Pre-Ramble:  You can’t swing a bag of gold bullion around here without having some top-tier philanthropist knocking at the door and imploring you to give away half of your wealth. The July 5th cover of fortuitously named Fortune Magazine features the smiling faces of billionaires Warren Buffett and Bill and Melinda Gates along with a plug for the “$600 Billion Challenge.”

Brainchild of legendary Berkshire Hathaway money-magnet Buffett, the Challenge invites the nation’s billionaires “to pledge to give at least half of their net worth to charity, in their lifetimes or at death.”  Names like Eli Broad and David Rockefeller are on the ask list along with media moguls Ted Turner, Michael Bloomberg and Oprah Winfrey. Between the assets of these folks plus the other 395+ super-rich Americans (a la Forbes 400) … we’ve got the potential for quite the pot of cash, … sums the likes of which would “change the face of philanthropy as we know it.”

Long and the short of it.  The thinking behind the scheme is laudable. Buffett explains that while he has not yet made a commitment of time, which he feels is ultimately far more valuable than money, his contribution of Berkshire Hathaway stock certificates “ … can command far-ranging resources [which can] benefit others who, through the luck of the draw, have received the short straws in life. “ 

The obvious thought here is, if you’ve got $1 billion, half-a-billion is probably going to be sufficient to pay the bills and have enough left over to have some fun. So, where exactly is the line between the fortunes conferred by long straws and the lot of the fortune-challenged short straws set?  Where is the tipping point between having enough to live on and experiencing a true sense of need? 

Mortgage payments …  From a personal standpoint, I guess I never really thought about my net worth in terms of “wealth.” Sure, I feel plenty fortunate, blessed even, with the rich and varied lifestyle that my money allows, but I never really considered it “drive-me-across-the-estate-to-the-polo-ponies” kind of wealth.  When I think of vast amounts of disposable wealth, I imagine those closets you’d see on Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous … the ones with thousands of shoes all perfectly lined up on racks. My shoe inventory will fit at the foot of the bed with room to spare. I’m just sayin.

The challenge then, in the lifestyles of those of us who are not so rich and famous, is vastly more confounding — Just how much is enough?  How much of your “personal wealth” could you realistically consider parting with?  What amount of your earnings is really just gravy? For those of you on the less charitably-inclined end of the continuum, how little can you get away with giving away without looking or feeling cheap, greedy or heartless? 

The Take-Away: I don’t have an answer for any of those questions … and I don’t have $1 billion to test the theories. For what it’s worth, the prose of the philanthropic pledge itself offers Warren Buffett’s humble and generous rationale,

The reaction of my family and me to our extraordinary good fortune is not guilt, but rather gratitude. Were we to use more than 1% of my claim checks on ourselves, neither our happiness nor our well-being would be enhanced. In contrast, that remaining 99% can have a huge effect on the health and welfare of others. That reality sets an obvious course for me and my family: Keep all we can conceivably need and distribute the rest to society, for its needs. My pledge starts us down that course.”