Millionaire gave away all his money: where's the wife?

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Orchidflower

Thinks s/he gets paid by the post
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I cannot find the post about the Tyrolean millionaire who gave all his money away recently, but I don't have all that much time this a.m. to find it; however, I do remember quite the conversation on what his wife thought of it. Guess she didn't think much about it, because they are now divorced. As in Tammy Wynette D-I-V-O-R-C-E. Just FYI it was in a paper recently.
This guy's only 47 years old....young still. It isn't as if he's a retiree and planning on spreading his funds soon. Personally, I think his screws are loose but to each their own. Hopefully, some good comes out of this.
I hope his giving all his hard-earned money away was worth the divorce and being one of the common folk now..................!


http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/worldnews/article-1249414/Austrian-millionaire-gives-away-2-7m-fortune-personal-possessions-happy.html
 
Maybe the wife was just a money grubber. he's probably happier now anyway.
 
If that was the cause for divorce, she probably was a golddigger. OTOH, a married person who would give away almost all of their fortune away without discussion and buy-in from their spouse has serious issues of their own. I have trouble getting myself to spend over $100 or so without marital discussion; I can't imagine saying "honey, I donated all of my IRA to charity. Hope you don't mind."
 
"More and more I heard the words: 'Stop what you are doing now – all this luxury and consumerism – and start your real life'," he said. "I had the feeling I was working as a slave for things that I did not wish for or need.
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I agree with that - It's kind of a "Your Money or Your Life" thing. After awhile the things you have can own you and make you work like a dog to keep them.
 
MasterBlaster said:
I agree with that - It's kind of a "Your Money or Your Life" thing. After awhile the things you have can own you and make you work like a dog to keep them.
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In that sense, I agree -- the pursuit of more money and more stuff can become an obsession and an addiction (see my current signature), and for some people, maybe the only way to kick it is to force simplicity and [-]cheapness[/-] frugality on yourself by giving almost all of it away, perhaps keeping only what you think you realistically need to maintain a simple lifestyle.

Which is fine and good if you are single or if you have buy-in and acceptance/approval from your spouse. But if you don't, it's a pretty crappy thing to do to them. Just the same, it sounds like she loved his money and stuff more than she loved him and wanted all those riches more than she wanted him to be happy (in the absence of other prior marital issues, anyway) and he didn't consider he wanted and needs in his actions. In a nutshell, these may be two people who are better off without each other.
 
ziggy29 said:
I have trouble getting myself to spend over $100 or so without marital discussion
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I guess you folks out there in the wilderness have different rules. Here the wife spends as she sees fit. The husband spends as the wife allows. No exceptions.
 
youbet said:
I guess you folks out there in the wilderness have different rules. Here the wife spends as she sees fit. The husband spends as the wife allows. No exceptions.
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Heh.

If you are both really good with knowing how much you can afford to spend and still meet all current obligations and saving/investing goals, you may not need "limits" like this. My wife isn't as [-]cheap[/-] careful with money as I am by nature, so if I want to put the brakes on her spending too, I have to lead by example.
 
He probably doesn't mind that she won't get half of everything he gave away. I wonder if some of the "given away" assets will find their way back to him once the divorce is final.
 
Bestwifeever said:
He probably doesn't mind that she won't get half of everything he gave away.
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My wife and I are pretty secure about our marriage that we can comment to each other when we notice someone particularly attractive to us. When we discuss that within the context of me finding another woman very attractive, she sometimes jokingly asks me: "Yeah, but is she a 50?"

(As in: Is she worth losing 50% of your stuff to have for a night?) :cool:
 
ziggy29 said:
My wife and I are pretty secure about our marriage that we can comment to each other when we notice someone particularly attractive to us. When we discuss that within the context of me finding another woman very attractive, she sometimes jokingly asks me: "Yeah, but is she a 50?"

(As in: Is she worth losing 50% of your stuff to have for a night?) :cool:
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Classic! I'm going to have to share that! :cool:
 
MasterBlaster said:
Maybe the wife was just a money grubber. he's probably happier now anyway.
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I think it is a bit cruel to go down that pathway. I didn't see anything in the linked article about the divorce, so not sure how long they were even married. However, as we all know, it is quite easy for 2 people in any relationship to go down different paths if they don't make the effort to keep things on track. If they have been married long term, it is quite possible the wife put a lot of effort into supporting her husband to enable him to accumulate the wealth. If she did would she not be justifiably annoyed if he was giving it all away without consulting her or taking her needs into account?

I think it is so true that money and things don't make you happy, things will end up owning you and not the other way around. However, money does give you choices.
 
I'm laughing my head off at some of these comments...hysterical!

My stepfather worked and considered ALL the money his. I grew up with that mentality, so I'd dump the self-centered "I gotta find myself" wack-o if he just gave all the money away and merrily skipped off to his barebones apartment--SHE helped him save it, for gosh sakes! Y'all are forgetting HER contribution to keeping this guy in clean clothes, food on the table, having the kids, etc. etc. etc. But off to the Good Ship Looney Tunes for him I guess...
Having lived with someone like him when I was a kid, he sounds like a VERY selfish man overall...and, yeah, I know some of you think he's a saint but you gotta really live with this type of person to understand. He's no saint and there are some real demons driving this nut. ***I wonder if he's bi-polar?

Frankly, after looking at his photo, my first thought was he should have spent some money for a chin implant.
 
I would love a follow up story on this saint in a couple of years.Will he really be living alone in a little hut in the Alps?
 
Could be is my guess. He has more problems than just too much money...trust me.
 
Bestwifeever said:
He probably doesn't mind that she won't get half of everything he gave away. I wonder if some of the "given away" assets will find their way back to him once the divorce is final.
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Let me shed some real light on this subject: No, she will NEVER get any of the money he gave away back. Nutcase stepfather gave all his money and the big 3000 sq. ft. house to Mayos--along with all his stocks, bonds, cds, etc. etc. etc. valued well over a couple million. Mayos wouldn't know who he was unless they looked him up on the computer, so this was not like a personal relationship with anyone there.
Nicely, my mother gets such a "nice" birthday and Xmas card from them each year @#$%^$#!!! You can rest assured that I throw those suckers in the garbage when they come in on commands of mom...and I don't blame her one bit.
He was a bitter, angry man with an i.q. off the charts who screwed up his own career by doing illegal things in his younger days and lived the rest of his entire work career being a bitter, angry man. He didn't even leave anyone anything. He hated the entire world and everyone in it, and if mom wasn't a personality that would hang onto the bitter end with whoever she married she would have left him. She should have left him, but.....too late now.

Moral of this story: These nutjobs are nutjobs--not Saints.

(...and, yes, it was no delight to grow up with this @ss but you survive if you're resilient enough.)
 
By the way, I just did a search for this philanthropist, Karl Rabeder, and nothing is coming up that he is divorced. So perhaps his wife really is on board with this adventure.
 
Actually, I found a few versions of the same article that mentions his trip to HI with his now-ex-wife, and that he was divorced living in an apartment.
 
Congrats to Karl for having fun and taking a risk to evolve his life in search of more happiness. Having already been successful, I bet he could make money again if he needs to again. If not, I hope he can kick back and enjoy a simple life!
 
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