Reading
Before you start reading, study the following vocabulary:
fortune
to realize
counterproductive
proceeds
trappings
An Austrian millionaire gave away every penny of his £3 million fortune after realizing the money was making him unhappy. This 47-year-old businessman sold his luxury 3,455 sq ft villa with lake, sauna and spectacular mountain views over the Alps, for £1.4 million.
He also sold his beautiful old stone farmhouse in Provence with its 17 hectares overlooking the arrière-pays, for £613,000, his collection of six gliders for £350,000, and luxury Audi A8 for £44,000.
"My idea is to have nothing left. Absolutely nothing," the millionaire said in an interview. "Money is counterproductive – it prevents happiness to come."
Instead, he will move out of his luxury Alpine residence 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." 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'. 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 lots 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 breaking point came while he was on a three-week holiday with his wife to the islands of Hawaii. "It was the biggest shock in my life, when I realized 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."
Questions
What do the following phrases mean?
- “Money prevents happiness to come” means
- “SPECTACULAR mountain views means the views are”
- “We were all just actors” means
- “He was simply not brave enough to give up all the trappings of his comfortable existence” means
- “I had the feeling I was working as a slave” means he was working
Are the following statements about the text correct?
1. He and his wife didn't enjoy their last holiday in Hawaii.
2. The millionaire lost all of his money because of a bad investment.
3. He's going to receive some money from his charity organizations.
4. He will move out of his luxury Alpine residence into a standard city apartment.
5. He wasn't born into a rich family.