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Lunch with Buffett for $2.1M? The two sides of generosity

07/03/08

Posted under Lifestyle, Money Makeover, Smart Habits, budgeting, corporate governance, spending habits, taxes

You all love Warren Buffett, right? Would you pay $2.1 million to have lunch with the oracle of Omaha like this Chinese investment manager who decided to pick up the tab by taking part in a high-stakes online charity auction?

Zhao Danyang, 36, will have lunch with the US billionaire at a Smith and Wollensky steakhouse restaurant in New York. He can bring seven friends to enjoy Buffett’s company for, oh, maybe two hours. Three hours max… maybe.
That’s serious pogi points if you like to project a certain image. Now if you just want to be generous and donating millions of dollars to charity is your kind of thing, why not get a lunch with Buffett into the bargain?

Generosity is a curious thing. On the one hand, the world needs more of it. An interesting list of random acts of money kindness in this article have made life a lot more livable for quite a number of people.

I have also said in a previous post that we can’t always expect people to pull themselves up by their bootstraps and that there will be times we will be called to give till it hurts — and we should.

On the other hand, (and I type this with a mountain of misgivings) sometimes we are too generous for our own good. A friend said she was looking at her credit card bill for June and found that she paid almost P6,500 for restaurant meals. The funny thing is, she could have pared that down to P1,500 if she wasn’t as generous in footing the bill. After all, her lunch mates –- colleagues and friends — were not exactly welfare cases.

At a Money Makeover dinner with Augustus J.V. Ferreria last December, Bianca* was quick on the draw when the bill came. Oh, the kind-hearted sermon that one brought about! Joe advised all of us to develop the habit of dividing the bill when we dine out with friends and colleagues.

There are many other ways we can be too generous for our own good. In the same vein, there are also many ways people can be ridiculously stingy! Oh boy, I’m sure you know the type.

From a scale of one to ten, ten being the most stupidly generous and one being terribly stingy, where do you stand?





8 Feedbacks on "Lunch with Buffett for $2.1M? The two sides of generosity"



nina

I think I’m in the middle.

Sa circle of friends/colleagues ko, unless it’s clarified before ordering that someone is paying for the meal, it is understood to be dutch treat. Normally, kahit sino kasama ko, I always pay/ offer to pay my share. Now, there are times when they would make “kantiyaw” pa-Mc Do ka naman - I sometimes give in or pag birthday ko - nanlilibre ako.

When I go home, it’s a different case. Ang usual experience ng OFW, nagpapalibre friends nila pag umuuwi sila. Kabaligtaran yong akin. Normally, kailangan ko pa kutchabahin yong waiter na ako magbabayad kasi ayaw akong pagbayarin ng friends ko.



hachiko

share ko lang whenever officemates do eatout parties here in japan. wud u believe it’s always dutch treat? (except those being welcomed or se despidir) The bill’s split among party invitees the next day, 4000 yen ($40) is typical. Mind you, kahit bday or wedding pala invitees pay! (prepare 30000 yen or $300 for kasal). Kaya siguro talagang happy bday dito hehehe. Or at least the Japanese have the good sense of NOT making bdays, weddings and eatouts bankruptcy events as is the case in Pinas :D



mzkukuro

I believe I’m in the middle too.

If the budget is not high for treating friends when I got home, its fine with me. Or if meron kahati (may ibang umuwi besides me), then its better.

Kung barkada night out, its normally divided equally.

@nina… really? Your friends in the Phils wont let you pay???? Ok kaibiganin mga friends mo…. hehehe



Salve

nina, bait nga ng mga friends mo :)



Salve

hachiko, long time no hear! dutch treat at weddings?!! no kidding. let’s import that here instead of plasticware! you are so right about birthdays and weddings as bankruptcy events. gotta keep that in mind: my seven year old is turning 8 this month and i’m starting to get into the groove of being a party planner!



Salve

mzkukuro, good for you! my barkada has for the past few years relegated one house to be our tambayan and we eat there instead of going out. last time we had an oyster party. imagine 200 pesos for a big bucket of fresh oysters. and i mean big bucket, as high as my waist! we even had take-home. i guess as we grow older, we treasure more the conversation than the loud music, huh.



nina

@mzkukuro,
yes, my friends won’t allow me to pay :) Ako naman nakikipag unahan kasi minsan-minsan ko lang sila makita.

@Salve,
Minsa pag may kakuwentuhan akong ibang OFW, ayaw ng magpakita sa mga barkada nila pag umuuwi kasi magastos daw :)



Ghia

What is charity then?

For me charity is helping someone by empowering them. there are many ways to this: 1) you can help a house helper who has stopped schooling due to financial problems by sending them to night school or vocational school. 2) by contributing P450 a month, you can send a less fortunate child to school thru World Vision. 3) or sometimes helping doesn’t involve money at all. I met a Filipino pastor when I used to work in Singapore who runs his own computer shop there. He conducts free computer classes to Pinay DH in SG on Sundays in his shop (so instead of engaging in “chismisan” during their day off with their fellow DH, they empower themselves by attending these classes).

So, you see, charity doesn’t have to mean giving until it hurts. And oh, it doesn’t have to involve many people. You cannot change the world overnight. But you can change the world by helping one person at a time….



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