Julie Gumm - Author

What Could Bill Gates Money Buy?

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So Bill Gates has announced plans to step down from Microsoft in 2008 to spend more time on charity work. Did you ever wonder what you could do with Gates’ money? Well here’s the answer (taken from my Dave Ramsey newsletter)…

Excerpted from Gazelle Gazette Vol 2 Issue 10

Microsoft CEO Bill Gates has been the world’s
richest individual for the last 12 years. His current worth is about
$50 billion. At the height of his company’s fortune (in 1999), he was
worth $90 billion.

It’s virtually impossible to comprehend what $50 billion can buy, so
here are some examples. Remember, all of the following numbers are
based on Bill Gates never earning another penny.

  • If he spends $10,000 a day, it would take Bill Gates more than 13,698 years to spend his entire fortune.
  • He can buy a $10 large pizza for every person in New York City for lunch and dinner every day for the next 1.7 years.
  • The average family in America makes about $40,000 a year. Proportionately, they can buy a Happy Meal. Bill Gates can buy 10 brand-new Lamborghini Diablos off the showroom floor.
  • The average ticket price to see a Dallas Cowboys football game
    is $116. Texas Stadium (where the Cowboys play) holds 65,595 people.
    Bill Gates can buy every ticket for every home game for the next 821
    years.
  • High gas prices got you fuming? The average American uses 520
    gallons of gas per year. If gas is $3 a gallon, Bill Gates can buy gas
    for every man, woman and child of New York City, Los Angeles, Chicago,
    Boston and San Francisco for the next two years.

But in a recent interview with CNN, Bill Gates said "I wish I wasn’t
(the richest man in the world). There is nothing good that comes out of
that."

It is good to have money, but money doesn’t buy happiness. Happiness
is where you are and what you have. Money can’t buy an afternoon with
your wife and children. Money can’t buy the feeling you get when you
help out a single mom or an elderly person through a difficult time.
Work hard and save money, but don’t put too much trust in money being
the key to happiness.

(end of article)

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