The term crazy rich makes you think of money beyond your wildest dreams. It’s the kind of money where you don’t have to worry about the bill after a shopping spree and you have a jet for you and a jet for your significant other just in case the two of you need to go to two different places. It’s something that most of us will never be able to attain or come close to, but it’s always nice to live vicariously through someone else. That’s why it’s so amazing reading the stories of the 10 ultra high net worth individuals on this list.
High Net Worth and Ultra High Net Worth Definitions
What’s considered high net worth and what is considered ?
According to Investopedia, Ultra-High Net Worth Individuals (UHNWI) are defined as people with investable assets of at least $30 million.
High net worth is defined as $1 million in investable assets.
- High Net Worth – $1 million in investable assets
- Very High Net Worth – $5 million in investable assets
- Ultra-High Net Worth – $30 million in investable assets
Investable Assets Definition
When you’re talking about investable assets or liquid assets, The Balance Careers says you’re talking about things like cash, money in retirement accounts, mutual funds, stocks, bonds, certificates of deposit, and insurance contracts with a cash value. Things like properties, cars, art, and jewelry are not included in investable assets.
High Net Worth Individuals Statistics
Capgemini publishes a World Wealth Report every year, tracking the world’s wealthiest people. In July 2019, the latest report revealed that the number of HNWI dropped by 3% in 2018. Most of that decline happened in the Asian markets, specifically China. The decline in the U.S. was much smaller, just a 1% drop in HNWI.
High Net Worth Individuals
Becoming a HNWI might be achievable for some of the people reading this blog. But as MarketWatch reports, “Becoming rich takes serious willpower and long-term vision. You have to be able to keep your eye on the prize of financial freedom, be willing to sacrifice your present wants for the sake of your future and develop good habits to win.”
Habits of High Net Worth Individuals
While HNWI come from all different countries, families, and walks of life, they all have little actions in common. Many of them have the following habits.
Start Early
Investing your money is one of those things that grow over time. When you invest $10,000 at the age of 20, it’s going to have more time to grow than if you invested that same $10,000 at the age of 30. 10 more years of compound interest can have a massive effect over time.
Consider this, if you invest $10,000 and let it compound at 5% interest over a 40-year period, you’re going to have $70,399.89 in the end. However, if you waited for 10 years and then invested $10,000, you would only have $43,219.42 at the end of 30 years.
And that’s just what happens if you’re making a one-time contribution. What would happen if you continued investing every year in that 10-year period? You’d have a 10-year jump on investing.
Maximize Contributions
If you work in a job that offers retirement benefits, takes advantage of those benefits; someone else is offering you free money. Maximize the amount of tax-free money you can invest in a 401(k) plan and take advantage of whatever matching program your company has.
While you don’t see the results now, you will see them when you’re not worrying about retirement 20 to 30 years down the road.
Live Below Your Means
When it comes to wealth, there are special HNWI like Jeff Bezos and Mark Zuckerberg that make so much money that they don’t have to worry about what they spend. But for a majority of the HNWI, they have a high net worth because they live below their means. Many HNWI are taking every opportunity to save their money and invest it so it will grow.
Educate Yourself
People with a high net worth do not just blindly invest or save, they educate themselves. They learn about the best ways to invest and the safest ways too. It’s important to educate yourself to determine what will be best for you and your money.
Proactively Protect and Sustain Their Wealth
According to a study by Merrill Lynch, 72% of HNWI proactively protect and sustain their wealth. Whether or not they have a purpose for that money, they know that protecting it and sustaining it is the first step.
Ultra-High Net Worth Individuals Statistics
While the number of HNWI declined according to the report, the UHNWI actually grew. According to Investopedia, the number of people worldwide that are considered UHNWI grew to 255,810 in 2018 for a combined $31.5 trillion in liquid assets.
Approximately half of those people live in North America and a majority of them are in the U.S.
Another interesting fact about the UHNWI class is that more and more of them are women. In 2010, only 91 women on Forbes’ world’s richest list. In 2015, that number jumped to 197 and in 2019 it reached an all-time high at 244.
Where the Ultra-High Net Worth Individuals Live
Breaking it down by state, you’ll find that the wealthiest people in America live in major cities. Investopedia reports the top five cities are:
- New York City with 8,865 UHNWI
- Los Angeles with 5,250 UHNWI
- Chicago with 3,255 UHNWI
- San Francisco with 2,820 UHNWI
- Washington, D.C. with 2,735 UHNWI
Ultra-High Net Worth Individuals
When it comes to UHNWI, the richest people live right here in America. According to the Forbes Richest People in the World list, the top three are right here in America.
Here’s the top 10:
- Jeff Bezos – America
- Bill Gates – America
- Warren Buffett – America
- Bernard Arnault & Family – France
- Carlos Slim Helu & Family – Mexico
- Amancio Ortega – Spain
- Larry Ellison – America
- Mark Zuckerberg – America
- Michael Bloomberg – America
- Larry Page – America
Ultra-High Net Worth Individuals in America
While the top two people on the 2018 Forbes Top 400 list live in Washington, California has the most UHNWI in the top 10.
Here’s the list:
- Jeff Bezos (Amazon Founder) – Seattle, WA
- Bill Gates (Microsoft Founder) – Medina, WA
- Warren Buffett (Berkshire Hathaway) – Omaha, NE
- Mark Zuckerberg (Facebook Founder) – Palo Alto, CA
- Larry Ellison (Oracle Founder) – Woodside, CA
- Larry Page (Google Founder) – Palo Alto, CA
- Charles Koch (Koch Industries) – Wichita, KS
David Koch (Koch Industries) – Wichita, KS - Sergey Brin (Google Founder) – Los Altos, CA
- Michael Bloomberg (Bloomberg LP) – New York, NY
How Ultra-High Net Worth Individuals Got Rich
When it comes to making billions, there’s no tried and true way the billionaires got there. The world’s richest include some long-time success stories like Warren Buffett and Bill Gates as well as plenty of newcomers.
The list includes everything from dot-com billionaires to people in the fashion industry to Instagram and reality television star Kylie Jenner.
And why do people keep working once they’ve hit that figure? It’s because they have a competitive drive suggests The New York Times.
Top 10 Industries
According to Forbes, here are the top industries the world’s billionaires built their fortunes in.
- Finance & Investments – 14%
- Fashion & Retail – 11%
- Real Estate – 10%
- Technology – 10%
- Manufacturing – 9%
- Diversified – 9%
- Food & Beverage – 8%
- Healthcare – 6%
- Energy – 4%
- Media & Entertainment – 3%
Kylie Jenner
Among the more interesting names on the list, Kylie Jenner. The 21-year-old just recently broke the 9-figure mark and as such is the youngest self-made billionaire ever. Jenner started out selling lipstick kits and turned it into Kylie Cosmetics. In 2018, she worked out a distribution deal with the beauty retailer Ulta and she’s still growing her cosmetics empire. She recently launched a skin line and is looking at a possible baby line.
Mike Cannon-Brookes
Mike Cannon-Brookes is the co-founder of an Australian firm called Atlassian. According to Forbes, he and his cofounder funding the company with credit cards. Atlassian customers include NASA, Tesla, and SpaceX. Cannon-Brookes has recently been working with Elon Musk with the hopes that Musk’s battery technology will help parts of Australia deal with a power crisis.
David Steward
A self-made billionaire, 68-year-old David Steward is one of just four African Americans on the list. In 1990, he took $250,000 and through a series of investments and hard work, turned it into more than $3 billion in 2019. He is the co-founder and chair of the company World Wide Technology, which is a technology service provider for Verizon, Citi and the U.S. government.
Francoise Bettencourt Meyers
Like many of the billionaires on the list, Francoise Bettencourt Meyers came by her wealth through inheritance. Meyers is the highest-ranking woman on Forbes’ billionaires list at number 15. She’s the granddaughter of L’Oreal’s founder and her family owns one-third of the L’Oreal stock.
She has grown her wealth since inheriting it. She’s the chair of the family holding company and has served on the L’Oreal board of directors since 1997.
Alice Walton
The only daughter of Walmart founder Sam Walton, Alice Walton has invested her inheritance in something she loves and then shared it with the world. In 2011, Alice Walton opened the Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art in Bentonville, Arkansas. The museum is free to visit and features the works of artists like Andy Warhol, Norman Rockwell, and Georgia O’Keeffe. According to Forbes, her personal art collection is valued at hundreds of millions of dollars.
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