Ex-millionaire and happy

This is the story of an Austrian businessman who gave up his business and his fortune to live on 1000 euros a month in a cabin.
A radical choice that brings him happiness.

A year ago, he lived in a luxurious villa in the Austrian mountains.
A huge garage housed his limousine, five aircraft were available.
At 48, Karl Rabad was a wealthy businessman, recognized and unhappy.

Today he lives with 1000 euros per month in a cabin of 20m2 without comfort, and he is, he says, “happier than he has ever been.”

“When you see the photo taken of me a year ago in front of my cottage, I looked ten years older, tired and sad”.
It is a journey in South America who opened his eyes:
“I realized that most poor people who live there are much happier than the average European. Advertising tells us that we must have the latest brand of jeans or a large house, but people who have it all do not look happier.”

In January 2010, the businessman, who made his fortune in decorative accessories, took a radical decision: he decided to part with all his possessions and retire to a mountain chalet.

An idyllic life without physical possession
To get rid of his beautiful villa built of wood and glass in a green valley Tyrolean Rabad he imagines an original method.
Instead of offering it for sale, he organizes a lottery.
22,000 people buy a ticket at 99 euros in the hope of winning the house, his garden, spa and beach volleyball. It’s a Bavarian who wins the jackpot. The 2.2 million collected will join the fortune earned through the sale of its business and assets in a charitable fund dedicated to micro-credit in developing countries.

Over the past year, the former millionaire, divorced in 2003 after 17 years of marriage, realized his dream: he lives in a small wooden house.
His life now seems idyllic.
“In the morning I wake up when my body wakes up. Then I ask myself what I want to do. Sometimes I write for ten hours straight, sometimes I go just to walk in the mountains.”

Now that he is poor, relationships with people are easier:
“Before the people I met thought I was a piggy bank. Now, when someone is interested in me, it’s not because of money, the contact is much easier. ”

Of his house and his past life, he did not take anything.

The only thing he regrets, “is time. For twenty years I felt I was leading a life that did not suit me. ”
He does not want to change anything in his new happiness:

“The material things are nothing. I am happier now, because I live at last as I always had to live. “