Bill Gates wants to work another 20 to 30 years like his friend Warren Buffett 'if my health allows'

Warren Buffett and Bill Gates have been friends for 31 years.

At 68, retirement is not a thought that Bill Gates entertains. In fact, working less than full-time “sounds awful” to the tech billionaire who recently said that he wants to follow in the footsteps of his friend and legendary investor Warren Buffett, who serves as chairman and CEO of Berkshire Hathaway at 94 and has no plans to retire.

Speaking to CNBC Make It, Gates said that he wants to keep working for “at least 10 years, if my health allows, working at this level.” “Hopefully it’ll be more like 20 or 30... My friend Warren Buffett still comes into the office six days a week. So, I hope my health allows me to be like Warren," he added.

The Microsoft co-founder wants to work for the next 30 years because he still has so much he wants to do. Currently, Gates is a “technology advisor” for Microsoft and spends much of his time using his $128 billion fortune to fund potential solutions for global problems such as climate change, poverty, and disease, among others.

“The [Bill & Melinda Gates] Foundation will celebrate its 25th anniversary next year. We haven’t gotten rid of polio, we haven’t got rid of malaria. I’m very, very committed to those things,” he told the publication. “We want to cut childhood deaths in half again, from 5 million to 2.5 million.”

Talking about his work, Bill Gates--who had famously said that he did not believe in vacations and holidays when he was in his twenties--said that he has learned to take it easy at work now.

“I don’t work as hard [now],” he said. “In my 20s, I didn’t believe in weekends and vacations. So, that was kind of out of control, how I pushed myself.”