This recipe originated from a Tex-Mex Lasagna by Paula Deen. I have modified and added a few ingredients that make the dish a bit spicier and more flavorful. By using whole wheat pasta, light sour cream, and reduced fat cream cheese, my recipe has few calories as well. This recipe will serve 10-12.

2 cups chopped cooked chicken (about 4 small chicken breasts)
1 (15.25 oz.) can corn, drained
1 (15 oz.) can black beans, drained
1 (15 oz.) can tomato sauce
1 (8 oz.) can tomato sauce
1 (1o oz.) can diced tomatoes and green chiles, drained
1 can of chipotle peppers in adobe sauce
1 chopped red bell pepper
1 bunch of chopped cilantro
4 cloves garlic, minced
1 fresh jalapeno, seeded and chopped
1/4 c. chopped jalapenos
1-2 tbsp. red pepper flakes
1 tbsp. ground cumin
1 tbsp. chili powder
Dash of salt
1-2 tbsp. corn starch
1 (16 oz.) container of light sour cream
1 (8 oz.) package 1/3 reduced fat cream cheese
8 whole wheat lasagna noodles (optional: substitute for oven-ready)
1 (8 oz.) package of Monterey Jack cheese with jalapeno peppers
1 (8 oz.) package of sharp Cheddar cheese

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Remove cream cheese from refrigerator to soften.

If using whole wheat lasagna noodles, cook 8 noodles according to package instructions, then drain and set aside.

Dice and mix together in a large bowl the following ingredients: red bell pepper; cilantro; garlic; fresh jalapeno; and other jalapenos. Remove 2-3 of the Chipotle peppers from the jar of adobe sauce, cut into strips, then add to the mixture. Add 2 tbsp. of the adobe sauce. Drain well the corn, black beans, and diced tomatoes. Add these three ingredients along with the two different cans of tomato sauce into the mixture. Add red pepper flakes, cumin, chili powder, and salt. Add the chicken.

Slowly heat Dutch oven to medium high heat on stove top. Transfer mixture into Dutch oven, and bring to a boil. Reduce heat, and simmer (covered) for 15-20 minutes. If needed, add 1-2 tbsp. of corn starch to thicken the mixture.

Grate the two 8 oz. blocks of cheese, mix the cheeses together, and set aside.

Using a hand mixer or stand mixer, combine the sour cream and softened cream cheese. Mix on low to medium-low speed for 2-3 minutes, or until the mixture is smooth. Set aside.

Lightly grease a 13×9 inch baking dish. Spoon one-third of the chicken mixture into prepared dish. Top with 4 lasagna noodles. Spread half of sour cream mixture over the noodles. Top with one-third chicken mixture. Sprinkle with half of the combined cheeses. Top with 4 lasagna noodles. Spread remaining half of sour cream mixture. Top with remaining one-third chicken mixture. Sprinkle with remaining combined cheeses.

Bake for 35 minutes or until bubbly. Allow lasagna to cool for at least 10 minutes before serving.

I found this recipe from one of my Hungry Girl cook books. I made a few changes based on my preferences. This recipe tastes great reheated and is super easy to make! It makes 4 total servings. Each serving is approximately 270 calories.

Ingredients

-  4 1/2 ounces (about 1 cup) uncooked elbow macaroni (with at least 2g fiber per 2-ounce serving)

- 1 bell pepper

-  4 medium carrots, chopped

-  1 small onion, chopped

-  8 ounces cooked and shredded skinless lean chicken

-  1 teaspoon chopped garlic

-  1/4 c. (4 tablespoons) Frank’s RedHot Original Cayenne Pepper Sauce

- diced jalapenos (optional)

-  1/2 c. fat-free sour cream

-  2 wedges Laughing Cow Garlic and Herb

-  2 teaspoons yellow mustard

-  1 1/2 tablespoons reduced-fat Parmesan-style grated topping

Directions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Cook pasta al dente in a medium-large pot (refer to package instructions for exact time). Drain and set aside.

Bring a skillet sprayed with nonstick spray to medium-high heat on the stove. Add bell pepper, carrots, and onion. Stirring occasionally, cook until veggies have slightly softened, about 5 minutes. Add chicken, garlic, jalapenos, and 3 tablespoons hot sauce to the skillet. Mix thoroughly and set aside.

In a microwave-safe bowl, combine sour cream, cheese wedges, mustard, and remaining 1 tablespoon hot sauce. Mix well and heat in the microwave for 30 seconds.

Spray an 8-inch by 8-inch baking pan with nonstick spray. Evenly place half of the pasta into the pan. Evenly top with the chicken-veggie mixture followed by the remaining pasta. Add the sour cream mixture to the pan in an even layer. Sprinkle with Parm-style topping.

Bake in the oven until hot and bubbly, about 30 minutes.

2 (8 ounce) packages cream cheese, softened
1 cup white sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 (8 ounce) cans refrigerated crescent rolls
3/4 cup white sugar
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 cup butter, room temperature
1/4 cup honey

• Preheat an oven to 350 degrees. Spray 9×13 inch baking dish with cooking spray.
• Beat softened cream cheese with 1 cup of sugar and vanilla extract in a bowl until smooth.
• Unroll the cans of crescent roll dough creating one large rectangle per can. Press one rectangle piece into the bottom of a your baking dish. Evenly spread the cream cheese mixture into the baking dish, then cover with the remaining piece of crescent dough. Stir together 3/4 cup of sugar, cinnamon, and butter (it’s easiest to use your hands to make sure the ingredients are evenly mixed). Dot the mixture over the top of the cheesecake.
• Bake 30 minutes. Remove from the oven and drizzle with honey. Allow to cool, then serve.

“Quest for the Perfect Credit Score” by Ismat Sarah Mangla, Money Magazine

(MONEY Magazine) — A major league pitcher dreams of throwing a perfect game. High schoolers eyeing the Ivy League study furiously in hopes of earning 2400 on the SAT. Meanwhile, Chris Peplinski is pursuing his own brand of flawlessness: an 850 credit score.

The 37-year-old stay-at-home dad from Rogers, Ark., has already nabbed 813 on the FICO scale, the credit scoring system most lenders use in sizing up potential borrowers.

That ranks him above more than 82% of Americans and comes with a big payoff: It entitles him to ultralow rates on loans, saving him tens of thousands of bucks over a lifetime.

Nevertheless, Peplinski won’t be satisfied until he hits the maximum: 850. Why? “Your credit score tells a lot about you,” Peplinski explains. “A high score means you’re responsible and in control of your life. You’re trustworthy.”

To reach his goal, Peplinski voraciously reads up on every element that goes into a FICO score, checks his number every three months, and tweaks his behavior to eke out every possible additional point.

Two years ago, he took out a car loan even though he and his wife, Chrissy, had the cash to buy their wheels outright. He figured that adding to his mix of credit might boost his score.

The reality is that you don’t need to catch the unicorn to catch the best rates. But adopting some of the habits of Peplinski and other members of the 800 club can help you improve your own score.

And that can translate into real money: On a $300,000 30-year fixed-rate mortgage, the most credit-worthy borrowers will pay $14,200 less than those one tier below, $25,600 less than those two tiers below.

FICO, the Minneapolis company that produces the scoring model, divulges the five factors that determine your magic number — your payment history, the amount you owe on credit lines and loans, the length of your credit history, how much new credit you’ve applied for, and the types of accounts you’ve had — plus what percentage of your score each factor represents.

But as for exactly how many points you’ll gain or lose for, say, taking on a mortgage, being late on a bill, or charging credit cards up to the max? That’s proprietary information: “It’s a black box,” says FICO spokesman Craig Watts.

Mystery feeds obsession. Much the way fans of TV’s Lost met up online to postulate theories on the show’s ending, some credit score aficionados passionately debate their hypotheses on message boards like the FICO Forums at myfico.com. Others use themselves as guinea pigs to discover which moves will nudge a score up or down.

While most people could tell you their number only from the last time they got a loan — if at all — true FICO fiends know their score as well as they know their spouse.

Of the score strivers MONEY interviewed, most check their score obsessively, at least every few months — at a cost of $50 or more a year. They also fixate on their credit reports, upon which the scores are based.

Leland Lim, a 41-year-old doctor from the Bay Area, is vigilant about scanning these for errors that might drag down his number. “It took me three years to get a derogatory entry on one of them corrected,” says Lim, who now earns an 806.

As for what makes an 800-plus score, these self-made experts basically say the same thing FICO does: Payment history is the single most important factor.

“I have this fetish about paying bills as soon as they come in the house,” says Dick Husemann, 66, a retired Air Force officer from Wilmington, N.C. He and his wife, Brenda, 69, attribute their high scores — matching 818s — to the fact that they’ve never missed a credit payment.

The Husemanns also never charge more than 10% of their credit limit. They’re not alone in that; most score enthusiasts aim to keep a low “utilization ratio,” or the amount they owe compared with the amount of credit available to them. FICO verifies that a low ratio can help your score.

Chris Peplinski used his knowledge of this principle to help his wife boost her number. When they met seven years ago, Chrissy’s credit cards were maxed out and her score was a low 466. (Today he jokes: “I tell people when they’re dating someone new, ask about your date’s credit score!”)

Chris helped her get on a repayment plan. A sales manager for General Mills, Chrissy now has tons of available credit she’s not using and a score of 786. Chris occasionally applies for additional credit cards to goose the couple’s credit lines further, even though he knows the FICO model will ding his score in the short term for opening a new account.

That kind of gamesmanship is all part of the quest for 850. With lenders now routinely closing inactive accounts, Lim rotates all his credit cards into circulation so that he’ll continue to have a lot of available credit to figure into his utilization ratio.

But because his charges also affect that ratio, a few months before applying for a loan, he stops using the cards or pays them off before the statement is generated. That way, he says, “my score jumps a bit” — just in time for the lender to see.

The 800 club members are also conscious of their mix of credit.

Lim became interested in the scoring process two years ago while refinancing a home-equity loan into a home-equity line of credit. Having heard that revolving debt could affect a score more than an installment loan, he studied up.

His research revealed that HELOCs are not considered revolving debt in the FICO model. (The scoring firm confirms.) And remember that car loan Peplinski took out even though he didn’t have to? He did it because FICO favors those with a variety of credit types, such as mortgage, credit cards, and auto loans.

“I probably paid $100 in interest,” he says. “But it was worth it because we raised our credit scores by 15 points.”

My favorite quote from the article: “Whites don’t own Abraham Lincoln. Blacks don’t own Martin Luther King. Those are American icons, American ideas, and we should just talk about character…honoring character.”

Washington (CNN) — In what resembled more a revival than a political rally, conservative talk show host Glenn Beck urged the large crowds at his “Restoring Honor” event Saturday to “turn back to God” and return America to the values on which it was founded.

“Something beyond imagination is happening,” he told participants who packed the National Mall in Washington. “America today begins to turn back to God. For too long, this country has wandered in darkness.”

The rally drew fire for its timing and location.

People filled the park by the Lincoln Memorial’s reflecting pool, in the shadows and echoes of the most pivotal civil rights address in America’s history — the Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr.’s famous “I Have a Dream” speech, which he delivered there 47 years ago.

Some of those who marched with King said Beck had usurped the day for his own political gain. The Rev. Jesse Jackson told CNN that Beck was mimicking King and “humiliating the tradition.”

Other civil rights activists gathered nearby with the Rev. Al Sharpton and his National Action Network in a “Reclaim the Dream” rally. Participants marched from a high school in northwest Washington, D.C., to the site of the future Martin Luther King, Jr. National Memorial, just a few blocks from the Lincoln Memorial.

Beck said the site of his rally was appropriate to reflect on the legacy of King, “the man who stood down on those stairs and gave his life for everyone’s right to have a dream.”

A hero to many conservative voters across the country, Beck said his rally was nonpolitical and its mission was to honor American troops.

He struck a spiritual tone throughout the day, saying his role was to wake America up to the backsliding of principles, values and most importantly, faith. Earlier, he said “God dropped a giant sandbag on his head” to push him to organize the event.

“Look forward. Look West. Look to the heavens. Look to God and make your choice,” he said. “Do we no longer believe in the power of the individual? Do we no longer believe in dreams?”

Beck, keenly aware of his critics, opened the rally shortly after 10 a.m. with the national anthem and immediately drew attention to the large crowd that stretched for six city blocks from the Lincoln Memorial along the parks surrounding the reflecting pool.

“I have just gotten word from the media that there are over 1,000 people here today,” Beck said sarcastically.

“We are humbled that you are here,” he said. “The reflecting pool holds about 200,000 people. This field back here holds about 250- to 300,000 people. They are not only full here, they’re full in that field, they’re full behind me, and they are now across the street approaching the Washington Monument.”

Tea Party activists from across the country attended the event.

Speakers included former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, a Fox News contributor, who said she came to speak not about politics but as “something more” — as the mother of a soldier. She said America’s men and women in uniform exemplified the virtues and values of America.

“Say what you want to say about me, but I raised a combat vet and you can’t take that away from me,” she said to a crowd that broke out in chants of “U.S.A! U.S.A!”

She also noted the anniversary of the famous civil rights speech, saying, “We feel the spirit of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.”

“We are so honored to stand here today,” Palin added.

Rally organizers said Saturday’s event was not political and asked participants not to carry signs, unlike past Tea Party demonstrations. The atmosphere Saturday was almost festival-like and participants were careful to say: “We’re not angry.”

Sue Maliszewski of Phoenix, New York, described herself as not conservative but someone who feels that her beliefs are no longer reflected in government.

“I believe that we are dysfunctional as a country,” she said.

“I believe it’s hopeless unless we get back to our roots,” Maliszewski added. “And that means our faith, and it means, reorganize our time. We have been so busy earning a living and raising our children that we have let different small groups overpower our opinions. And we’re here to … reclaim what’s wonderful about this country.”

Beck had been heavily promoting the event on his Fox News Channel program and on his radio broadcasts. He said that the timing of the rally wasn’t intentional.

“It was not my intention to select 8-28 because of the Martin Luther King tie. It is the day he made that speech. I had no idea until I announced it,” he said on his radio show in June, soon after the announcement of the rally.

“Whites don’t own Abraham Lincoln. Blacks don’t own Martin Luther King. Those are American icons, American ideas, and we should just talk about character, and that’s really what this event is about. It’s about honoring character,” Beck said.

Alveda King, a niece of the late civil rights leader, also participated in the “Restoring Honor” rally, saying that her uncle would have approved of the event.

“If Uncle Martin could be here today, he would sure commend us of giving honor where honor is due,” she told a large, cheering crowd.

King said earlier she’s been accused of hijacking “the dream,” but on CNN’s “Anderson Cooper 360″ on Friday night, she said “the dream” is in her genes.

“I don’t have to reclaim the civil rights movement, I’m part of the civil rights movement,” she said, noting her family’s home and her father’s church were bombed when she was younger. While the NAACP put out a cautious statement regarding the rally, there has been plenty of criticism of the event.

Lenny McAllister, an African American Republican, was asked by the Tea Party to speak at Saturday’s rally but declined. He said the rally was disrespectful to the Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr.

“I cannot sit on stage and co-sign on this irresponsibility,” he said. “I made sure I wore my elephant pin today. I am a proud Republican but I am also a proud African American man.”

But Lloyd Marcus, another black Republican, said he supported Beck’s efforts.

“Go Beck,” he said. “This is a fantastic rally and the people there don’t give a hoot about race.”

CNN’s Paul Steinhauser, Kate Bolduan and Rachel Streitfeld contributed to this report.

Bloomberg News won another battle in its war to force the Federal Reserve to disclose details of its massive lending program during the financial system bailout.

The full U.S. Court of Appeals in New York has refused to review a March decision by three of its judges requiring the Fed to release records of the $2 trillion in emergency loans it extended to banks and other institutions beginning in 2008.

From Bloomberg:

Unless the court stays its decision, the Fed will have seven days to disclose the documents. In the event of a stay, the central bank and the Clearing House Association LLC, an organization of 20 commercial banks that joined the Fed in defense of the lawsuit, will have 90 days to petition the Supreme Court to consider their appeal. The Clearing House has already said it will ask the high court to rule on the case.

A Fed spokesman said the central bank was “considering our options.”

Bloomberg sued the Fed in November 2008, arguing that the public has the right to know the names of the banks that borrowed from the agency, the amounts of the loans and what kind of collateral was posted.

The Fed has argued that releasing that information could cause “irreparable harm” to the banks that got the money, presumably by labeling them as the weakest links in the financial-system chain, at least at the time. The Fed also fears that banks facing short-term distress in the future might be unwilling to turn to the Fed — in its legal role as “lender of last resort” — if they knew that their borrowing would become public knowledge.

The central bank is required under the new financial reform law passed by Congress this summer to disclose certain information about its lending by Dec. 1, but it has continued to fight to keep private the details that Bloomberg wants to publish.

– Tom Petruno

If you’re a CPA, consider sending a letter to the IRS about the new proposals. The AICPA has drafted a sample letter for us to use. You can cut and paste this into an email to *public_liaison@irs.gov.

Subject line: IRS should slow down implementing tax preparer registration proposal

Body of email:

I urge the IRS to exempt CPA firms from the requirement to register their employees who are non-signing tax return preparers, and I urge the IRS to delay the implementation of its preparer examination.

I am a CPA and I support the goals to increase compliance and raise the ethical conduct of paid preparers embodied in your proposal to regulate paid income tax preparers. However, the costs and burdens of this proposal go too far, too fast – we need to see a reasoned, rational approach that creates benefits that outweigh the burdens on the CPA preparer community and ultimately the tax-paying public.

CPA firms stand behind the work done by the CPAs and employees of their firms. Requiring PTINs on tax returns should give the IRS enough information to track and weed out incompetent preparers, WITHOUT the need to require PTINs for non-signing preparers who work at CPA firms. CPAs are already regulated by state boards of accountancy and Treasury Department Circular 230, so I believe strongly that the PTIN requirement should not be extended to non-signing preparers at CPA firms.

I also feel strongly that the exam component should be delayed until evidence is gathered that proves the need for such an exam. The goal is to raise competency and ethical conduct; therefore, the PTIN tracking proposal should be given time to do just that, before layering on potentially unnecessary and redundant regulatory burdens on CPA firms in particular, and on all preparers and the public. In addition, I have concerns about certain aspects of the proposed Circular 230 rules that were recently released.

I request that the IRS: (1) exempt CPA firms from the non-signing preparer requirements of the proposed regulations, and (2) delay the implementation of the exam requirement until the PTIN process is fully implemented and results are known.

Thank you for your consideration of my thoughts on these important issues.

###

If you would like to read the AICPA’s views on the proposal, visit: http://tinyurl.com/2cfq7ua

Use a Timer to Stay Focused

Bloomsburg Business Week

By Allan Sloan, CNN Money.com

FORTUNE — There’s real money in the world, then there’s funny money — stuff that looks real, but isn’t.

Today, let’s talk about one of the world’s biggest piles of funny money — the $2.54 trillion Social Security trust fund. The trust fund matters now, because Social Security revealed last week that it plans to tap it for $41 billion this year, and will begin tapping it on a regular basis in less than five years. This year’s cash deficit, the first since the early 1980s and the biggest ever, means the Treasury will have to borrow money to redeem some of the trust fund’s Treasury securities. Even at a time when Uncle Sam is borrowing $1.5 trillion a year to keep his checks from bouncing, $41 billion is real money.

Here’s why the trust fund has no economic value. Let’s say I begin taking Social Security when I hit the full retirement age of 66 later this year. Because its tax revenues are below its expenses, Social Security would have to cash in about $3,400 of its trust fund Treasury securities each month to get the money to pay my wife and me. The Treasury, in turn, would have to borrow $3,400 from investors to get the money to pay Social Security. The bottom line is that the government has to borrow from investors to pay me, regardless of how big the trust fund is.

It’s not surprising that Social Security is now running a negative cash flow — I predicted a year ago it was likely to happen this year, and wrote in February that it had happened.

Democrats, for the most part, say everything’s fine because the trust fund has a fat balance. Republicans, who were happy to have Social Security taxes subsidize tax cuts for 25 years, have suddenly developed holier-than-thou fiscal rectitude. They’re both wrong — the Democrats financially, the Republicans morally.

Let me show you in two different ways how useless the trust fund is. The first is a quote from the introduction to the 2009 Social Security trustees report, the second is the graphic by my Fortune colleague Robert Dominguez that accompanies this article.

The 2009 quote, spotted by Allen Smith, economics professor emeritus at Eastern Illinois University, and author of The Big Lie: How Our Government Hoodwinked the Public, Emptied the S.S. Trust Fund, and caused The Great Economic Collapse, is telling.

It says that, “Neither the redemption of trust fund bonds, nor interest paid on those bonds, provides any new net income to the Treasury, which must finance redemptions and interest payments through some combination of increased taxation, reductions in other government spending, or additional borrowing from the public.”

In other words, the trust fund is of no economic value.

This sentence wasn’t in the 2010 introduction, released last week. Treasury says it still stands by it, but that the Social Security trustees decided not to include it this year because it merely reiterates the obvious.

Now, to the “Geithner bond,” which shows how easy (and useless) it would be for Treasury to stick as many bonds as needed into the trust fund, and declare Social Security to be sound forever.

You know, of course, why this wouldn’t work — at least, I hope you know. It’s because the U.S. government ultimately has to pay its bills with cash, not with its own IOUs. In the long run, you need cash — real money — not funny money. Other than being a send-up, this hypothetical Geithner trust fund bond is no different than the Treasury bonds the trust fund owns, except that it carries a higher interest rate.

There are ways, even at this late hour, to begin turning the trust fund from funny money into real money without unduly stressing the government’s finances. (I’ve discussed them before, and will do so again, but not today.) Given that taxpayers are bailing out the most imprudent companies and people in the country, we damn well should bail out Social Security, the mainstay of low- and middle-income people.

But let’s not kid ourselves that a fat trust fund is the solution. When Social Security’s cash deficits begin running more than $100 billion a year within a decade, it’s going to take a lot of money to keep the checks coming. And it sure won’t be funny.

NEW YORK (Reuters) – Dozens of U.S. billionaires pledged on Wednesday to give at least half their fortunes to charity as part of a philanthropic campaign by two of the world’s richest men — Warren Buffett and Bill Gates.

Based on Forbes magazine’s estimates of the billionaires’ wealth, at least $150 billion could be given away.

Among the rich joining The Giving Pledge campaign are New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg, media moguls Barry Diller and Ted Turner, Oracle co-founder Larry Ellison, “Star Wars” movie maker George Lucas and energy tycoon T. Boone Pickens.

A total of 40 of the richest people in the United States, including Microsoft founder Gates and investor Buffett, now have taken the pledge.

Since launching the campaign in June, Buffett, Gates and his wife Melinda have spoken to about 20 percent of the wealthiest people in the United States — 70 to 80 billionaires — in a bid to persuade them to give away their fortunes.

“In most cases we had reason to believe that the people already had an interest in philanthropy,” Buffett said. “It was a very soft sell but 40 have signed up.”

“We’re looking forward to enlisting many of these 40 to go out and make some calls also so we can report an even greater milestone but we’re off to a terrific start,” he said.

The campaign asks U.S. billionaires to give away at least half their wealth during their lifetime or after their death, and to publicly state their intention with a letter explaining their decision.

Gates has an estimated $53 billion fortune, which places him second on the Forbes magazine list of the world’s richest people, and Buffett, who made his fortune with insurance and investment company Berkshire Hathaway Inc, ranks third on the list with $47 billion.

The Giving Pledge does not accept money or tell people how to donate their money, but asks billionaires to make a moral commitment to give their fortunes to charity. “The idea is not to tell anybody when or how to do it, but at least offer what others have learned,” Buffett said.

Many billionaires taking the pledge have already been active in philanthropy in everything from genetic and cancer research to education, gun control and libraries and the arts.

TAX BREAK NOT A MOTIVATION

“I’ve long stated that I enjoy making money, and I enjoy giving it away,” energy tycoon Pickens, who is worth about $1 billion, said in his Giving Pledge letter. “I’m not a big fan of inherited wealth. It generally does more harm than good.”

Buffett and Gates will hold several dinners later this year to recruit more billionaires, and members of The Giving Pledge also will meet annually to discuss their philanthropy.

The pair also are due to meet with some of the wealthiest people in China in September and India in March.

“We … hope that this catches fire in some other countries,” Buffett said. “If they want to take what we think is a good idea and run with it, we will be cheering.”

Forbes said the United States is home to 403 billionaires, the most of any country. Individual Americans gave more than $227 billion in 2009, according to the Giving USA report by the Center on Philanthropy at Indiana University, down just 0.4 percent from the previous year despite the U.S. recession.

“I have always thought that the best thing to do is to make the world better for your kids and your grandkids rather than just give them some money,” Bloomberg, who is worth $18 billion, told reporters. “Your kids get more benefit out of your philanthropy than your will.”

Buffett said none of the members of The Giving Pledge were driven by tax breaks. “Not one has talked to me about taxes,” he said. “Anybody who is entitled to take a tax deduction takes it but I think the motivation goes far, far beyond taxes.”

Real estate and construction billionaire Eli Broad, venture capitalist John Doerr, media entrepreneur Gerry Lenfest and former Cisco Systems Chairman John Morgridge joined Gates and Buffett when The Giving Pledge was launched in June. Another 34 members were announced on Wednesday.

Buffett pledged in 2006 to give away 99 percent of his wealth to the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and family charities. Bill and Melinda Gates have so far donated more than $28 billion of their fortune to their foundation.

The full list of billionaires and their letters can be seen at www.thegivingpledge.org.