'It's not healthy to live a life of luxury': Businessman whose firm turns over $500million a year still drives an $8,000 car and considers a meal at the local Indian with his wife as the perfect night out
- Founder of Jim's Mowing David Penman doesn't live like the average millionaire
- Mr Penman still drives a modest car and eats at modest restaurants with his wife
- His true love lies with academia and 'biohistory', which he indulges in to this day
A self-made millionaire who turned a $24 investment into a $500 million a year company has revealed why he believes a life of luxury is an 'abuse'.
Founder of Jim's Mowing, David Penman, started his empire in 1982 with just $24 and turned it into a multi-million dollar company that affords him the chance to live however he wishes.
Except he still drives an $8,000 car, has nothing but work clothes in his wardrobe, and considers a perfect night out with his wife to include a $60 dinner from the local Indian restaurant, nine.com.au reported.
Founder of Jim's Mowing, David Penman (pictured left), still lives life like a normal working class man despite owning a company worth $500 million a year, describing a life of luxury as an 'abuse'
'Sure I can buy all the books I want and our house is nice, we have a person to come and clean once a week because my wife and I both work, but it's not healthy to live a life of luxury. It's an abuse,' he told the publication.
When he started Jim's Mowing, Mr Penman had intended on becoming an academic and was studying his PhD in history at Latrobe University at the time.
But he said he quickly realised his views would not gel with modern academia, saying they were 'far too radical' for the institutions.
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His main interests lay with biohistory, but he also found that the subject wasn't popular enough to warrant study grants.
Biohistory is the study of how the environment and behaviour can leave 'epigenetic marks on our DNA' that are then passed on to the next generations.
After realising the field was not popularly recognised, Mr Penman decided he would fund his own research, but never predicted that someday he would have the wealth to do so and more.
He still drives an $8,000 car, has nothing but work clothes in his wardrobe, and considers a perfect night out with his wife to include a $60 dinner from the local Indian restaurant
Mr Penman funds a host of academic studies, including a recent study into the epigenetics of social behaviour.
He hopes the research can help treat people with addictions and mental illness.
'To study how these mechanisms work, a number of studies have been done on rats. The hormonal and behavioural effects of mild food shortage are very similar in both species,' he said.
Jim's Mowing, a gardening service, is a thriving business with 55 different divisions, 4000 franchisees and 35,000 customers per day.
