Buffet gives it all away

In an interview with FORTUNE Magazine, Warren Buffett announced that he plans on beginning to give away his fortune.  Beginning next month, he will begin giving away stock in Berkshire Hathaway worth a reported $37 Billion dollars.

Buffett has pledged to gradually give 85% of his Berkshire stock to five foundations. A dominant five-sixths of the shares will go to the world’s largest philanthropic organization, the $30 billion Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, whose principals are close friends of Buffett’s (a connection that began in 1991, when a mutual friend introduced Buffett and Bill Gates).

Previously, he had announced that the money would be disperced upon his death, but he has appearantly had a change of heart.  Personally, I would want to see some of the good it did rather than just assume that it did good after my death.  Perhaps that is what Warren is thinking of as well.

The first question that pops into my head is if he’s doing it early to get himself out of the top of the list of world’s richest people.  He’ll still be worth quite a bit over the years as the money trickles into these other organizations, but it will certainly make him start dropping.

[tags]warren buffet, berkshire hathaway, gates, gates foundation, buffett[/tags]