This weekend’s launch of SPECTRE puts James Bond back on the big screen in the 24th official film of the series. Our family is a big fan of the franchise and my son & I saw (and rated) all of the movies over the last year.  We enjoyed the new movie a lot, but you are probably wondering what is the linkage to a personal finance / early retirement blog?

Readers of MrFireStation.com already know that I am working my final year before early retirement and putting all of my salary into a philanthropic fund.  I wrote about our “One More Year Fund” back in April.  The fun will be in picking worthwhile causes for the money in the first few years of our early retirement.

When my DW & I agreed to the plan and launched the idea it seemed pretty novel.  A few months later, I ran across a story about Ben Franklin and how he donated his salary as Governor of Pennsylvania (worth $2 million today) to help young tradesman.  The money grew for 200 years before it was cashed out.

Now I’ve run across another story like this.  My son read online about the challenges that United Artists had getting Sean Connery to come back to play James Bond for 1971’s Diamonds Are Forever.  The movie was a bit forgettable (ranked in the bottom 5 in our rankings), but what Connery did was remarkable.  According to this Time Magazine article, Connery made a number of demands before he would reprise the 007 role including asking for a $1.25 million salary – which he then donated to charity!  That amount of money would be worth $7.3 million today.

According to the article, the Scotsman Connery founded the Scottish International Education Fund.  The fund supports scholarships for “men and women who have shown ability and promise and wish to take their studies or professional training.”  Sounds like a good cause.

Image Credit: JamesBondWiki.com