Sorry kids, I'm giving away my millions

[Hum]

A DESIRE not to "poison" his own children with wealth has led a businessman to pour a whopping $50 million into the education of strangers in the largest donation ever made to Australian university students.

Twenty-five undergraduates will score scholarships worth up to $100,000 each over the next five years - creating 125 scholarships all up over that time - thanks to a donation to Canberra's Australian National University from one of the country's most successful financial entrepreneurs.

The scholarships are set to run in perpetuity over the next 20 years.

Canberra-born Graham Tuckwell studied at ANU before his global successes led him to set up ETF Securities Limited, which issues exchange traded products and has about $30 billion in assets.

He said he and his wife Louise wanted to change lives and did not think it was sensible for parents to give vast amounts of money to their own children.

"Lots of money is poisonous to have," he said.

Mr Tuckwell said he hoped the gesture would inspire other wealthy Australians to consider philanthropy, rather than just passing their fortunes down.

"Generally speaking, if you look at the people in Australia that have got huge amounts of wealth, without naming any, they generally have not put the majority of their wealth behind strong philanthropic causes," he said.

"And unfortunately in some cases they pass the wealth down to later generations who have behaved badly.

more

[siah1214]

Good on him. If I were to ever be wealthy with children I'd give my money away before I died, because I've heard too many stories of parents giving away the money in their will, and children contesting it because the ****s think they deserve the money somehow. My goal would be to die penniless and there'd be nothing for the vultures to fight over.

[_neutrino Veteran]

nice to see people trying to better the community around them especially with education which is very over priced.

[Hum]

Good on him. If I were to ever be wealthy with children I'd give my money away before I died, because I've heard too many stories of parents giving away the money in their will, and children contesting it because the ****s think they deserve the money somehow. My goal would be to die penniless and there'd be nothing for the vultures to fight over.

aww daddy ... :(

[BajiRav]

Good on him. If I were to ever be wealthy with children I'd give my money away before I died, because I've heard too many stories of parents giving away the money in their will, and children contesting it because the ****s think they deserve the money somehow. My goal would be to die penniless and there'd be nothing for the vultures to fight over.

...or they will end up like Paris Hilton etc.

[Skin]

This is BS... a lot of money is poisonous to have, yet he and his wife had a ton of it... sigh. More like his kids got spoiled rotten and turned into self-absorbed leeches living of their parents name and money. So, they failed rasing their kids, and decided to dump the money rather than leaving it to them.

Seriously, it takes a screwed up parent to NOT want to set their kids and their kid's kids up for ever and a good life.

[Xerino]

Now only if Papa Hilton, or Mama Kardashian, or Mother Lohan would get this hint....

[guitmz]

That's true.. I agree with the man decision of giving away his money but I'd leave at least enough money to make sure my kids get some nice education (and a way to keep this money from being used in other matters)

[COKid]

Daddy and his kids must not get along too well.

[linsook]

This is BS... a lot of money is poisonous to have, yet he and his wife had a ton of it... sigh. More like his kids got spoiled rotten and turned into self-absorbed leeches living of their parents name and money. So, they failed rasing their kids, and decided to dump the money rather than leaving it to them.

Seriously, it takes a screwed up parent to NOT want to set their kids and their kid's kids up for ever and a good life.

He made his money. His four children will have proper educations and will be set-up to succeed as stated in the article. You jealous or something?

Daddy and his kids must not get along too well.

Yes Bill gates hates his children too....

[Arpit]

good on him. if i have kids, i wouldn't leave them any money either though i'd be there to support them in their ventures and guide them through. if they work hard they'll make money on their own and if they don't they'll just waste mine.

[Mr. Gibs]

This is BS... a lot of money is poisonous to have, yet he and his wife had a ton of it... sigh. More like his kids got spoiled rotten and turned into self-absorbed leeches living of their parents name and money. So, they failed rasing their kids, and decided to dump the money rather than leaving it to them.

Seriously, it takes a screwed up parent to NOT want to set their kids and their kid's kids up for ever and a good life.

Um no, just no.

Regardless of how well you raise your kids, they're going to know in the back of their mind that they will become millionaires / billionaires in a few years and they wouldn't have to work for it. For some people that could be a good thing, they'll work hard so they can take over the family business. For others, they'll just waste their time and their lives.

If Bill Gates were to give his fortune to his kids they wouldn't have to work for a single day in their life, and nor would his grandkids, great grandkids etc. Is that the way you want your children to live? Just sitting around all day wasting away their life?

[remixedcat]

Thing is he could have set up his kids to have businesses of thier own so they can be self sustaining and keep the income in the family and everything....

[linsook]

From article:

the pair will put their four children through university and help set them up

[123456789A]

Good on him. If I were to ever be wealthy with children I'd give my money away before I died, because I've heard too many stories of parents giving away the money in their will, and children contesting it because the ****s think they deserve the money somehow. My goal would be to die penniless and there'd be nothing for the vultures to fight over.

Vultures, including the government.

[neuroticdave]

Good! Let the kids make their own fortunes, as opposed to leeching off their parents hard earned money. I'm sure growing up they had everything they could possibly want anyway, time to leave the nest and fend for yourself. At the same time, this gives kids who DON'T have the same means that the wealthy ones did to earn a good degree and then become wealthy themselves. It's a win/win no matter how you look at it.

[Hum]

I would at least give my kids a good education and a little jump start.

[Decebalvs Rex]

I somehow blame him for doing that. He could donate a part of his fortune and raise his kids in expensive ways . Those kids won't probably have to steal/ do illegal activity to get money in the late years.( You never know how a man changes , or when he dies ). Why take the joy of having everything from your children , keep them happy and healthy using that fortune ? Life is short and communism isn't a way. Money poisons already ill people and without money you can't enjoy all the aspects of life. "Let those kids earn that money on their own trough education/familly/business" - thats proper crap. What if those kids will get a rare disease wich is very expensive to treat ? If I'll ever gather large sums of money , I'll surely leave them to my kids in fair parts , provide them the life of wich others could only dream. I would surely donate too but what this father did is insane IMO. Living large is poisonous ? Please come to Romania my friends , or some other Eastern Countries if you don't want live large. Money is almost everything these days. You get a woman , meds, you see what this beautiful world has to offer , you eat properly aswell as your mental state is in a good condition- health . A good education + a close and good familly + love and money can do wonders for kids. Sorry for my bad english.

[Mr. Gibs]

I would at least give my kids a good education and a little jump start.

But he's doing that?

While the pair will put their four children through university and help set them up, Mr Tuckwell said he just wanted them to do what made them happy.

"And if they create things themselves, then it's a sense of achievement," he said.

[DeadEndAccount]

IMHO the worse thing you can do for a child is to take their incentive to work away from them. I suggest some people actually read the article - the parents are going to help but the kids aren't going to get a massive windfall when the parents die.

[Dan~]

Hmm think it my dad said that i'd say "sorry dad, im not going to your funeral" what a prick!

[McKay]

Hmm think it my dad said that i'd say "sorry dad, im not going to your funeral" what a prick!

So your Dad would be a prick for paying for all your Education and helping set you up for life?

[-T- Member]

If only the parents of some of the folk you see on "Rich Kids of Instagram" would follow this precedent, there would be less odious individuals in the world

[NightScreams]

This is BS... a lot of money is poisonous to have, yet he and his wife had a ton of it... sigh. More like his kids got spoiled rotten and turned into self-absorbed leeches living of their parents name and money. So, they failed rasing their kids, and decided to dump the money rather than leaving it to them.

Seriously, it takes a screwed up parent to NOT want to set their kids and their kid's kids up for ever and a good life.

I agree they failed as parents. Raise kids to understand value, give them chores, make them get jobs and setup trust funds for a future age (maybe around 30yrs old) to kick in after they have accumulated life experiences. I wouldn't even tell them they get any money until they reach that age anyway. The problems usually stem from when wealthy parents let kids do and get what they want which can lead to various habits and mental diseases as they grow older.

Chronic laziness, procrastination, poor spending habits...etc for example are all mental diseases accumulated over time and effects millions of people worldwide, not just the wealthy.

[Dan~]

So your Dad would be a prick for paying for all your Education and helping set you up for life?

Not really, maybe it's just me but when I have children I'll do everything I can to help them and leave everything to them (debts no doubt my case) but he's like blanking them out and for me I'd hate him, yes he's paying for education etc but these days you can be the best of the best education wise and still not get a job, and giving all his money to the education system which is no doubt going to make a very fat man even more fatter cos they'll spend it all before it even goes into the system.

It's like people who give all their money to charities it's wasted money, we've been giving billions to charities and they're in exactly the same situation, it's because charities and the like are businesses and the managers take all the money as bonus first