A millionaire is giving up his £3 million ($7 million) fortune because he said they never made him happy.

Austrian Karl Rabeder, who made his riches from his household accessories and furnishings business, said the sale of his luxurious villas and cars, among other things, will go to charities he had set up in Central and Latin America.

He had already sold his business in 2004.

The 47-year-old told the Daily Telegraph: “My idea is to have nothing left. Absolutely nothing. Money is counterproductive – it prevents happiness from coming.”

He added: “For a long time, I believed that more wealth and luxury automatically meant more happiness.”

But over time, a conflicting feeling nagged at him.

He said: “More and more I heard the words: ‘Stop what you are doing now – all this luxury and consumerism – and start your real life.’

I had the feeling I was working as a slave for things that I did not wish for or need.”

But it took him several years before he acted on it as he admitted he was not “brave” enough to give up all the trappings of his comfortable existence instantly.

The turning point came during a three-week holiday in Hawaii with his former wife.

He said: “It was the biggest shock in my life, when I realised how horrible, soulless and without feeling the five-star lifestyle is.

“In those three weeks, we spent all the money you could possibly spend. But in all that time, we had the feeling we hadn’t met a single real person – that we were all just actors.

“The staff played the role of being friendly and the guests played the role of being important and nobody was real.”

Felt guilty

He had similar feelings of guilt while on gliding trips in South America and Africa.

He said: “I increasingly got the sensation that there is a connection between our wealth and their poverty.”

Mr Rabeder thought “if I don’t do it now, I won’t do it for the rest of my life”.

So he made an announcement on Austrian television and said he would be selling his luxury 3,455 sq ft villa with lake and sauna over the Alps, valued at £1.4 million.

Also up for sale is a 17-hectare old stone farmhouse in Provence for £613,000.

Mr Rabeder has already sold his collection of six gliders valued at £350,000 and a luxury Audi A8, worth around £44,000.

He said all the money will go into his microcredit charity, which offers small loans to Latin America and builds development aid strategies to self-employed people in El Salvador, Honduras, Bolivia, Peru, Argentina and Chile.

Since selling his belongings, Mr Rabeder felt “free, the opposite of heavy”.

Now divorced, he lives in a two-room flat in Innsbruck.

He added: “The worst that can happen to me is that I have to take a small job to get by.

“I was just listening to the voice of my heart and soul.”

This article was first published in The New Paper.