Bill Gates once gave his daughter $16 million gift, it went against Melinda's 'middle class' upbringing: Parenting lessons to learn from the billionaires

For most kids, a graduation gift usually means a modest watch, a heartfelt card, or maybe a humble check from relatives. But when your last name is Gates, the stakes are a little higher.


In 2018, Jennifer Gates, daughter of Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates and philanthropist Melinda French Gates, graduated from Stanford University. Her graduation gift? A $15.82 million horse farm in North Salem, New York, according to property records reviewed by The Wall Street Journal.


The 124-acre equestrian estate, located just over an hour north of Manhattan, features multiple land parcels, riding trails, and a modern stable setup—ideal for Jennifer, an accomplished equestrian who later attended medical school at Mount Sinai.


Despite the multimillion-dollar gesture, Melinda Gates maintains that their children were raised with a "middle-class" mindset. In a 2024 interview with The New York Times, Melinda said, “It was much more of an upbringing like I grew up in. A very middle-class household where money did dictate whether I got an extra pair of shoes that year or not.”



She emphasized that, even with their vast resources, the Gates family avoided a lavish lifestyle at home. “We absolutely did not just buy them things,” she told The Times. “They either had to buy with their allowance or put it on their wish list, that maybe they'd get from their grandparents or us.”


According to Melinda, even private jet travel came with boundaries. “You really are not allowed to tell other people how we flew on this trip,” she would tell her kids. “Otherwise it will separate you from other children.”


Her parenting approach was shaped in part by her own college experience at Duke University, where she encountered wealthy peers who, in her words, lacked humility. “I vowed to myself that if I ever had resources at my disposal, those were not the kind of children I wanted to raise,” she said.



So while Jennifer Gates galloped into post-grad life on a multimillion-dollar estate, the family philosophy behind the scenes was more "billionaire boot camp" than "billionaire free-for-all."


Gates' parenting style wasn’t about indulging in endless luxury—it was more like “billionaire boot camp” than a “rich kid free-for-all.” Even something as extravagant as private air travel came with rules. As Melinda Gates explained, she would caution her children against bragging: “You really are not allowed to tell other people how we flew on this trip... otherwise it will separate you from other children.”


There was intention behind this restraint. Melinda told The New York Times that her own college experience at Duke shaped her parenting approach. She recalled meeting wealthy students who, despite their privilege, lacked humility. Determined not to raise her children the same way, she said, “I vowed to myself that if I ever had resources at my disposal, those were not the kind of children I wanted to raise.”