The Billionaire Who Gave It All Away. Really!

A number of billionaires have pledged to give their fortunes away, but you know they'll go on living the lush life. 

Not Chuck Feeney, who now lives in a rented San Francisco apartment and is said to own one pair of shoes. Remarkably, reports The Guardian, this billionaire has actually given almost all of it away.

Chuck Feeney has achieved his lifetime ambition: giving away his $8bn fortune while he is still around to see the impact it has made.

For the past 38 years, Feeney, an Irish American who made billions from a duty-free shopping empire, has been making endowments to charities and universities across the world with the goal of “striving for zero … to give it all away”.

This week Feeney, 89, achieved his goal. The Atlantic Philanthropies, the foundation he set up in secret in 1982 and transferred almost all of his wealth to, has finally run out of money.

The head of Feeney's foundation said his boss had once tried to live a life of luxury but it didn’t suit him. “He had nice places [homes] and nice things. He tried it on and it wasn’t for him."