SIX MOST GENEROUS PEOPLE IN THE WORLD

Who are they?

Last year, people across the globe were shocked when the richest person in the world for 13 consecutive years, Bill Gates (co-founder of Microsoft), strode to number two in Forbes magazine's listing of world billionaires and his best friend and another billionaire, Warren Buffet (The richest person in the world in 2008) slid to number three. Why it happened? Well, because of their generosity...

These two billionaires became so generous that they gave away billions of dollars to various charities. Now, they earned the fantastic description of being the world's two most generous people --- which is more admiring than being the world's richest people.

Microsoft's Bill Gates, already donated $24 billion to his own foundation, Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and to Giving Pledge, a foundation he established with Warren Buffet. He is the second richest person in the world with a personal fortune of $56 billion.

The two most generous people in the planet already donated a combined $36.3 billion ($28 billion by Gates, $8.3 billion by Buffet) to Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation (though Buffet has his own foundation, the Susan Buffet Foundation--named after his first wife, Susan Buffet--he is a regular patron of his best friend's foundation, BAMGF). If there are two people who did nothing but give away their billions for the sake of humanity, they are Gates and Buffets. Last year, as if the enormous amount they donated to the foundation was not enough, the two established another foundation called "Giving Pledge" to convince wealthy Americans to give away or put considerable portion of their wealth to charities, more than 60 American billionaires signed up as a result including Facebook founder, Mark Zuckerberg (currently the 52nd richest man in the world) and George Kaiser.

Berkshire Hathaway's big boss and the world's third richest person, Warren Buffet, the legendary American investor (often dubbed as one of the world's most brilliant investors) declared that he would not leave all his wealth to his children but give 85% of it in the form of donation to various charities. He already donated $8.3 billion of his wealth to charities.

Bill Gates, determined to devote his time to the foundation, gave up his position as CEO and chief software architect of Microsoft last year and relegated these positions to his top executives, but he remained the company's Chairman of the board. Despite his immense wealth, Warren Buffet, known with his frugality,  continues to live in a modest house in Omaha, Nebraska he bought in the 1950s (valued today at $1.2 million only) with no computer in his working desk. Just like Bill Gates, Buffet declared he would never leave all his wealth to his children but give away 85% of it in the form of donation to various charities. Buffet remains the CEO of Berkshire Hathaway, Fortune magazines's third most admired company in the world and one of the world's largest investment companies. He is the third richest man in the world as of 2011 with an estimated net worth of $50 billion. He is, apart from the U.S Presidents and world's scientists, the only person with many books written under his name, a total of 47 (check my featured books from Amazon about him). Writers are amazed with his intelligent investing style and strategies that they rake up deeper down to his business portfolio and techniques.

George Soros, Founder and Chairman of Soros Fund Management which provides financial services and investment strategies to hedge funds and other companies. He is currently the 46th richest man in the world with an estimated fortune of $14.5 billion

The 268th richest person in the world and Intel co-founder, Gordon Moore, already donated $6.8 billion to his foundation, Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation. He is the author of Moore's Law (describes a long-term trend in the history of Computer Hardware and the number of transistors that can be placed on an integrated circuit). Among the world's most generous people, it is Moore who is the most amazing because despite having only $4.0 billion fortune, he had give away more than what he had earned in a year, I think that's what humility and generosity is all about.

The world's richest man, Carlos Slim Helu of Mexico, who, despite his enormous wealth ($74 billion), had only a total donation of $4 billion

George Kaiser, the 89th richest man in the world with an estimated net worth asset of $9.8 billion, already donated $4 billion to various charities. He chairs BOK Financial Corporation, a U.S based financial services company. He obtained his MBA at Harvard Business School.

Buffet is closely followed by 80-year-old George Soros, a Hungarian-American businessman and Philanthropist which has a total donation of $8.0 billion and Intel co-founder, Gordon Moore with $6.8 billion. The most surprising is Carlos Slim Helu's total donation ($4 billion) despite being the world's richest person with $74 billion estimated net worth assets, he donated this amount to his own foundation, the Carlos Slim Helu Foundation focusing on digital education and health. He boldly declared that he felt he could save the world by creating more jobs than giving donations to charities. He tied in number 5 with American billionaire, George Kaiser, with a$4.0 billion total donation, but what made Kaiser different to Slim Helu is that the former has only $9.8 billion estimated fortune.