r/nextfuckinglevel • u/matori_tester • 2d ago

Billionaire speaker Robert F. Smith tells 400 graduates he's paying off all their student loans ($40 million in total)

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u/Poppanaattori89 2d ago

So inspirational. I really liked this part of his speech:

"Instead of getting the free education you deserve, here's some dirty money that I don't deserve to try to distract you from the fact that I don't deserve it."

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u/BabyWrinkles 1d ago

He could put $1B that he’ll never spend anyway (<10% of his net worth) into a trust that pays out 4% (generally considered a safe withdrawal rate to only draw down principal while accounting for inflation) and do this for every class going forward in perpetuity.

Just to give some context for how much a billion dollars is.

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u/Legirion 12h ago

That's how math and percentages work.