They say money is the root of all evil, but not even USD54 million can change a good heart. In this millennial Fil-Am’s case, it’s inspired good deeds.
After selling his mobile app to Snapchat for a whopping USD54 million, 26-year-old Filipino-American Garrett Gee has taken his small family on an extended tour around the world while anonymously helping others at each stop.
Gee, together with his two university classmates, earned his fortune by developing an app which automatically allows users to scan bar codes.
The money he got from selling it to Snapchat changed his life, but not in the way you think.
Because of Gee’s frugal upbringing, he did not splash out on luxuries. Instead, he took his wife, Settie, and two kids to travel around the world.
That’s how the inspiring Bucket List Family was born.
They’ve been to Indonesia, New Zealand, Australia, Thailand, Tahiti and many other destinations.
“We’ve learned to find happiness with less,” Garrett told People, “and we’ve become more open-minded and open-hearted. We’ve learned about other cultures and where they seek happiness. Good, happy people, I’ve learned, come from everywhere.”
According to the Bucket List Family website, the original plan was to travel only until Christmas of 2015, but it looks like they’ve decided to extend, with the Philippines on their 2016 itinerary!
“Hopefully this year in 2016, [we can] visit the Philippines with my siblings. There’s six of us, so it’d be a really cool opportunity for us to just kind of do a tour of where our ancestors and parents came from,” Gee told Balitang America.
Interestingly enough, Gee named his second son Manilla after the child’s grandmother, who was born in Manila.
Coconuts Manila caught up with Gee, who is currently in Indonesia, and we asked him what he plans to do in the Philippines.
“We want to explore all over the country,” he said. “I love soccer so I would love to play soccer. My wife loves cooking so she wants to learn how to cook Filipino food. I LOOOOVE Filipino food. It is my favorite,” he said.
We can’t wait to hear about your adventures in the Philippines, Bucket List Family!
Follow the adventures of Bucket List Family on their YouTube channel where new videos are uploaded every Sunday.
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