Billionaire Bill wants his kids to make their own fortunes

If your daddy was Bill Gates the richest man in the world you might think you’d never have to wonder where the next penny was coming from.

But the Microsoft founder announced last week that his three children won’t be left billion dollar trust funds because most of his $76 billion fortune will go to charity.

He and his wife Melinda spoke at a conference in Vancouver about the way they’re encouraging their kids to make their own way in the world.

They’re giving their son and two daughters a good education so they have the freedom to do anything they choose, but not so much money that they do nothing.

It’s a tricky one for parents.

Your natural instinct is to give your child everything you can to make life sweet and simple. You want them to have the chances you never had.

But when does the giving become too much? When does it get taken for granted? When do they settle for handouts from the Bank of Mum and Dad, rather than stand on their own two feet?

My friends and I who all have grown up children talk about this a lot.

We recognise that if you’ve come up the hard way yourself scrimping, saving, making do, living within a tight budget it’s a real pleasure to indulge your family.

When our kids were students we were happy to dig deep to help. When they needed a deposit for that first car or first flat why wouldn’t you do what you could?

When one son went backpacking round the world I’d mail out dosh if he was in a tight spot. When another got overdrawn we’d do the lecture bit, then invariably sort it out.

But the bottom line was always if you want things you work for them. It’s sometimes harder to stick to that than to write a cheque.

The best motivation we can give children, I reckon, is encouraging them to find what they want to do with their life and then to back them along the way as they work towards those goals.

Whether that means funding courses, buying books and equipment, travelling, bankrolling their sporting ambitions, setting them up in a first flat, saving for a daughter’s wedding, ‘treating’ them to something they want but can’t afford it’s a perfectly natural thing for any parent to want to do. But you have to know when enough is enough.

They have to learn the lesson that good things need to be earned, sometimes slowly, but that way you appreciate them more. No point in knowing the price of everything and the value of nothing.

History is littered with the stories of the children of rich parents whose future was wrecked with excesses of drugs or alcohol. ‘Daddy’s money’ can buy short term happiness but it can’t give meaning or purpose to life. Each one of us has to find that out for ourself.

And Melinda and Bill Gates are giving their sons and daughter the best possible start in life by showing them what’s really important finding out who you are and what you want to do with your life.

Mum and Dad will help you along the way of course they will. But ultimately what you make of this precious gift of life is up to you.

Go for it.