Bill and Melinda Gates getting divorced

[VGThuy]

This is what I think of when I think of techie billionaires or even “just” millionaires:

Bill Gates & Steve Ballmer Night at the Roxbury theme

www.applewebmaster.comOne of the Spoof videos done at many Microsoft conferences.

youtu.be

 

[Brenda_Bottems]

ITA!! I had the same exact thought. Must be his wallet that is the attraction? or brain?

His brain? Hardly. Wealth and power are an omnipotent aphrodisiac. I assure you those loose women had no interest in his brain,his philanthropy or his dreadful wardrobe.

-BB

 

[barbk]

Door-Advised Funds (DAFs) tend to be the places that are more loophole-y, as individuals park their funds in a fund managed by someone else each year, get the write off, and often there is no requirement for the funds to be disbursed on a schedule. I recently learned that there is something like $140 billion sitting in DAFs in the US because the DAF holders haven't directed their giving. Ugh.

We have a DAF -- we contributed a largeish stock donation (about our planned giving for a 10-year period) to it with the plan of allocating gifts from it over a multi-year period. We got a tax deduction at the time of the donation. We love it:

• The DAF is professionally managed (by Fidelity, in our case) and actually earned more percentage-wise than our retirement accounts last year.
• Making "grants" (donations) from the fund is really easy -- I can give gifts to five charities in under five minutes. It takes a few minutes longer to give a gift to a small/new charity, but I've donated to some tiny ones.
• I can donate anonymously. That really cuts down on the deluge of begging letters.
• Most of the donations to large charities are transferred electronically. I can see whether the money has been received and if Fidelity sent a check, whether the charity cashed it. (One of the smaller charities didn't, and I bugged them and they found it.)
• The charity that receives the money doesn't need to send any acknowledgment. Even if they do, I can just toss it because my tax deduction was when I put the funds in. I don't have to keep track of any receipts for donations.
• I have named a successor who can allocate gifts if I can't.
• I can never get the funds back.

We're big fans of the DAF approach. We expect to add funds again later this year or next.

 

[Winnipeg]

You are right BB, I was just sorta giving him the benefit of the doubt. He does still come across as a nerd even with an unlimited budget for clothes etc?

 

[kwanfan1818]

Then only reason why I even knew it was the Gates coming out of the movie was that I had been chatting with the woman next to me in line, and we both realized we were from NJ. Suddenly, she stopped in mid-sentence and exclaimed in her best Bayonne outdoor voice, "Forty billion dollars, and he still dresses like a schlump!" I looked up, and he was wearing a button-down shirt and khakis, but one of his shirttails was hanging out the side.

Or as someone once quipped, Yes, Seattle has a Barney's, but that's where Seattle people go to shop when they're heading on a trip to NYC.

 

[genevieve]

When Gates was young he looked like the stereotype of a computer nerd (maybe because it was modelled after him?), but to me he now looks like any other wealthy middle aged man. And a snappier dresser than many HNW folks who don't have wide name recognition.

 

[kwanfan1818]

Because he superficially resembled Alfred E. Newman?

 

[ilovepaydays]

You are right BB, I was just sorta giving him the benefit of the doubt. He does still come across as a nerd even with an unlimited budget for clothes etc?

Well, he certainly couldn’t pull off the moves that Steve Ballmer had when they launched Windows 95, couldn’t he?

Sidebar: Seriously? How this this thread get to four pages before anyone brought THIS up? I’m getting disappointed in my fellow FSUers. ? ?

 

[sk8pics]

@genevieve What’s HNW?

 

[genevieve]

@genevieve What’s HNW?

Sorry - High Net Worth

 

[kwanfan1818]

A link to an article in The Nation that speaks to the press' complicity in the deification of Gates and the BMGF:

The Fall of the House of Gates?

Fully reckoning with Bill Gates means not just focusing on how he treats women—vital as that is—but also confronting our own deep-seated worship of wealth and hardwired belief in hero narratives.

www.thenation.com

 

[canbelto]

An article about Bill Gates' money manager:

A Culture of Fear at the Firm That Manages Bill Gates’s Fortune (Published 2021)

At least four employees at the firm, Cascade Investment, complained to Mr. Gates about Michael Larson, his longtime money manager.

www.nytimes.com

 

[Winnipeg]

That link to BG dancing was hilarious. He looked so uncomfortable dancing...........