In a world with 7.6 billion people, it can be hard to imagine that anyone has more net worth than the poorest 3.6 billion combined. Many people have net worths over $400 million and as such, they’re among the wealthiest people on Earth. The six richest billionaires include Jeff Bezos ($177B), Elon Musk ($151B), Bernard Arnault ($150B), Bill Gates ($124B), Mark Zuckerberg ($97B), and Warren Buffett ($96B). What follows is a brief overview of each billionaire’s net worth and how they obtained their wealth so you can decide which person may be most worthy of your admiration or envy!
How To Calculate Their Wealth
The net worth of a person is the value of all their assets, minus the total value of their debt. This includes everything from property to cars to stocks and bank accounts. Forbes calculates net worth by multiplying the number of shares owned by a stock’s price per share and then adding them all up together. Banks also give net worth numbers for people based on how much money they have in savings and other investments.
For example, the net worth of Jeff Bezos is $200 billion ($131 billion in Amazon stock and $69 billion in cash and other funds) and the net worth of Bill Gates is $124 billion ($84 billion in Microsoft stock and $40 billion in cash and other funds).
Jeff Bezos
The absolutely wealthiest man in the world, and seems – for a long time to come. It is reported that Jeff Bezos’ net worth is estimated at $200 billion as of the end of 2021. He is ranked as the wealthiest man in the world because he owns over 79 million shares in Amazon alone, which makes up just under 16% of their entire company! Jeff Bezos became the head of Amazon back in 1994 with his own personal net worth of $1.6 million.
Today, Jeff Bezos is netting billions every year of his net worth thanks to various web services offered by the company like Prime and Twitch. His net worth hasn’t gone up by much lately because he is using some of his money for philanthropic efforts like donating $2 billion to fund education for low-income families and starting an aerospace company that will make rockets to launch satellites into space.
Elon Musk
Elon Musk net worth is $21.5 billion as of August 10th, 2018 according to Forbes. This net worth has increased significantly in the past few years because he sold off some investments that made him about $1 billion in 2017 alone!
The net worth of Elon Musk comes mostly from stocks in his companies Tesla, famous for its luxury cars, and SpaceX. Most of his net worth also comes from contracts with various governments like NASA which can net up to $2.6 billion over time for SpaceX alone. One more way Elon Musk makes money is through Solar City, a company he helped found back in 2006 that sells solar panels for homes, businesses, and government buildings.
Bernard Arnault
The net worth of Bernard Arnault is $108 billion as of August 10th, 2018 according to Bloomberg. This net worth comes from luxury brands like Louis Vuitton and Christian Dior that bring in revenue each year. His net worth has actually dropped a little this year because he recently had a net worth of about $112 billion after selling off some shares in Christian Dior for cash!
Bernard Arnault’s net worth is the largest net worth of anyone in Europe and fourth worldwide right behind Jeff Bezos, Elon Musk, Bill Gates, and Mark Zuckerberg, but accounting for the wealth of his family makes him go up the list to third place.
Bill Gates
Bill Gates’s net worth is $93.3 billion as of August 10th, 2018. Gates’s net worth was as high as $136 billion in 1999 but it has been decreasing ever since they bought a large stake at Berkshire Hathaway.
Bill Gates became the wealthiest man in the world through his company, Microsoft Corporation. He founded Microsoft with Paul Allen back in 1975 and he serves as the CEO and Chairman of the Board at their Redmond Headquarters today. His net worth has gone up substantially from 1995 to 1999 because he donated over $29 billion dollars to charities like The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation dedicated to ending world hunger and funding health programs.
Mark Zuckerberg
Mark Zuckerberg’s net worth is $62.3 billion as of August 10th, 2018 according to Forbes. He has a net worth of $97 billion in the year 2021 and he is ranked number five on the Forbes list of wealthiest people in the world. His net worth has gone up by over $16 billion since last year thanks to Facebook’s successful stock performance!
Zuckerberg’s net worth didn’t come from a family with an abundant amount of money. He grew up in White Plains, New York as the son of a dentist and a psychiatrist. He attended Harvard and famously created Facebook in 2004 with his roommates. Zuckerberg’s net worth has gone up dramatically thanks to him selling $1 billion worth of Facebook stock through an unannounced block trade back in November 2017.
Warren Buffett
In 2022, Warren Buffett’s net worth is only expected to go up, with a net worth of more than $100 billion.
Warren Buffett was able to get his net worth so high because he is the owner and CEO of Berkshire Hathaway, a company that owns stakes in insurance companies like Geico, Dairy Queen, Duracell, BNSF Railway Company, Heinz, Helzberg Diamonds, Long Island Iced Tea Corp., Pampered Chef, RC Willey Home Furnishings Inc., See’s Candies LLC. Warren Buffett can also tell you when to invest your money with how he invests his own net worth!
The world’s wealthiest people are worth more than the poorest 50% of the population combined. That is a staggering amount of net worth that these six individuals had to earn through hard work, dedication, and perseverance. It may not be easy for you to ever amass this kind of net worth, but it can inspire people to push themselves harder in their own endeavors. Who knows what could happen if we put forth even three-quarters as much effort?
You’ll find plenty of lessons on success and entrepreneurship from these wealthy entrepreneurs who continue making headlines every day because they live at such an elite level.
Carol
Information sourced by the author for luxuryactivist.com. All content is copyrighted with no reproduction rights available. Images are for illustration purposes only.
