“Somebody once said that in looking for people to hire, you look for three qualities: integrity, intelligence, and energy. And if you don’t have the first, the other two will kill you. You think about it; it’s true. If you hire somebody without [integrity], you really want them to be dumb and lazy.”
― Warren Buffett
Bill Gates’ No. 1 Piece of Personal Finance Advice
February 11, 2014
Bill Gates’ net worth stands at a staggering $72 billion, according to Forbes. Undoubtedly, Gates has achieved unprecedented financial success that has been equaled or exceeded by only a handful of individuals in all of history. Because of this financial success, he is a leader in many areas of business and finance.
On Monday, Feb. 10, Gates held an online question-and-answer session — known as “Ask Me Anything” — on Reddit.com. One Reddit user posed the question: “What is your best personal finance advice for people who make under $100,000 per year?”
Gates’ answer might surprise you: “Invest in your education.”
Gates is often touted as a success story for circumventing the rising cost of college, having dropped out of Harvard without a degree to start his software company.
But Gates sees it differently. In the Reddit AMA, he said, “I love college courses. I still watch a lot of them. … It is strange to call me a college dropout in all but the most literal sense. I went for 3 years and took enough courses to graduate. So I am kind of a failure as a dropout and I don’t have a degree.”
This isn’t the first time Gates has touted the importance of college. “[Higher education has] been a huge strength to the United States, a very important thing that’s allowed us to fund our broad set of activities, allowed us to be a leader in the world,” he pointed out in a November 2012 forum on C-SPAN.
Data Backs Bill Gates’ Advice: Higher Education Leads to Higher Income
While Gates acknowledged that he hasn’t had to live off less than $100,000 a year for a very long time, his personal finance advice to invest in one’s education is strongly backed by data. Americans with more education tend to earn more.
According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, getting an associate degree will increase earnings by 20 percent over just a high school degree. And from an associate to a bachelor’s, the jump is even higher — an increase of 35.8 percent, from $785 to $1,066 per week.
A recent survey from Pew Social Trends finds that this higher education income gap is even more pronounced for younger generations: Among millennials aged 25 to 32, college graduates earn a whopping $17,500 more than their counterparts with only a high school diploma. They are also less likely to be unemployed, with a 3.8 percent unemployment rate, compared to 12.2 percent among those with a high school degree.
Photo credit: Oninnovation
“A great many people think they are thinking when they are merely rearranging their prejudices.” ― William James
– “Raising The Bar” – Slightly Out of Reach @DanZwicker
“Staying silent is like a slow growing cancer to the soul and a trait of a true coward. There is nothing intelligent about not standing up for yourself. You may not win every battle. However, everyone will at least know what you stood for—YOU.”
― Shannon L. Alder
“Love does not cost anything. Kind words and deeds do not cost anything. The real beauty of the world is equal for everyone to see. It was given by God equally to all, without restrictions.
Everyone, was given a beautiful vehicle in which to express love to others. Feelings are free to express and give to ourselves and each other through our willingness to give and care.
What is complicated about this… Why have we made others feel they have to climb mountains and swim oceans in order to make a difference.
All we need to understand my friends, is that human life was given equally to us all, not partially but in totality.
The sun was given to all. It does not shine on the few. So, just as nature is indifferent to our station or situation, we need to know that we are all equal. We need to focus on the things that are constant and not place our values on things that can be blown away with the next, great, wind.
Value life in whatever house it dwells. For when it comes time that we are all stripped to bare bones before the divine and facing eternity, we will understand that the only law we were meant to follow, was to love ourselves and each other. Nothing more…nothing less.”
― Carla Jo Masterson
“Integrity is not a conditional word. It doesn’t blow in the wind or change with the weather. It is your inner image of yourself, and if you look in there and see a man who won’t cheat, then you know he never will.
Integrity is not a search for the rewards of integrity. Maybe all you ever get for it is the largest kick in the ass the world can provide. It is not supposed to be a productive asset.”
― John D. MacDonald
“The person of superior integrity
does not insist upon his integrity.
For this reason, he has integrity.
The person of inferior integrity
never loses sight of his integrity;
For this reason, he lacks integrity.”
― Lao Tzu
“Dependability, integrity, the characteristic of never knowingly doing anything wrong, that you would never cheat anyone, that you would give everybody a fair deal. Character is a sort of an all-inclusive thing. If a man has character, everyone has confidence in him.”
― Omar Nelson Bradley
“When you stop living your life based on what others think of you real life begins. At that moment, you will finally see the door of self acceptance opened.”
― Shannon L. Alder
“A mode of conduct, a standard of courage, discipline, fortitude and integrity can do a great deal to make a woman beautiful.”
― Jacqueline Bisset
Money: Retirement: "The Unvarnished Truth" - Dan Zwicker, P. Eng. 
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