Money can't buy you happiness

From what I hear, parenting is a tough job. Sometimes you need to make hard decisions that everyone else hates, but you make it in the best interest of your family, and that's what Graham Tuckwell has just done.

Together with his wife Louise, Tuckwell, who is worth an estimated $775 million, donated $50 million to the Australian National University for a scholarship program. This is the largest donation ever made to Australian students, but one which must go against every parental instinct in their bodies. Natural instincts would be screaming out to help their children, it must have been tempting for the Tuckwells to split the money between their 4 children, but mixing money with blood is "poisonous" according to Graham Tuckwell. 

He has learned from other wealthy Australians what NOT to do with excess family money, "If you look at the people in Australia that have got huge amounts of wealth, without naming any, they generally have not put the majority of their wealth behind strong philanthropic causes," he said.

And Tuckwell is putting his money where his mouth is. Under the Tuckwell scholarship, twenty-five undergraduates will be granted scholarships worth up to $100,000 each year over the next five years - creating 125 scholarships all up over that time. 

Graeme and Louise Tuckwell will travel to Canberra for the selection process each year, where they will be looking for students who are looking for more out of life that just good grades, as Tuckwell said, they will be selecting candidates based on where they are goinng, not where they have been. They will look at students based on how "innately how good are they, what's their real desire in life and where do they (want to) get to"

The Tuckwell children have missed out on a share of $50 million after their parents show of philanthropy, but it may be the best present they have ever been given. They now have what most of the world take for granted - the value of an earned dollar.