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ABUNDANCE - A WARNING

The English newspaper The Daily Telegraph wrote in 2010; "Karl Rabeder, 47, an Austrian businessman, is in the process of selling his luxurious 3,455 sq m villa with lake, sauna and spectacular views of the Alps, valued at £1.4 million. Also for sale is his beautiful old stone farmhouse in Provence and a luxury Audi A8. Karl Rabeder has also sold his interior design and accessories business. Instead, he will move from his luxurious alpine pasture to a small wooden cabin in the mountains or simple accommodation in Innsbruck. All the money will go to his microcredit foundation, which offers small loans to self-employed people in South America."

"My idea is to have nothing left. Absolutely nothing," he told The Daily Telegraph. "Money is counterproductive - it prevents happiness from coming."

"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," Mr Rabeder said. But over time, he began to feel a different, conflicting sense. "More and more, I heard the words, 'Stop what you are doing, now - stop all this luxury and consumerism - and start your real life,'" he said. "I felt like I was working as a slave for things I didn't want or need. I feel like there are many people doing the same thing."

But for years, he said, he was simply not brave enough to give up all ramifications of his comfortable existence. The turning point came when he and his wife spent three weeks on holiday in the islands of Hawaii.
"It was the biggest shock of my life when I realised how terribly soulless and devoid of 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 felt we had not 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 no one was real."

"I rarely see a rich person smiling." Andrew Carnegie, founder of the Peace Palace in The Hague.

CHALLENGE

How could you use your possessions to do good? What does it mean to you to be "rich in good works?“

Have you ever thought of 'de-stuffing' to create more space for other things in your life?

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