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Bill Gates may be worth well over $100 billion, but his children aren’t set to inherit much of it. Gates has long said his kids will receive only about 1% of his fortune<\/a>, with the rest going to philanthropy. Despite that staggering wealth, Melinda French Gates once explained she wanted their family to stay grounded \u2014 even while raising her children inside a $130 million lakeside mansion.<\/p>\n That perspective stands out as the Gates children have built lives of their own. The eldest, Jennifer Gates, made headlines in 2023<\/a> when she bought a $51 million penthouse in Manhattan’s Tribeca neighborhood at age 26. The sprawling residence spans about 8,900 square feet with another 3,400 square feet of outdoor space, including a plunge pool. The converted warehouse building, known for its privacy and celebrity residents such as Blake Lively, Ryan Reynolds, and Meg Ryan, has become one of New York’s most sought-after addresses.<\/p>\n Don’t Miss:<\/p>\n Jennifer, an accomplished equestrian and Stanford graduate, later welcomed her first child with husband Nayel Nassar, an Olympic equestrian. The couple reportedly purchased the former home of Formula One champion Lewis Hamilton through a Seattle-based trust.<\/p>\n For many, it’s an image of privilege few can relate to \u2014 but French Gates has often emphasized that she tried to give her children a different kind of foundation. Speaking with Elle<\/a> for the magazine’s Women of Impact feature, she said her goal was to keep her family’s day-to-day life as normal as possible.<\/p>\n “I wanted the kids to be seen for who they were,” she said. “My oldest daughter went in with Gates; she felt like she was ready to take that name on. My son chose not to. He used French all the way through high school.”<\/p>\n Trending: Arrived Home’s Private Credit Fund\u2019s has historically paid an annualized dividend yield of 8.1%*<\/a>, which provides access to a pool of short-term loans backed by residential real estate with just a $100 minimum.\u00a0<\/a><\/p>\n French Gates explained that using her maiden name was one small way to help her children live beyond the shadow of their father’s fame. “I just tried to keep them in the real world and point things out to them as much as possible,” she said. “We had real discussions about how our family was different, but you shouldn’t think any more of yourself because of that.”<\/p>\n Of course, keeping things “real” looks a little different when your childhood home has its own gym and trampoline room. The Tribeca penthouse is a far cry from modest living \u2014 an 8,900-square-foot reminder that even grounded heirs still live at a stratosphere most can’t imagine.<\/p>\n See Also: Missed Nvidia and Tesla? RAD Intel Could Be the Next AI Powerhouse \u2014 Just $0.81 a Share<\/a><\/p>\n That said, you don’t have to be a trust-fund baby to get a slice of prime real estate. Platforms like Arrived Homes now let everyday investors buy fractional shares of rental properties around the country<\/a> \u2014 giving people exposure to real estate income without needing millions in the bank or a second mortgage.<\/p>\n For anyone chasing long-term wealth or just craving a taste of the “property owner” life, it’s a far more attainable way to build something real \u2014 no $51 million penthouse required.<\/p>\n Even the Gates family might agree: staying grounded doesn’t mean avoiding success. It means understanding the value of what you own \u2014 whether it’s a single share of a rental home or a Tribeca rooftop terrace.<\/p>\n Read Next: Microsoft’s Climate Innovation Fund Just Backed This Farmland Manager \u2014 And Accredited Investors Can Join the Same Fund<\/a><\/p>\n Image: Shutterstock<\/p>\n This article Bill Gates’ Daughter Bought A $51 Million New York City Penthouse At Just 26, But Mom Melinda Says, ‘I Just Tried to Keep Them in the Real World’<\/a> originally appeared on Benzinga.com<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Benzinga and Yahoo Finance LLC may earn commission or revenue on some items through the links below. Bill…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":20270,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[13735,13730,8860,13733,13732,13736,13731,9,11,10,13734],"class_list":{"0":"post-20269","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-york","8":"tag-accredited-investors","9":"tag-bill-gates","10":"tag-blake-lively","11":"tag-french-gates","12":"tag-jennifer-gates","13":"tag-meg-ryan","14":"tag-melinda-french-gates","15":"tag-new-york","16":"tag-new-york-headlines","17":"tag-new-york-news","18":"tag-ryan-reynolds"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20269","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=20269"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20269\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/20270"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20269"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20269"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20269"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}