. In this show, millionaires go undercover and give away money to people they believe are deserving of it. Shows like this have inspired other wealthy people to give their money away as well.

20 Examples of Millionaires Who Have Given Away Money



1. Ben Way. This man is famous for giving away his money because he was the first millionaire featured on the aforementioned UK show Secret Millionaire. He was a teenage millionaire entrepreneur and one of the first true dot-com success stories. He went on the show in 2006 and gave away £40,000 (which was split between another young entrepreneur, a member of his community and a youth organization). He has also been involved in a number of other charity pursuits.

2. Randy Pond. This man was another dot-com era success story who worked as the Vice President of Cisco Systems and gathered millions of dollars in stock options. He decided that philanthropy was important to him and helped to set up the Pond Family Foundation which has given away tens of thousands of dollars to charitable projects.

3. Charles Crystle. Here’s yet another example of a tech millionaire who donated millions to charity. This man operated a business called ChiliSoft which was acquired by Cobalt Networks in 2000. As a result of the acquisition, Crystle gained about $15 million. However, he committed approximately $11 million of that money to fund Central American non-profit organizations that teach high-tech business skills to people in developing countries.

4. Ken Nickerson. This man made millions of dollars in hedge funds and then went on to the world of philanthropy, using a lot of his own money to fund charitable organizations. Among other things, his family foundation provided a $15 million grant last year for the startup of Boston Rising which is an organization that fights poverty in Boston.

5. Bruce Bastian. You would think that a millionaire giving away money was always a good thing but sometimes it’s highly controversial. That was the case in 2008 when Utah millionaire Bruce Bastian chose to give some of his millions away to the gay marriage movement in California. At the time, Californians were fighting to protect the gay right to marriage. Many Utah residents are opposed to gay marriage and were donating money in opposition of gay marriage. Bastian’s decision to donate $1 million in favor of gay marriage was therefore highly controversial where he lived.

6. John Crean. Regardless of your personal and political beliefs, giving away money for religious reasons can be a good thing. John Crean started giving away 10% of his income way back in 1954 as part of his church’s belief in tithing. As he began to make more and more money in business, he increased his donations to 20% and eventually to 50%. In his final year before retirement he made $176.8 million and gave half of that away. Not all of this money went to his church; much of it also went to various other charitable organizations as well as to establishing the Crean Foundation which is a charitable organization of his own.

7. Percy Ross. Most millionaires give away only a portion of their money but a few of them give away just about everything. That’s the case with Percy Ross. The man was successful in various businesses including fur, plastic film and media. However, he was most well-known for loving to give his money away. He had a syndicated newspaper column called Thanks A Million through which readers could share their stories in a plea for his money. He gave away over $20 million to both individuals (such as those needing dental or medical care) and organizations (including hospitals and refugee groups). In his eighties, he was left without almost any money at all because he’d given his millions away!

8. Eli Saleeby. Ross isn’t the only one to give away a large chunk of his money. Eli Saleeby did the same thing although he wasn’t penniless when he died at age 98. He had come to America as an emigrant from Lebanon and worked his way into a self-made millionaire. Throughout his life he made both big and small donations including donations of over $1 million each to colleges and medical centers. He died without a fortune but with a whole community around him who appreciated his gifts.

9. Duncan Bannatyne. This millionaire is a Scottish entrepreneur and author who is aid to be worth over £3 million. He already donates about one third of that amount to a combination of his own charitable organization and a Romanian organization that assists HIV+ orphans. However he’s gone one step further and says that he’s going to give away his entire fortune before he dies.

10. Alberto Vilar. Here’s a warning story about how you should probably earn your millions legitimately if you want to give them away. Vilar was an investment advisor who donated millions of dollars to support the opera and other vocal music performance. However, he was arrested and convicted last year for securities fraud, money fraud, wire fraud and various other activities. Many of the opera groups that he gave to have tried to distance themselves from association with him as a result of this scandal.

11. Clive Cowdery. This English businessman made his millions in the insurance business but he gained attention because of his donations within the industry. He sold a company in 2007 at a worth of £245 million and immediately donated £20 million of that to Resolution Foundation which helps low-income people to earn more money.

12. Peter Cruddas. This man is an example of someone who inherited money but didn’t waste it. He has been highly successful in the internet securities business and has created a charitable organization under his name. He also has donated over £100m of his own personal money to youth organizations in an effort to “restructure the distribution of wealth”.

13. Christopher Hohn. This man and his wife are well-known as leading British philanthropists. They have created their own large charitable organization called The Children’s Investment Fund Foundation which aids children in developing nations. Hohn is a hedge fund manager who has donated personal money to this foundation. He and his wife ranked #2 on a list of British philanthropists last year which says that they’ve given away £236.8 million.

14. David and Heather Stevens. Another British couple that made the same list as the Hohns, the Stevens are founding managers of an insurance company called Admiral. They’re worth about £100 million and that’s the same amount that they gave away in charity shares last year. Talk about giving back 100%!

15. John White. Here’s an interesting case of a man whose friends and neighbors didn’t even know he was a millionaire until after he died. He’d made millions in business but lived a modest life (in a retirement home nonetheless!) until he died in his late 90’s. When his will was read it turned out that he gave away £2 million to various charities and organizations and left only £40,000 for his family members. This is a bit different from giving away your millions while you’re still alive but it’s definitely an interesting case of a millionaire giving away his money.

16. Larry Stewart. This man didn’t go quite as long as John White without revealing that he was a millionaire but he did have an interesting money-related secret. For 26 years, he went around anonymously every December as a “Secret Santa” and handed money to people on the streets. He gave away over one million dollars in the course of his short lifetime which ended at age 58 from cancer. He had only revealed within that last year that he was indeed the Secret Santa.

17. Cashtomato.com. Sometimes the desire to give away money is intended to help a millionaire eventually gain more money in return. That was probably the case with Cashtomato.com’s financial giveaway which happened in 2008. The company had an anonymous millionaire founder who launched a campaign to give away money in order to gain attention for the startup video site. He gave away money through website sign-ups, to random passersby in major cities and at planned events in public settings. Unfortunately, it didn’t all go smoothly. There was a riot at Union Square in New York with too many people trying to grab at the cash and the site is no longer active. Perhaps giving away money isn’t something that should be done impulsively even if you’re a millionaire!

18. Russell Brunson. Here’s another example of a millionaire using a giveaway for his own financial gain. Brunson is an Internet millionaire who makes his money sharing “dot com secrets”. Some people love his work and others say it’s a scam but whatever the case he’s managed to make a lot of money at his job. And he recently announced that he’d be giving away the secrets of his work for free. Of course that alone doesn’t qualify him as a millionaire who gives away his money. But apparently the secrets come pre-loaded onto a free mp3 player so he is investing at least some money in giving away these gadgets. What do you think? Does this qualify as a millionaire who gives away money or does his self-serving purpose defeat the greater good here?

19. Andrew Paul. Andrew Paul is being a lot more blunt about his self-serving efforts than Russell Brunson but the winner of this millionaire’s giveaway efforts does stand to gain a lot. Paul is a millionaire banker who wants to sell his Kent countryside home which is valued at £1.1million. Knowing that the market is bad right now, Paul decided to do something drastic. He’s allowing people to enter a contest with tickets costing just £20 each. The winner not only gets the house but also gets his Aston Martin and his motorboat. Technically Paul could either win or lose on this giveaway. If he were to sell the maximum number of tickets then he’d make £4 million which would actually be a profit. Sales haven’t been good and so the initial competition end date has been extended (through November of this year). At that point, he’s probably going to have to make good on his offer which could mean taking a loss. Paul isn’t necessarily high-ranking on the do-gooder list as a millionaire who gives his money away but he’s doing something creative that could win someone a million dollar lifestyle for barely any cost at all so perhaps he should get a bit of credit for that.

20. Lydia Nash. To be fair, this young woman wasn’t a true millionaire but she deserves a mention anyway because if she had a million dollars then she’d give it away. She went on the show Who Wants to be a Millionaire where she won £32,000. She chose to give away the entire amount to a home in Thailand for disabled children. She kept her job as a part-time waitress, continued her studies and generally didn’t have her 19-year-old life changed in any way as a result of winning that money.

Famous Millionaires Who Give Away Money



The people listed above are not people who are necessarily famous. They’re just millionaires who did well for themselves in one way or another and chose to give back. But there are a lot of celebrities, members of royalty and truly famous millionaires who also give to individuals and charity. Some of the most famous people who do so include Bill Gates, Ted Turner and Warren Buffet in the U.S. and Lord David Sainsbury, Sir Tom Hunter, Dame Steve Shirley and Anita Roddick in the UK.

Can You Get A Millionaire to Give Money to You?
It’s great that these millionaires are giving away so much money. But what does it mean for you? Many people want to know how to get millionaires to send some of that money their way. There is a lot of advice out there on this issue but there are no tried-and-true methods of getting money from a millionaire. Here are some of the tips that might make it more likely:

• Go through an organization. As you can see, many of the philanthropists who donate large sums of money are giving that money to an organization instead of to individuals. As a result, it makes sense for you to apply for funding through an organization first. There are organizations for everything from funding small businesses to aiding the ill. Search for organizations that relate to your situation and try to get money that way.

• Befriend generous people. There are some people out there (such as Ross Perry listed above) who donate money to individuals just because the person needs the money. If you befriend people who tend to be generous and kind (and who happen to have some money in the bank) then you may be able to get some of that money when you need it.

• Just ask. There are some people who believe that your best option is simply to locate millionaires and request money from them. You would typically do this by searching through local newspapers and business magazines to see who is making money. Do research into what causes they support. Then draft a formal letter arguing your case for why they should give you money. It may or may not work but it doesn’t hurt to ask.

• Be kind to others. The main thing that you should keep in mind is that people give money to others who are kind to them or kind to others. Shows like Secret Millionaire point to the fact that we as a society want to give to people who are already giving to others and doing the best that they can to better the world around them. The more effort that you put in to helping yourself, the more likely it is that someone with money will want to help you out.

 

[Mdm Tang]

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Multi-millionaire Kwik Save founder gives away his £400m fortune
to fulfil his promise to God


By James Tozer


Last updated at 4:19 PM on 22nd March 2010


Comments (193) Add to My Stories .

As a penniless young man, Albert Gubay made a promise - if God helped him become a millionaire, He could have half the money.
Decades later, he has gone even better, donating almost his entire wealth to charity.

Thanks to the success of Kwik Save supermarkets and the Total Fitness gym chain, Mr Gubay - a Roman Catholic - is worth almost £500million.


Charitable: Multimillionaire Albert Gubay has pledged to give most of his £480million fortune away to charity

And at the age of 82, he is determined to double that in his lifetime before turning

over an annual income estimated at £20million to good causes - half connected to the Catholic Church.

He has already put £480million into a charitable trust, leaving him a 'mere' £10million to get by on.

Last night Mr Gubay said: 'I want to carry on supporting good causes, but my whole focus in the next few years is to work as hard as I can to meet my target of a £1billion charity. Every penny wasted or lost reduces the pot available to the charity.'

Born in North Wales to a Jewish Iraqi refugee father and an Irish Catholic mother, the young Mr Gubay cut his entrepreneurial teeth selling sweets.


He launched the first Kwik Save discount store in Prestatyn in 1965 and sold the chain eight years later for £14million.


Luxury: The home of Albert Gubay, founder of Kwik Save, on the Isle Of Man


Promise: The tycoon said he would give half his money away if he became a millionaire

The proceeds were invested in property, and he became a familiar presence on his developments - even helping out as a labourer, earning him the nickname of 'Britain's richest navvy'.

Mr Gubay settled in a luxury estate on the Isle of Man, and later, while recovering from a back injury, set up what became the Total Fitness network of gyms - he sold this in 2004 for £70million.


In a 1997 television documentary, he said: 'After the war I came out of the Royal Navy with a demob suit and £80.

'I borrowed £100 and made the pact with God: make me a millionaire - and you can have half of my money.'

He added: 'My belief in a day of reckoning keeps me on the straight and narrow.'

Mr Gubay, who lives with his second wife, Carmel, will continue running his companies until he dies, maximising profits for the Albert Gubay Charitable Foundation-which now owns them.


Half the income must be spent on projects connected with the Catholic Church with the rest distributed at the discretion of the trustees, chaired by John Nugent.

Mr Nugent said yesterday: 'Albert is a very frugal man and has dedicated his life to good causes.

'His priority now is to maximise the asset base of the company.'

Mr Gubay may not be Britain's biggest- ever charitable donor, however. Former science minister Lord Sainsbury last year gave £1billion to charity.

 

[Mdm Tang]

Re: Men Gives Away Million Fortune , To Be Poor , Says Money Stops You From Being Hap

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Man gives all $7m of his wealth away

Austrian millionaire says money never made him happy.

Fri, Feb 12, 2010
The New Paper

A MILLIONAIRE is giving up his £3 million ($7 million) fortune because he said they never made him happy.

Austrian Karl Rabeder, who made his riches from his household accessories and furnishings business, said the sale of his luxurious villas and cars, among other things, will go to charities he had set up in Central and Latin America.

He had already sold his business in 2004.

The 47-year-old told the Daily Telegraph: "My idea is to have nothing left. Absolutely nothing. Money is counterproductive - it prevents happiness from coming."

He added: "For a long time, I believed that more wealth and luxury automatically meant more happiness."

But over time, a conflicting feeling nagged at him.

He said: "More and more I heard the words: "Stop what you are doing now - all this luxury and consumerism - and start your real life." I had the feeling I was working as a slave for things that I did not wish for or need."

But it took him several years before he acted on it as he admitted he was not "brave" enough to give up all the trappings of his comfortable existence instantly.

The turning point came during a three-week holiday in Hawaii with his former wife.

He said: "It was the biggest shock in my life, when I realised how horrible, soulless and without feeling the five-star lifestyle is.

"In those three weeks, we spent all the money you could possibly spend. But in all that time, we had the feeling we hadn't met a single real person - that we were all just actors. The staff played the role of being friendly and the guests played the role of being important and nobody was real."

Felt guilty

He had similar feelings of guilt while on gliding trips in South America and Africa.

He said: "I increasingly got the sensation that there is a connection between our wealth and their poverty."

Mr Rabeder thought "if I don't do it now, I won't do it for the rest of my life".

So he made an announcement on Austrian television and said he would be selling his luxury 3,455 sq ft villa with lake and sauna over the Alps, valued at £1.4 million.

Also up for sale is a 17-hectare old stone farmhouse in Provence for £613,000.

Mr Rabeder has already sold his collection of six gliders valued at £350,000 and a luxury Audi A8, worth around £44,000.

He said all the money will go into his microcredit charity, which offers small loans to Latin America and builds development aid strategies to self-employed people in El Salvador, Honduras, Bolivia, Peru, Argentina and Chile.

Since selling his belongings, Mr Rabeder felt "free, the opposite of heavy".

Now divorced, he lives in a two-room flat in Innsbruck.

He added: "The worst that can happen to me is that I have to take a small job to get by.

"I was just listening to the voice of my heart and soul."

This article was first published in The New Paper.



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[Mdm Tang]

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http://abclocal.go.com/wls/story?section=news/local&id=7311646

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Theresa Gutierrez

More: Bio, News Team



March 4, 2010 (LAKE FOREST, Ill.) (WLS) --



Two months ago, Grace Groner died at the age of 100. Those who knew her had no idea she had amassed a sizeable fortune in her long life and it was quite a surprise when she left that fortune to a small north suburban college.


Groner passed away in January. Before her death, she established the Grace Elizabethm Groner Foundation and contributed her net worth to Lake Forest College, her alma mater. The gift? Seven million dollars.

It's the largest of its kind in the college's history.

"I had had no idea it was even possible for somebody such as Grace to accumulate that kind of wealth," said Stephen Schutt, president, Lake Forest College.

Groner graduated from the college in 1931 and worked for Abbot Laboratories for 43 years as a secretary. She lived in a small cottage in the area. Those who knew her say she was very frugal and did not care about material things.

Groner's $7 million dollar estate is the result of an $180 specifically issued Abbott stock purchased in 1935 that she never sold.
Neighbors say that even at 100 years old Grace was curious about life and knowledgeable about current events.

"She was one of the most unassuming people you would ever meet," said Schutt.

Groner volunteered for decades at the First Presbyterian Church on Sheridan Road. Her pastor says she did not have material needs and believed in giving back.

"When she was just 12 years old, her parents had both died, and a founding member of this congregation took her in. I think that's when she learned what Christian love looks like," said Christine Chakoian, pastor, First Presbyterian Church.

The money will go to the students to pursue internships and study abroad programs.

Erin McGinley, 34, a junior from Lake Zurich is a student who benefited from Groner's past contributions to the college.

"I did benefit from her generosity. She sent me to Jamaica last year for a field school, which was definitely life altering and changing," said McGinley.


(Copyright ©2010 WLS-TV/DT. All Rights Reserved.)







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[Mdm Tang]

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Secret millionaire donates fortune to Lake Forest College


Woman who lived frugally donates $7 million to alma mater


March 05, 2010|By John Keilman, Tribune reporterLike many people who lived through the Great Depression, Grace Groner was exceptionally restrained with her money.

She got her clothes from rummage sales. She walked everywhere rather than buy a car. And her one-bedroom house in Lake Forest held little more than a few plain pieces of furniture, some mismatched dishes and a hulking TV set that appeared left over from the Johnson administration.

Her one splurge was a small scholarship program she had created for Lake Forest College, her alma mater. She planned to contribute more upon her death, and when she passed away in January, at the age of 100, her attorney informed the college president what that gift added up to.


"Oh, my God," the president said.

Groner's estate, which stemmed from a $180 stock purchase she made in 1935, was worth $7 million.

The money is going into a foundation that will enable many of Lake Forest's 1,300 students to pursue internships and study-abroad programs they otherwise might have had to forgo. It will be an appropriate memorial to a woman whose life was a testament to the higher possibilities of wealth.

"She did not have the (material) needs that other people have," said William Marlatt, her attorney and longtime friend. "She could have lived in any house in Lake Forest but she chose not to. … She enjoyed other people, and every friend she had was a friend for who she was. They weren't friends for what she had."

Groner was born in a small Lake County farming community, but by the time she was 12 both of her parents had died. She was taken in by George Anderson, a member of one of Lake Forest's leading families and an apparent friend to Groner's parents.

The Andersons raised her and her twin sister, Gladys, and paid for them to attend Lake Forest College. After Groner graduated in 1931, she took a job at nearby Abbott Laboratories, where she would work as a secretary for 43 years.

It was early in her time there that she made a decision that would secure her financial future.

In 1935, she bought three $60 shares of specially issued Abbott stock and never sold them. The shares split many times over the next seven decades, Marlatt said, and Groner reinvested the dividends. Long before she died, her initial outlay had become a fortune.

Marlatt was one of the few who knew about it. Lake Forest is one of America's richest towns, filled with grand estates and teeming with luxury cars, yet Groner felt no urge to keep up with the neighbors.

She lived in an apartment for many years before a friend willed her a tiny house in a part of town once reserved for the servants. Its single bedroom could barely accommodate a twin bed and dresser; its living room was undoubtedly smaller than many Lake Forest closets.

Though Groner was frugal, she was no miser. She traveled widely upon her retirement from Abbott, volunteered for decades at the First Presbyterian Church and occasionally funneled anonymous gifts through Marlatt to needy local residents.

"She was very sensitive to people not having a whole lot," said Pastor Kent Kinney of First Presbyterian. "Grace would see those people, would know them, and she would make gifts."

Groner never wed or had children — the sister of one prospective groom blocked the marriage, Marlatt said — but with her gregarious personality she had plenty of friends. She remained connected to Lake Forest College, too, attending football games and cultural events on campus and donating $180,000 for a scholarship program.


That allowed a few students a year to study internationally, including Erin McGinley, 34, a junior from Lake Zurich. She traveled to Falmouth, Jamaica, to help document and preserve historic buildings in the former slave port. The experience was so satisfying that she is trying to get Lake Forest to create a similar architectural preservation program.

"It affected my (career ambitions) in a way I didn't expect," she said.

But Groner was interested in doing more, so two years ago she set up a foundation to receive her estate. Stephen Schutt, Lake Forest's president, knew of the plan for the past year, but had no idea how large the gift would be until after Groner passed away Jan. 19.

The foundation's millions should generate more than $300,000 a year for the college, enabling dozens more students to travel and pursue internships. Many probably wouldn't be able to pursue those opportunities without a scholarship: 75 percent of the student body receives financial aid, Schutt said.

But the study and internship program is not the end of Groner's legacy. She left that small house to the college, too. It will be turned into living quarters for women who receive foundation scholarships, and perhaps something more: an enduring symbol that money can buy far more than mansions.

It will be called, with fitting simplicity, "Grace's Cottage."

[email protected]

 

[Teo Kok Eng]

Re: Men Gives Away Million Fortune , To Be Poor , Says Money Stops You From Being Hap

Interesting, how come our ministers who make millions don't give away their money??


Ps. Those who pretend to donate to charity by giving themselves a raise is not counted :p

 

[johnny333]

Re: Men Gives Away Million Fortune , To Be Poor , Says Money Stops You From Being Hap

I can understand if the new MPs are reluctant to give to charity as we all know how expensive Spore is. You need to be a multi-millionaire to live comfortably


However there's no excuse for long term MPs like LKY. He's had time & oppurtunity to amass billions. Don't forget that he's used his position to direct business to his wifes law firm, the directorships, access to inside information,...

 

[Mdm Tang]

Re: Men Gives Away Million Fortune , To Be Poor , Says Money Stops You From Being Hap

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Singapore ranked the 81st happiest country in the world

July 24th, 2010 | Author: Your Correspondent



Singapore is supposedly a first world country with one of the highest GDP per capita income in the world, but its people are far from being happy, according to a worldwide poll done by Gallup lately.

In a survey of citizens from 155 countries on their overall satisfaction of life, Singapore ranked a pathetic 81st below Thailand, Taiwan and South Korea.

Denmark took top spot followed by the other Nordic nations Finland, Norway and Sweden.

Only 19 percent of Singaporeans interviewed indicated that they are “thriving” while an astonishingly 75 percent regard themselves as “struggling”. The remaining 6 percent said they are “suffering”.

The landmark Gallup World Poll was given extensive coverage by the international media, but did not even warrant a brief mention by the Singapore media which continues to churn out a heavy daily dose of PAP propaganda to be consumed by unsuspecting Singaporeans.

View the full table here.





Please join our Facebook discussion on this article here and invite your friends to do so as well to raise awareness among fellow Singaporeans. This page is maintained independently by a TR reader.



Copyright © 2009 – 2010 The Temasek Review




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[Mdm Tang]

Re: Men Gives Away Million Fortune , To Be Poor , Says Money Stops You From Being Hap

I can understand if the new MPs are reluctant to give to charity as we all know how expensive Spore is. You need to be a multi-millionaire to live comfortably


However there's no excuse for long term MPs like LKY. He's had time & oppurtunity to amass billions. Don't forget that he's used his position to direct business to his wifes law firm, the directorships, access to inside information,...

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Performance-related pay doesn’t encourage performance
Posted by theonlinecitizen on June 30, 2009 45 Comments


From the website, Management Issues:

The clue ought to be in the name. Performance-related pay is pay for performance, and the better performance you turn in and the harder you work the more you will get to take home. Except, academics are now suggesting, more often than not the opposite may be the case.

New research by the London School of Economics has argued that, far from encouraging people to strive to reach the heights, performance-related pay often does the opposite and encourages people to work less hard.

An analysis of 51 separate experimental studies of financial incentives in employment relations found what the school has described as “overwhelming evidence” that these incentives could reduce an employee’s natural inclination to complete a task and derive pleasure from doing so.

Read the full article here.




Performance-related pay doesn't encourage performance



25 Jun 2009 | Nic Paton

The clue ought to be in the name. Performance-related pay is pay for performance, and the better performance you turn in and the harder you work the more you will get to take home. Except, academics are now suggesting, more often than not the opposite may be the case.

New research by the London School of Economics has argued that, far from encouraging people to strive to reach the heights, performance-related pay often does the opposite and encourages people to work less hard.

An analysis of 51 separate experimental studies of financial incentives in employment relations found what the school has described as "overwhelming evidence" that these incentives could reduce an employee's natural inclination to complete a task and derive pleasure from doing so.

The findings are, of course, deeply controversial, given the depths of anger still felt by many over the role of performance-related pay in causing or contributing to the current economic crisis.

"We find that financial incentives may indeed reduce intrinsic motivation and diminish ethical or other reasons for complying with workplace social norms such as fairness," argued Dr Bernd Irlenbusch, from the LSE's Department of Management.

"As a consequence, the provision of incentives can result in a negative impact on overall performance," he added.

Companies therefore needed to be aware that the provision of performance-related pay could result in a net reduction of motivation across a team or organisation, he suggested.

Organisations also needed to be looking closely at how they designed effective workplace incentives in the future.

The full research is due to be unveiled next week at a round-table debate, and will include further research by the school suggesting that extra incentives can lead high-ability workers to form teams with similarly skilled colleagues rather than workers they are socially connected to.

Yet socially connected workers tend to work together better and produce better results, meaning that, as a consequence, increased incentives can even reduce a firm's average productivity.

The LSE academics are by no means the only ones questioning received wisdoms over executive and performance-related pay at the moment.

Harvard Business School's V G Narayanan , writing in this month in the Harvard Business Review, has argued forcefully that a wholesale rethink is needed on executive pay, not just tinkering around the edges.

Narayanan, Thomas D Casserly Jr professor of business administration at the school, has suggested that, rather than politicians or the public asking how much should chief executives be paid (a question, he argues, more born of jealousy than anything else), they should be asking "how should they paid" and the less pithy but just as important, "should changes in the way CEOs are paid be mandatory or voluntary?".

"Pay must be structured to attract the right executives and give executives effective incentives to lead their companies to great performance," he agreed.

"The poor showing of too many firms, despite ample CEO salaries and equity packages, and excessive compensation at times of poor performance shows that pay typically isn't structured correctly and that executive compensation practices need serious reform," he added.

All too often, executive incentives were (and still are) based mostly on short-term financial metrics and shareholder returns.

Therefore, financial results tended to be the consequence of a firm's strategy formulation and implementation.

"Effective incentive systems should focus on effective organizational learning and growth, process improvements, and customer-related metrics and milestones," he advised.

"In addition, companies should design compensation packages to attract the right people for implementing the company's strategy. For instance, below market salaries coupled with aggressive incentive pay linked to individual performance is likely to attract self-motivated entrepreneurial individuals.

"Companies also need to assure their executives longer tenure and horizons. A CEO who is afraid of being fired for not making short-term financials will not focus on the long term.

"A board that is actively engaged in strategy formulation and implementation and compensates a CEO for strategy implementation milestones and monitoring long-term performance is more likely to understand, appreciate, and encourage a CEO's efforts even if they yield short-term financial results that are below expectations," emphasised Narayanan.

There was an urgent need for boards to evaluate their executives' performance annually to determine their progress on long-term goals.

Simultaneously, boards needed to engage more in active succession planning so they did not find themselves looking for a "superstar CEO" to rescue them from financial problems.

"It is precisely in those situations that CEOs are able to negotiate outrageous compensation packages," said Narayanan.

"Simultaneously, companies should get rid of egregious practices such as over the top severance packages (more than two times annual compensation), grossing up taxes, defined-benefits plans, guaranteed returns on deferred compensation, accelerated vesting in the event of change in control, and time-based vesting of restricted stock," he added.

"It would be highly unfortunate if, as now seems possible, massive amounts of regulation and active government intervention were to be the dominant forces determining how American executives are compensated," he suggested.

Initiatives such as caps on pay, shareholder "say on pay" and ceilings on ratios of CEO pay to worker pay, appointment of a "federal compensation Tsar" and labelling of incentive pay as pay that causes excessive risk all simply reduced innovation and hurt shareholders, he argued.

"Governmental and shareholder second-guessing on pay would create an environment of fear in which no board would dare try an approach that's different from the herd's or that is tailored to the company's particular strategy," said Narayanan.

"While compensation reform is needed, it must come from within--from executives and boards, acting in the company's best interests," he added.

Management-Issues columnist Bob Selden also highlighted the limitations of performance-related pay back in January 2008.

He argued that performance-related pay, by running contrary to teamwork, could ultimately damage organisational effectiveness and the loss of expertise just when it is needed most.

"Many organisations today are looking to increase their bottom line by paying their people to improve individual performance. For instance, it is now quite common for a large percentage of a person's salary (particularly senior managers) to be based on their performance, with a smaller component made up of base salary," he said.

"Why do organisations continue to throw money at performance issues? If organisations were better managed and led, would there still be the need to offer people incentives to perform?" he questioned.

In companies that were well-managed and where people were led really well, enjoyment and engagement could become much more important factors than simply salary or performance-related pay and bonuses, he suggested.

Original URL: http://www.management-issues.com/20...ier=&mode=print&is_authenticated=0&reference=

This article comes from www.management-issues.com


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[Equalisation]

Re: Men Gives Away Million Fortune , To Be Poor , Says Money Stops You From Being Hap

Money is not the key to happiness but you need money to buy the key .....:o