Having an emergency fund in case of any problem has always been an obsession in the personal finances of the co-founder of Microsoft.
MEXICO.- It does not seem that for Bill Gates, with an estimated fortune of 120,000 million euros, that an unforeseen economic event arises in your life is a problem.
For Gates, it is better to err on the side of caution, what Gates understands is that “you can only be optimistic in the long term if you are pessimistic enough to survive in the short term.” | Hollie Adams/Bloomberg
But, even with everything, the co-founder of microsoftnow at 66 one of the world’s greatest philanthropists, has always been clear about his priorities when it comes to his personal finances.
And there, having a minimum guarantee savings aside from starting to invest, has always been one of them.
Sometimes Gates acknowledged that for this reason he was cautious, but that he prefers that situation to another risky.
I always had to be careful that we didn’t hire too many people,” he said in a 2017 television interview. “I was always worried because the people who worked for me were older than me and had kids, and I always thought, ‘What if we do not charge Will I be able to meet the payroll?
The first investment to be made on a personal level
For Gates, there is no money better spent than on training and education, which he says should be anyone’s first investment. Gates dropped out of college, yes, but in a thread of Reddit In the one you participated in in 2014, someone asked you, “What’s your best personal financial advice for people making less than $100,000 a year?” Her response: “Invest in your education.”
For Gates, it is better to err on the side of caution, what Gates understands is that “you can only be optimistic in the long run if you are pessimistic enough to survive in the short term“.
The best way to apply this for most people is to save like a pessimist and invest like an optimist, according to Gates.
Saving like a pessimist means recognizing that sharp changes can come at any time. Hence Gates’ idea of always having a good cheap mattress on hand. The last year and a half with a pandemic that has disrupted thousands of businesses seems to agree with him.
But Gates also recommends “investing optimistically” once the background and purposes of any company or business have been taken into account, something that in a post by LinkedIn He said that he had learned from his friend Warren Buffet.
Font: the economist
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This is how Bill Gates managed his money since before he was a millionaire