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Millionaire gives away Fortune that made him miserable. When every penny of his estimated $4.7 million fortune is gone, he says, he intends to move into a small wooden hut in the mountains or a studio in Innsbruck.
Millionaire Karl Rabeder is getting rid of his Millions because he discovered rather than making him happy they did the opposite: ""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."
As we seek to have what we need and want
... the true joys of living ...
let us not forget about the possibility a desire for too much money and things
could enslave us to Consumerism and
an unhealthy need to build our self worth with that which will loose it's value,
while tempting us to not care about how our actions affect our soul,
others we meet along the way, our planet and future generations.
Perhaps a wiser way of Being is to remember to ask ourselves,
'when will enough be enough' 'how much of what we have do we actually use'
'is the cost of getting it worth having it'
'how much energy do we really want to spend managing our time, money
and all the things Society tells we need to surround ourselves with in order to find happiness'
'is a simplified life more conducive to true joy, self respect and harmony with all of life'?
If we don't stop to think things through objectively ... for ourselves,
will we be in danger of being caught in the trap of believing having more,
doing more, experiencing more will give the happiness we are told is lacking;
unaware we may be chasing after an illusive butterfly and the vain imaginations
Commercialism seeks to deceive us with so IT can prosper at the expense of authentic happiness.
If we become obsessed with spending all our time going after money and things trying to make a name for ourselves in relationship to what it can buy and do because of a Fragile Ego, we may find we have little time to enjoy what may really matter to the care of our soul and the soul of those we love,
we may loose sight of our own moral integrity .... of who we are really Being
in relationship to the love of money, to the planet
and most of all to those we love and whose love we ultimately desire ... the true joys of living.
Mr Rabeder, 47, a businessman from Telfs is in the process of selling his luxury 3,455 sq ft villa with lake, sauna and spectacular mountain views over the Alps, valued at £1.4 million.
Also for sale is his beautiful old stone farmhouse in Provence with its 17 hectares overlooking the arrière-pays, on the market for £613,000. Already gone is his collection of six gliders valued at £350,000, and a luxury Audi A8, worth around £44,000.
"My idea is to have nothing left. Absolutely nothing," he told The Daily 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 bedsit 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 Mr Rabeder.
But over time, he had another, conflicting feeling.
"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.
I have the feeling that there are lot of people doing the same thing."
However, for many years he said he was simply not "brave" enough to give up all the trappings of his comfortable existence.
The tipping point came while he was on a three-week holiday with his wife to islands of Hawaii.
"It was the biggest shock in my life, when I realised how horrible, soulless and without feeling the five star lifestyle is," he said. "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."
He had similar feelings of guilt while on gliding trips in South America and Africa. "I increasingly got the sensation that there is a connection between our wealth and their poverty," he said.
Suddenly, he realised that "if I don't do it now I won't do it for the rest of my life".
Mr Rabeder decided to raffle his Alpine home, selling 21,999 lottery tickets priced at just £87 each. The Provence house in the village of Cruis is on sale at the local estate agent.
Since selling his belongings, Mr Rabeder said he felt "free, the opposite of heavy".
But he said he did not judge those who chose to keep their wealth. "I do not have the right to give any other person advice. I was just listening to the voice of my heart and soul."
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