Where am I claiming all he does is give money away? In fact, I point out that one of the problems of the OP is that during his times as a church leader he was working full-time at Bain, making millions, and not just giving all his time away for free.
As for the last decade or more, yes, he has given a lot of money away and not worked for a salary. Then again, he made his money in the 80s and 90s when he worked for Bain -- enough that he hasn't had to work for a salary for more than a decade. When he left Bain he already had at least a hundred million dollars and he apparently got a really nice severance package (similar to what other top executives get when they quit/retire). As such, he is still making millions annually solely on his investments (a 10% return on $200 million is $20 million annually).
From what I can tell, I believe Romney got to a point where he felt he had enough money and decided to "retire", that he could easily live on his investments for the rest of his life. The difference in his "retirement" being that he is looking to stay involved and even to 'give back'.
I think this is one reason many people are curious about Mitt Romney's tax returns, to see what he actually has made (or lost) over the last decade. The best guesses seem to be that he made all his money during his time at Bain and, since he quit, that his net worth has not changed much.
As for charity, Romney paid about 14% of his income to charity in 2010 and 19% in 2011, which I find hard to claim as "paltry". Your problem is that you are trying to compare his his charity to his net worth. The problem is, by trying to compare that way, you are also saying someone that makes $30,000/year and gives $4000/year in charity (roughly 13.3%) is also giving a paltry amount if he owns a house, car and retirement investments worth $200,000 (his net worth).
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