'Our children won't be left billion-dollar trust funds' - Bill Gates

He is the world's richest man, with a personal fortune of $76 billion, but Bill Gates will not be leaving it all to his three children.

In a rare insight into his personal life, the Microsoft founder and his wife, Melinda, have opened up about how they are raising their family. 

The couple, speaking at a TED conference in Vancouver, said their children will be encouraged to make their own way in the world without the help of billion-dollar trust funds.

Gates said that instead of money, they had given their two daughters and son a good education so they can learn how to rely on their own abilities rather than their parents' fortune.

'You’ve easily got enough money despite your vast contributions to the foundation to make them all billionaires,' conference organizer Chris Anderson said. 

But, according to Wired, Gates responded by saying: 'They won’t have anything like that. They need to have a sense that their own work is meaningful and important.'

'You’ve got to make sure they have a sense of their own ability and what they’re going to go and do,' he added.

Anderson likened raising three children in the world's richest family 'to a social experiment without much prior art' before asking the couple, who run the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, how they had decided to raise their family.

'We want to strike a balance so they have the freedom to do anything but not sort of a lot of money showered on them so that they can go out and do nothing,' Gates said.

He added that they have told their children most of the fortune would be left to their charity, which tackles poor health and poverty.

Melinda Gates also used the TED talks to give details about a trip to Tanzania she made with her eldest daughter Jen.