To those who may not know the man who uttered these words, he is Chow Yun-fat, a famous actor from Hong Kong, who’s now famous throughout the world after appearing in many Hollywood movies.

An earlier article tells of how frugal Chow Yun-fat is. Here’s that article: It’s about being comfortable and not how much we spend. He spends just roughly HK$800 (RM426) per month.

He takes the bus instead of driving and queues to buy movie tickets too. Now here’s another one about his estimated HK$5.6 billion (RM2.98 billion) fortune.

Speaking about it in an article that appeared in TheGuardian, he said, “This money isn’t something you possess forever. When you’re gone one day, you have to leave it to others to use it.”

The multimillionaire Chow joined the Forbes list of highest-paid actors in the world for the first time in 2015, sharing 24th place with Russell Crowe.

He said, “You can’t bring the money in your bank account with you after you die.” He also added that his wife “strongly supports” his decision to live life frugally.

This is a huge announcement even as Hong Kong’s wealth gap became the widest last year after nearly half a century.

Sky-high prices and the cost of living in Hong Kong outstrip many ordinary residents’ salaries, with apartments becoming increasingly cramped and generations of families forced to share.

Despite this, the city’s mega-rich continue their displays of extreme wealth and pursuit of status symbols, TheGuardian reported.

Do we want to do what Chow is doing in the future – donate his wealth to charity?

The thing we may want to do is take up acting classes first but if that’s not something we like, then perhaps learning how to invest is an easier route.

By the way, using your money the way Chow does helps tremendously too. Question is, how many can do it when even kids today may be used to spending.

This article first appeared in kopiandproperty.com

Charles Tan blogs at property investment site kopiandproperty. He dislikes property speculators and disagrees that renting is better than buying. He thinks it’s either property or poverty. He is presently the CEO of an auction house auctioning assets beyond just properties.