Daniel Craig is one of the most successful movie stars in the game, with a $130 million fortune to prove it. But according to a recent interview the actor gave to Saga magazine, his kids don't get to look forward to inheriting much of it, if any. That's because in Craig's opinion the whole concept of inherited wealth is "distasteful."
He went on to explain:
"My philosophy is to get rid of it or give it away before you go…I don't want to leave great sums to the next generation."
This isn't a pure hypothetical for Craig, either. He has a very young daughter with wife Rachel Weisz, who was born in 2018, as well as an older daughter in her 20s from a previous marriage. And he's stepfather to a 13-year-old son of Weisz's from her own previous marriage.
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Craig is far from the only celebrity to express such a philosophy. For instance, back in 2016, singer Elton John told the Telegraph that he was foregoing the typical inheritance for his own kids' sake:
"Of course I want to leave my boys in a very sound financial state, but it's terrible to give kids a silver spoon. It ruins their life…Listen, the boys live the most incredible lives, they're not normal kids, and I'm not pretending they are. But you have to have some semblance of normality, some respect for money, some respect for work."
Everyone from Jackie Chan to Simon Cowell to Gordon Ramsay have expressed similar sentiments. And that doesn't even include ultra-wealthy billionaires like Bill Gates and Warren Buffett, who even started the famous Giving Pledge encouraging other billionaires to do with their wealth just what Daniel Craig says above – "to get rid of it or give it away before you go" – and not simply pass it on to their kids after they die.
