In a 2023 interview, Bill Gates shared, “My grandmother never threw away a paper bag in her life or any string from a package,” he recalled. She would save every bit of ribbon, wrapping paper, and packaging string, carefully folding and storing it for reuse. The world’s sixth-richest man, according to Bloomberg, with a net worth of $170 billion, admitted to being mindful of his spending. But by his grandmother’s standards, he didn’t come close. The tech tycoon even laughed that when he tears open a gift, he doesn’t emulate her thrifty habits and instead tosses the wrapping. “By her standards, I’m crazy.”
One of the most influential figures in Gates’s childhood was his maternal grandmother, Adele Thompson Maxwell, whom he described as a third parent. Having lived through lean times, Grandma Adele was exceptionally frugal and resourceful. While Gates may not have been a penny-pincher in his day-to-day life, he insists he is no spendthrift. Today, he is giving away billions to charity. In fact, he once said, “My net worth will drop by 99 percent over the next 20 years.”
Despite his staggering wealth, the tech billionaire has always treated money with caution and a strong sense of responsibility. And that mindset shaped how he ran his company in its earliest days. The following example offers a glimpse into his cautious approach to financial planning, long before the billions started flowing into philanthropic causes.
Saving for rainy days-
The businessman revealed that in Microsoft’s early startup days, he made sure there was enough cash on hand to cover a full year’s payroll in case revenue dried up. “I always had to be careful that we wouldn’t hire too many people. I was always worried… Will I be able to meet the payroll?” he reminisced. Maintaining such a massive rainy-day fund may have brought him peace of mind, but it also meant giving up other investments or personal luxuries to preserve financial security for the company.
A beautiful relationship with his grandmother-
In a 2015 interview, the 68-year-old billionaire reflected on his childhood memories. “My two grandmothers, not to insult my grandfathers, were significantly more talented than my grandfathers. My two grandmothers were both very smart. She was the one who would read the Christian Science lesson daily. Every morning, you would read this Mary Baker Eddy lesson. I don’t know if my grandfather could have read it. She would always be the one who sat there, made a coffee, and read the lesson. That was the first thing they did when I would go over and stay at their house in downtown Bremerton.”
As a child, Bill spent a lot of time with his grandmother at the local public library. “Some of my fondest childhood memories were of going to the library with my grandmother to pick out books,” the philanthropist recalled. “Even today, it still feels like home.” She not only took him on regular library outings but also engaged him in deep conversations about what he read, from science to history.
In addition to instilling a deep-rooted passion for reading, his doting grandmother also loved to play card games, notably Hearts. And she didn’t play just to entertain him. She was fiercely competitive. As Gates writes in his memoir Source Code, “You’ll also meet my extended family, like the grandmother who taught me how to play cards and, along the way, how to think.”
As of writing this article, according to stock‑market filings, Microsoft holds $92.6 billion in cash reserves, and this saving habit from the company’s early days has grown into a cash pile roughly equal to Starbucks’ market cap.
