I love crazy money stories. This is one of ‘em. In the early 20th century, a man named Wellington R. Burt was a multimillionaire thanks to his lumber mills and other businesses. Like most wealthy people, he had a will. But his will included some odd rules:

“With the conditions of a strange will — which barred any money from his estate being distributed until 21 years after the death of his last grandchild — having been met, 12 of Burt’s descendants split a fortune estimated at about $100 million. By 5 p.m. on Monday, each of those 12 became instant millionaires after Saginaw, Mich., County Chief Probate Judge Patrick McGraw ordered full distribution of the estate by that deadline.”

I think old Wellington wins for the longest held grudge ever. He definitely hated his family. I know I don’t always get along with my family, but they’d have to do something really messed up before I punished them and my grandchildren!

The $100,000,000 was split among 12 different people. One is my age. She received somewhere between 2.6 million and 2.9 million. Wow. Having that amount of money right now would blow my mind. The only thing I know 100% I’d do for sure with that type of money is pay for school. The girl seems to have an amazing attitude though, unlike a lot of people who come into amazing wealth and end up bankrupt just a few years later.

“That is small change compared to the estimated $14.5 million to $16 million that was paid to the biggest beneficiary, but it is still life-changing money. Still, “I’d rather not rely on it,’’ Christina Cameron told the Saginaw News. “I’ll probably just save it. I don’t know; it’s just not as big of a deal to me as it was to most of my family.”

I hope she can stick with that plan and not go crazy on hookers and blow. Seriously. Because that’s what some people do. I guess this whole thing is a good reminder to never pi$$ off your (rich) family members though. I’m also motivated now to create a ridiculous will that lets me troll my family members from the grave.

Source: MSNBC

As I left the gas station yesterday, I noticed a man who had obviously fallen upon hard times. That or he was doing a spectacular job of looking homeless. The man held up a cardboard sign which read “Anything will help. Diabetic“.

My first thought was “Well, I don’t have any money.” Immediately, I realized how stupid this sounded. I just charged $45 to my Discover card filling up my gas tank. Something that I do at least once a week. And while I usually don’t carry much, if any, cash, I actually had $20 or so in my wallet.

But I still wasn’t going to give him any money. There are too many unknowns. Many homeless turn to alcohol, and while I don’t blame them for wanting to dull some of their pain, I’m not going to help an alcoholic out. Just not gonna happen! I don’t want to say the majority are drunks, but I’m pretty sure they are. Not to mention the cigarettes. It annoys me when family and friends smoke, let alone the poor.

I have to put my faith into food banks, shelters, and other charitable organizations. I know they can’t help everyone out, but I feel they’re in a much better position to provide assistance than I am. I’d much rather give a donation to the local food bank than a random stranger. Sometimes it makes me feel cold and heartless, but I think it’s best decision overall.

Ok, this is going to be a really short post but that doesn’t mean it’s not important.

I just found out that you can donate $10 to the Red Cross to help out the victims of the Haiti earthquake through your cellphone. This is awesome!

Just text “HAITI” without the quotes to 90999. $10 will simply be billed on your next cellphone statement or deducted from your prepaid balance. This is one time donation.

The earthquake registered 7.0. There hasn’t been an earthquake of this magnitude in Haiti for 200 years and up to 50,000 people are feared dead.

So I encourage you to donate if you can. This has got to be the simplest way ever to help out. I love how technology can do more than just make our lives a little easier, it can also help out others in their time of need. It seems every teen in the US has a cell phone, so the impact of this could be huge.

Thanks!

Here’s the Red Cross link for more information.