benzinga2d ago
A family fortune worth roughly $135 billion can buy a lot of things. Mansions, private jets, and enough security to make a small country jealous all come to mind. According to Melinda French Gates , though, it wasn't going to buy her children a shortcut to adulthood. The former wife of Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates has spoken openly about the deliberate effort she made to raise the couple's three children — Jennifer , 30, Rory , 27, and Phoebe , 24 — with many of the same values she learned growing up in a middle-class household. The approach was shaped by more than her own childhood. It was also influenced by what she saw when she encountered children who had grown up surrounded by wealth. "I had been around a lot of kids from wealth in college, and I knew how I did not want my children to turn out. I really thought about some of the middle-class values I grew up with," Melinda told Vogue in a joint interview with her daughters in November. Don't Miss: Most budgeting apps ignore your investments. Empower doesn’t — it syncs your 401(k), IRA, bank, and credit accounts into one real-time dashboard. Your income is your family’s foundation. Ladder lets eligible applicants lock in term life coverage in minutes — and you can adjust as your income grows. The Lesson Came Long Before The Billions Growing up in Dallas as one of four children, Melinda was raised by an aerospace engineer father and a homemaker mother. Long before private jets and sprawling estates entered the picture, she learned that money came with limits. She carried those lessons into family life even after marrying one of the richest people in the world. "It was much more of an upbringing like I grew up in — a very middle-class household where money dictated whether I got an extra pair of shoes each year or not," she told The New York Times in 2024. "I thought that was a good principle to have." The family established rules that would have sounded familiar in many households. The children received allowances, maintained wish lists, and learned that wanting something did not automatically mean getting it. "We absolutely did not just buy them things," she said. "They either had to buy with their allowance or put it on their wish list." Keeping The Gates Name From Doing The Heavy Lifting Money wasn't the only thing Melinda worried about. She also wanted her children to develop identities separate from one of the most recognizable last names in the world. Trending: The IRS Could Take A Bigger Bite Out Of Retirement Savings Than Many Expect ... Full story available on Benzinga.com