• A secretary bought three shares of her company's stock for $60 each in 1935.
• Grace Groner reinvested her dividends for 75 years, and her stake ballooned to $7.2 million.
• Her employer, Abbott, shared Groner's story in a recent website post.

A secretary paid $180 in 1935 for three shares of her employer's stock. By the time she died in 2010, her investment had mushroomed to $7.2 million.

Abbott, a pharmaceutical company, gave a shout-out to the former employee in a recent post on its website.

"As we celebrate 101 years of dividend payouts, we're remembering one of the earliest Abbott investing success stories, that of Grace Groner, who worked as a secretary at Abbott for over 40 years," the post reads.

"In 1935, Groner bought three shares of Abbott stock for $60 each. She consistently reinvested her dividend payments and quietly amassed a $7.2 million fortune. Groner passed away in 2010, at the age of 100, and it was only then that her multimillion-dollar estate was discovered."

She gifted her entire fortune to a foundation she'd established in support of her alma mater, Lake Forest College. She earmarked the money to finance internships, international study, and service projects for students.

Groner hung onto her Abbott shares for over 75 years without selling a single one, despite several stock splits, and used her dividends to bolster her stake.

She was likely able to leave her nest egg intact for so long because of her simple lifestyle. She lived in a one-bedroom house, bought her clothes at rummage sales, and didn't own a car, the Chicago Tribune reported in 2010.

Her shares would be worth north of $28 million today, excluding dividends, given that Abbott's stock price has roughly quadrupled since 2010. The drugmaker's market value has risen to around $200 billion, meaning it now rivals Disney, PepsiCo, and Morgan Stanley in size.

• The Walmart heirs' combined estimated net worth is nearly $380 billion.
• All three of Sam Walton's surviving children have now made it into the $100 billion club.
• In public, the Waltons live relatively modest lifestyles despite their wealth.

All three of Walmart founder Sam Walton's surviving children have made it into the $100 billion club as the retail giant's share price continues to soar.

The combined wealth of the Walmart heirs — which include founder Sam Walton's children, Rob, Jim, and Alice, as well as his grandson Lukas — is nearly $380 billion, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.

Together, they're significantly ahead of the top individual names on the list, such as Jeff Bezos, Bernard Arnault, or Mark Zuckerberg, though Elon Musk has recently seen his fortune outstrip their collective net worth.

While some have worked in the family business — whether that's serving on the company board or working to manage the family's wealth — others chose to pursue areas of personal passion.

Sam Walton, the original man behind the company that now encompasses both Walmart and Sam's Club, set his family up for financial success when he divided the ownership before he died.

Most recently, the Walton children have expanded voting control to their own, giving eight of Sam's grandchildren a say in the family holdings.

Sam wasn't a man of flashy luxury, but you can see how his children are living a slightly more lavish life now. Here's a look at how the Walton family empire spends its money: 

Sam Walton opened the first Walmart store in Rogers, Arkansas, in 1962.

As he grew his retail empire, Walton, an experienced pilot, would often fly in unannounced to check in on a particular store location.

He married Helen Robson on Valentine's Day in 1942.

Together, they had four children: Rob, John, Jim, and Alice.

By the time Sam died in 1992, he had set up the company ownership in a way that minimized the estate taxes anyone on the receiving end would have to pay.

Source: Fortune

He set up his ownership of Walmart's stock in a family partnership — each of his children held 20% of Walton Enterprises, while he and Helen each held 10%. Helen inherited Sam's 10% tax-free when he died.

Source: Fortune

Samuel Robson "Rob" Walton is the oldest Walton child. He is 80 years old.

He served as chairman of Walmart from 1992 until 2015 and remained on the board until this year.

He retired from Walmart's board at the end of his term in 2024.

Rob made a splash in 2022 by leading an ownership group to buy the Denver Broncos.

The group purchased the NFL team for a $4.65 billion in summer 2022 in a record-breaking sale at the time.

Rob has purchased a house in Paradise Valley, Arizona, near the base of Camelback Mountain.

In the past, protesters have rallied outside of his Arizona home to advocate for better wages and benefits for Walmart workers.

Besides real estate, Rob has a large collection of vintage cars.

In 2013, he ran his Daytona Coupe, which was worth $15 million at the time, off the tracks and wrecked it. The car was one of only five ever made.

Sam Walton's second-oldest child, John Walton, died in a plane crash in 2005.

He was 58 years old.

He was married to Christy Walton and had one son, Lukas.

John left about 17% of his wealth to his wife, and he gave the rest to charity and to his son.

Source: Business Insider

John served in Vietnam as a Green Beret. When he returned from the war he held a series of jobs — like the Walmart company pilot, a crop duster, and the owner a few yachting companies — before becoming a Walmart board member.

Source: Fortune

In 2013, Christy decided to sell their Jackson Hole mansion. She also sold the family's ranch for an undisclosed price in 2016 after listing it for $100 million in 2011.

Source: Curbed and Ranch Marketing Associates

The 8,606-square-foot home was put on the market for $12.5 million.

Source: Curbed

James "Jim" Walton is the youngest son of Walmart founder Sam Walton. He is 76 years old.

He is chairman of the board of the family's Arvest Bank Group. One of the state's largest banks today, Arvest Bank has assets totaling more than $26 billion.

Source: Bloomberg

He also served on the Walmart board, starting in 2005 to fill the vacancy after his brother John died. Jim Walton's son, Steuart, took over his father's seat on the board in 2016.

Now, he presides over Walton Enterprises — the private company that deals with the investments and finances of the Walton family only — from modest offices in Bentonville, Arkansas.

Source: Fortune

The youngest of founder Sam Walton's children, Alice Walton is worth $112 billion, according to Bloomberg. She has been divorced twice and has no children. She is 75 years old.

Alice has never taken an active role in running the family business.

Instead, she became a patron of the arts, which she fell in love with at a young age.

When she was 10, she bought her first work of art: a reproduction of Picasso's "Blue Nude" for about $2, she told The New Yorker.

Source: The New Yorker

She has an immense private art collection, with original works from Andy Warhol and Georgia O'Keeffe. Alice opened a museum in Bentonville called Crystal Bridges in 2011 to house her $500 million private art collection.

The collection includes a Georgia O'Keeffe painting that Alice spent $44.4 million on in 2014 — the biggest sale for a woman's piece of art in history.

Source: The Observer

Alice also breeds horses.

Her Millsap, Texas, property, Rocking W Ranch, sold to the Three Amigos Investment Group of Kermit, Texas, in September 2017 for an undisclosed amount.

Source: Star-Telegram

It had an initial asking price of $19.75 million, which was reduced to $16.5 million. The working ranch had over 250 acres of pasture and outbuildings for cattle and horses.

Source: WilliamsTrew

Her other, 4,416-acre Texas ranch was previously listed at a reduced price of $22 million.

The modest, three-bedroom, two-bathroom home overlooks the Brazos River.

Alice also bought a two-floor condo on New York's Park Ave. for $25 million in 2014.

Source: Business Insider

It has more than 52 large windows overlooking Central Park plus a media room, a winding staircase, and more than 6,000 total square feet of space.

Source: Business Insider

In January 2016, Alice donated 3.7 million of her Walmart shares — worth about $225 million at the time — to the family's nonprofit, the Walton Family Foundation.

Sam and Helen started the foundation as a way to teach their children how to give back and how to work together.

The charity awards millions of dollars in grants to causes that align with the foundation's values.

The foundation has three main areas of focus:

The foundation's focus on education was led by John. His brother Jim said John was really interested in being able to give parents choices when it came to their child's schooling.

Source: Walton Family Foundation

Rob spearheaded the foundation's venture into environmental protection. One of the first grants they gave helped develop a sustainable fisheries label.

Source: Walton Family Foundation

A commitment to the family's home of Arkansas is another large part of the foundation. The website says this area of focus is about "advancing our home region of Northwest Arkansas and the Arkansas-Mississippi Delta."

Source: Walton Family Foundation

Walmart Inc., which owns Walmart and Sam's Club, is the largest retailer in the US in terms of revenue.

Even though the Walton family is raking in billions as a result of the company's success, they remain relatively under-the-radar in terms of flashing their wealth — much like their patriarch, Sam, did in the early years.

In December, Walmart disclosed that Sam's children had granted voting rights to eight of their own children, bringing the total number of voices in the family fortune from three to eight, and keeping with Sam's vision for his legacy.

Source: SEC filings

• Elon Musk has had a big year with Tesla and SpaceX soaring in value, supercharging his net worth.
• He helped Donald Trump win reelection and intends to transform the US government in 2025.
• Scroll down for seven charts showing how Musk's 2024 played out.

Elon Musk has had a year for the record books.

His businesses have taken off, with Tesla, SpaceX, xAI, and Neuralink all touching new valuation highs. Their success has boosted Musk's net worth to above $450 billion for the first time, putting him over $200 billion ahead of the world's second-richest person, Amazon's Jeff Bezos.

Musk has also become a power player in US politics after wielding his cash and clout to help win Donald Trump a second term in office. As one of the president-elect's closest advisors, he's now gearing up to overhaul the US government.

The situation seems worse at X, formerly Twitter, after Musk's $44 billion takeover and reshaping of the platform sparked an advertiser exodus.

Take a look at Musk's 2024 in charts (all data is accurate as of Friday, December 20):

1. Charging ahead

Tesla shares have shot up as much as 85% this year, driving the electric vehicle maker's market value above $1.4 trillion for the first time. They've since retreated but continue to trade near record levels.

The automaker has benefited from market buzz around artificial intelligence — which it's harnessing to develop self-driving cars and humanoid robots — plus a robust US economy and the Federal Reserve cutting interest rates.

Investors are also betting that Musk's businesses will benefit from his close ties to Trump, which could translate into less stringent regulations, government subsidies, tariff exemptions, and more.

2. Reaching for the stars

SpaceX's valuation nearly doubled from $180 billion at the end of last year to $350 billion this month, based on the price paid by the company and its backers for employee shares in its latest tender offer.

Musk's rocket, spacecraft, and satellite communications company made several technological breakthroughs this year. For example, it plucked the first-stage booster of its new Starship out of the air using a massive pair of mechanical "chopsticks" in October.

3. Shifting fortunes

Musk's net worth slumped in the spring as Tesla stock tumbled, dropping below $170 billion at its nadir.

But it rebounded by over $300 billion to touch an unprecedented $486 billion on December 17, as Tesla hit fresh highs and SpaceX notched a $350 billion valuation.

4. Rise of the robots

Musk's artificial intelligence company, xAI, was only founded in July 2023.

Yet it notched a post-money valuation of $24 billion in May following its Series B funding round. That rose to $50 billion in November, reports say, meaning the maker of the Grok chatbot is worth roughly as much as Monster Beverage.

5. X marks the drop

It remains tricky to gauge the health of X, the social media company formerly known as Twitter that Musk took private in 2022. One way is to use Fidelity's monthly estimates of the value of its stake in the business.

The mutual fund giant's figures imply that X's valuation has crashed since Musk's purchase. The tech billionaire laid off a large part of the company's workforce and relaxed content moderation in support of greater free speech, triggering an advertiser exodus that hammered the company's revenues.

Regardless, Musk recently posted on X that the platform has roughly 1 billion active users, although around 40% of them only log on during important world events.

6. Trump train

Musk was one of the biggest spenders in the US presidential election, deploying over $270 million to back Trump's race for president, run ads against Democrats, and promote conservative viewpoints.

His starring role in Trump's victory and emergence as one of the president-elect's closest advisors and a co-chief of the new Department of Government Efficiency suggests that his investment in the election has paid off.

7. Building brainpower

Neuralink, Musk's neurotechnology company, was valued at $8 billion this summer, up from about $2 billion three years earlier.

The developer of brain-computer interfaces wants to allow people with quadriplegia to control computers with their thoughts. Musk released footage this spring of the first patient to receive one of its brain implants.

• Bernie Sanders says Elon Musk is using his wealth and political clout to undermine US democracy.
• Musk lambasted a government funding deal and said a shutdown would be the Democrats' fault.
• "Are Republicans beholden to the American people? Or President Musk?" Sanders asked on X.

Elon Musk is wielding his immense wealth and political power to pressure US lawmakers, shifting America from democracy to oligarchy, Sen. Bernie Sanders says.

In two recent X posts, the Vermont senator called out Musk's influence over Republicans and his warnings to legislators if they don't vote the way he wants.

"The US Congress this week came to an agreement to fund our government," he wrote late Wednesday. "Elon Musk, who became $200 BILLION richer since Trump was elected, objected. Are Republicans beholden to the American people? Or President Musk? This is oligarchy at work."

"Elon Musk, the richest man in the world, is threatening to unseat elected officials if they do not follow his orders to shut down the government during the holidays," he said in a Thursday post. "Are we still a democracy or have we already moved to oligarchy and authoritarianism?"

Musk blasted the funding bill in question as bloated and overcomplicated and wrote on X that "any member of the House or Senate who votes for this outrageous spending bill deserves to be voted out in 2 years!"

He threw his weight behind Republicans' alternative bill, hailing it as cleaner and simpler. Moreover, he posted that it would be the Democratic Party's fault if an agreement isn't reached and the government shuts down.

Both Trump's team and Musk have pushed back against the idea that he's pulling Republicans' strings. Musk has said he's only bringing things to the attention of his followers, and they're free to voice their support.

The Tesla and SpaceX CEO's net worth hit a record $486 billion on Tuesday, up $257 billion from the start of the year — a figure that exceeds the fortune of the world's second-richest man, Amazon founder Jeff Bezos. Tesla stock has slid since then, but Musk was still worth $455 billion at Thursday's close.

As Sanders wrote, Musk's wealth surged after President Trump's election victory as Tesla stock rode a broader market rally, and investors wagered the automaker would benefit from Musk's close ties to the White House. Additionally, SpaceX was valued at a record $350 billion this month, boosting the worth of Musk's stake in the rocket company.

Sanders has called out Musk several times in his criticisms of wealth inequality, which often single out billionaires for having too much influence and paying too little in taxes.

"Never before in American history have so few billionaires, so few people had so much wealth and so much power," he said in a clip from "Meet the Press" that he recently shared on X.

"We can't go around the world saying, 'Oh well, you know in Russia, Putin has an oligarchy," Sanders continued. "Well, we've got an oligarchy here, too."

The progressive lawmaker has also clashed with Musk's Big Tech peers. Sanders recently told Bill Gates that he was a "very innovative guy" who deserved to be financially rewarded for his contributions to society as Microsoft's cofounder — but not to the tune of billions of dollars.

"How much do you deserve? Can you make it on a billion? Think you could feed the family? Probably. Pay the rent? Maybe," Sanders quipped.

In response to Sanders saying billionaires shouldn't exist in 2019, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg, now the world's third-richest person, agreed that "some of the wealth that can be accumulated is unreasonable."

• Investment tactics often require big buy-ins and high fees.
• New tech is lowering the price of entry in fields like direct indexing and private markets.
• This article is part of "Transforming Business," a series on the must-know leaders and trends impacting industries.

Investing like a billionaire comes with a high price tag. But thanks to technology, the barriers to these elite opportunities are starting to crumble.

Consider direct indexing, a strategy favored by the rich to lower taxes by selling underperforming stocks and using the losses to offset other gains. These personalized portfolios used to be out of reach of the merely affluent, requiring steep account minimums. Over the past five years, direct indexing has exploded as technological advancements have made it worthwhile for wealth managers to offer the services to Main Street customers. The account minimum for Fidelity's FidFolios, for example, is only $5,000.

"Direct indexing has become accessible at a different level of wealth than it has been in the past," said Ranjit Kapila, the copresident and chief operating officer of Parametric. "That wouldn't have been available or possible without the technology trends we've had to be able to do this level of computation at scale in a cost-efficient manner."

Parametric, the pioneer of direct indexing, is also moving downstream. By adopting fractional-share investing, Parametric lowered the minimum for its core product to $100,000 from $250,000. The firm plans to offer a direct-indexing product with fewer customization features for $25,000 in 2025.

Private markets face steeper hurdles. This opaque field was traditionally reserved for deep-pocketed investors like pension funds and ultrarich individuals. But now investors have more access to financial results for funds and privately held companies as data providers race to meet their needs. Machine learning and AI have made it easier for these firms to extract and analyze data.

BlackRock views this data as the great equalizer and has grand ambitions of indexing these opaque private markets. The asset-management giant agreed this summer to acquire the data powerhouse Preqin for $3.2 billion.

"We anticipate indexes and data will be important to future drivers of the democratization of all alternatives," BlackRock CEO Larry Fink said on a conference call. "And this acquisition is the unlock."

Leon Sinclair, Preqin's executive vice president, argued that with the number of public companies dwindling, it's imperative for mass-affluent investors to get better access to private markets.

"Clearly there's more, deeper, better sources of funding for private companies that could stay private for longer," Sinclair said. "I think it's fair that the mass affluent can — in the right way — be brought along on that journey to get exposure to that part of the mosaic earlier."

Investing in automation for a competitive edge

Kapila described these technological developments as part of a trend in wealth management to capture customers before they make it big.

"There's a desire by financial advisors to try and engage investors earlier in their wealth-accumulation cycle," Kapila said.

Parametric, acquired by Morgan Stanley in 2021, operates in a competitive arena. Thanks to a wave of similar acquisitions, Parametric faces well-capitalized rivals such as BlackRock's Aperio and Franklin Templeton's Canvas. Industry stalwarts like Fidelity and upstarts like Envestnet also want a piece of the action.

Kapila said the need to compete on scale and fees required Parametric's technology to be as efficient as possible.

"It'll be harder," he said. "We have to do many, many more accounts to really drive growth in assets, etc. But those challenges are exciting to me as a technologist."

To meet that need, Kapila is pushing Parametric to develop more automated products, such as Radius, which launched this year. Radius constructs equity and fixed-income portfolios and runs simulations to identify the best selections for portfolio managers. He plans to launch more cloud-native tools, which are easier to scale and manage, for other asset classes in 2025 and 2026. Parametric is also piloting generative-AI tools to onboard accounts more efficiently.

Clients' expectations are also rising. There's demand for Parametric's tax benefits but with actively managed strategies rather than indexes, he said, spurring partnerships with asset managers.

Parametric recently launched an offering that allows customers to pick equities off strategies from the financial-advisory and asset-management firm Lazard.

To stay ahead of the curve, Preqin is developing more sophisticated products. Last year, the UK firm launched an Actionability Signal that uses machine learning to identify private companies likely to be open for investment.

"The sole focus on public information for certain tasks around valuation and risk management are not really going to be the way that people do this," Sinclair said. "We're moving much more to a world where real proprietary private information at the asset level, which is transactionally oriented, is available to people."

In June, his division launched a data tool that analyzes $4.8 trillion worth of deals across 6,500 funds. This database can be used in a slew of ways, from backing up valuations in negotiations to identifying which financial factors, such as revenue growth or debt paydown, contributed the most value to a successful deal.

With the rise of generative AI, Sinclair expects that users will be able to interpret data with more ease using natural language commands.

"I think you'll see that be more prominent across the industry where people expect to interact with large data sets in really natural common ways," he said. "We think all that will probably start to be visible over the coming years."

Tech is the first step to narrowing education gaps

On average, retail investors allocate just 5% of their portfolios to alternative investments. If BlackRock successfully indexes private markets, it could go a long way toward boosting that percentage.

However, Sinclair said more work is required to help mass affluent investors feel comfortable investing in private markets. As someone who grew up working class and was only introduced to finance in college, he knows there is an education gap to overcome.

"To get Joe Bloggs very excited and comfortable with committing capital, they need to be able to understand what the different basis of those returns are," Sinclair said.

He added: "I think it's in the industry's interest to enable those new sources of capital, to bridge the gap in understanding, to bridge the gap in analytics, to bridge the gap in frequency of reporting, to make that an easier journey for people to go on."

• The elite group worth more than $100 billion includes Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos, and Bill Gates.
• The 16 members have grown almost $900 billion richer this year and are jointly worth $2.8 trillion.
• Walmart heirs Jim, Rob, and Alice Walton joined the club for the first time in September.

Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos, and Mark Zuckerberg are among the handful of people on the planet with a net worth above $100 billion.

Members of this elite group have amassed 12-digit fortunes by owning huge amounts of stock in some of the world's most valuable companies. Most are founders and either current or former CEOs, and some, such as Warren Buffett, would be much richer if they didn't give billions to charity.

The 16 people in this very exclusive club have a combined wealth of about $2.8 trillion, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index. They're worth more than Amazon or Google owner Alphabet, which command market values of around $2.4 trillion each.

All but one of them have grown richer this year, adding a net $890 billion to their collective fortunes. Walmart ($762 billion), Eli Lilly ($740 billion), and JPMorgan ($675 billion) are all worth significantly less than that.

Walmart heirs Jim, Rob, and Alice Walton joined the exclusive group in September, thanks to their net worths surging by upward of $43 billion this year.

Here's the list of individuals worth at least $100 billion, showing Bloomberg's estimate on December 16, how much it's changed this calendar year, and the source of their wealth.

1. Elon Musk

Net worth: $474 billion

YTD change in wealth: +$245 billion

Source of wealth: Tesla and SpaceX stock

Elon Musk is the CEO of the electric-vehicle maker Tesla and the spacecraft manufacturer SpaceX. He's also the owner of X, the social network formerly known as Twitter. His other businesses include The Boring Company, Neuralink, and xAI.

Musk's wealth has nearly doubled this year — surging by $245 billion or almost Jeff Bezos' entire net worth — because Tesla stock has jumped by over 85% and SpaceX's valuation has surged to $350 billion, per Bloomberg.

2. Jeff Bezos

Net worth: $251 billion

YTD change in wealth: +$74.5 billion

Source of wealth: Amazon stock

Jeff Bezos is the founder, executive chairman, and former CEO of Amazon, the e-commerce and cloud-computing giant.

He also founded the space company Blue Origin and owns The Washington Post.

3. Mark Zuckerberg

Net worth: $221 billion

YTD change in wealth: +$92.6 billion

Source of wealth: Meta stock

Mark Zuckerberg is the cofounder, chairman, and CEO of Meta Platforms, the social-media titan behind Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp, and Threads.

Meta's Reality Labs division makes virtual-reality and augmented-reality headsets and experiences.

4. Larry Ellison

Net worth: $194 billion

YTD change in wealth: +$70.9 billion

Source of wealth: Oracle and Tesla stock

Larry Ellison is the cofounder, chief technology officer, and former CEO of Oracle, an enterprise software company specializing in cloud computing and database platforms.

He invested in Tesla prior to joining the automaker's board in 2018 and made more than 10 times his money on paper by the time his term as a director ended in August 2022.

5. Bernard Arnault

Net worth: $178 billion

YTD change in wealth: -$29.3 billion

Source of wealth: LVMH stock

Bernard Arnault is the founder, chairman, and CEO of LVMH Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton. His conglomerate owns a bevy of luxury brands, including Dior, Fendi, Dom Pérignon, Sephora, and Tiffany & Co.

LVMH stock has struggled this year, falling over 10% and eroding Arnault's net worth in the process.

6. Larry Page

Net worth: $175 billion

YTD change in wealth: +$48.2 billion

Source of wealth: Alphabet stock

Larry Page cofounded Google with his Stanford University classmate Sergey Brin in a friend's garage in 1998 and served as CEO until 2001.

He took the reins again between 2011 and 2015 after Google was restructured as a subsidiary of Alphabet alongside other businesses such as YouTube and Waymo.

7. Bill Gates

Net worth: $165 billion

YTD change in wealth: +$23.9 billion

Source of wealth: Microsoft stock

Bill Gates is the cofounder and former CEO of Microsoft, which makes the Office application suite, the cloud-computing platform Microsoft Azure, and Xbox consoles.

He's renowned for his philanthropic work at the helm of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, one of the world's largest charitable entities.

8. Sergey Brin

Net worth: $164 billion

YTD change in wealth: +$44.3 billion

Source of wealth: Alphabet stock

Sergey Brin cofounded Google with Page in 1998 and served as the search-and-advertising titan's first president.

He and Page stepped down from their respective roles as Alphabet's president and CEO in 2019.

9. Steve Ballmer

Net worth: $156 billion

YTD change in wealth: +$25.4 billion

Source of wealth: Microsoft stock

Steve Ballmer served as Microsoft's CEO between 2000 and 2014. He joined the company in 1980 as Bill Gates' assistant, initially negotiating a profit share, which he later swapped for an equity stake when it became excessively large.

Ballmer retired as CEO in 2014 with a 4% stake — a position now worth more than $130 billion. He promptly bought the Los Angeles Clippers for $2 billion and remains the basketball team's owner.

10. Warren Buffett

Net worth: $143 billion

YTD change in wealth: +$23 billion

Source of wealth: Berkshire Hathaway stock

Warren Buffett acquired Berkshire Hathaway when it was a failing textile mill in 1965 and has since grown it into one of the world's largest companies. His nearly 15% stake is worth around $141 billion.

The famed investor's conglomerate owns scores of businesses, including GEICO, See's Candies, and BNSF Railway, and holds multibillion-dollar stakes in public companies such as Apple and Coca-Cola.

Buffett has gifted about half his Berkshire shares to the Gates Foundation and his four family foundations since 2006.

11. Michael Dell

Net worth: $130 billion

YTD change in wealth: +$51.4 billion

Source of wealth: Dell stock

Michael Dell is the founder, chairman, and CEO of the eponymous computer maker. Dell stock has roughly tripled since March last year to $119, valuing the company at over $80 billion, as investors wager it will be a key beneficiary from the AI boom.

Dell owns about 46% of his company, and pocketed well over $10 billion from the sale of Dell-backed VMware to Broadcom last year.

12. Jim Walton

Net worth: $117 billion

YTD change in wealth: +$44.5 billion

Source of wealth: Walmart stock

Jim Walton is the youngest son of Walmart founder Sam Walton, who gave each of his four children a 20% stake in the budding retail business over 70 years ago. Jim and his two surviving siblings, Rob and Alice, each still own over 11% of the company.

Jim's net worth crossed $100 billion in September following an 80% surge in Walmart stock this year.

13. Jensen Huang

Net worth: $115 billion

YTD change in wealth: +$71.4 billion

Source of wealth: Nvidia stock

Jensen Huang cofounded Nvidia in 1993, but the microchip maker has become a market darling within the past two years as its semiconductors have proven pivotal to developing artificial intelligence.

Nvidia's stock price has skyrocketed from under $15 at the end of 2022 to $132. That has boosted the company's value to $3.2 trillion — meaning it now rivals Apple as the world's most valuable company —and bolstered Huang's superrich status in the process.

14. Rob Walton

Net worth: $115 billion

YTD change in wealth: +$43.3 billion

Source of wealth: Walmart stock

Rob Walton, Sam Walton's eldest, sat on Walmart's board for more than 40 years before retiring this June.

His net worth passed $100 billion for the first time in September, making him the second Walton to join the club after his younger brother, Jim.

15. Alice Walton

Net worth: $114 billion

YTD change in wealth: +$43.8 billion

Source of wealth: Walmart stock

Alice Walton is Sam Walton's only daughter, and the world's richest woman after overtaking L'Oréal heiress Françoise Bettencourt Meyers earlier this year.

She joined her brothers, Jim and Rob, in the $100 billion club in September.

16. Amancio Ortega

Net worth: $104 billion

YTD change in wealth: +$16.9 billion

Source of wealth: Inditex stock

Amancio Ortega is the founder and former chairman of Inditex, a fashion retail group home to brands such as Zara, Bershka, and Massimo Dutti.

The billionaire philanthropist and real-estate investor stopped running Inditex in 2011. His daughter Marta Ortega Pérez was appointed chair at the end of 2021.

• Michael Dell says humor is vital and workers need to laugh and play and relax sometimes.
• The Dell Technologies chief said people shouldn't always listen to their parents' advice.
• Dell said he goes to sleep early, works out around dawn, and enjoys Texas barbecue.

Laugh and play pranks, balance work with downtime, and don't always listen to your parents' advice, Michael Dell says.

The Dell Technologies founder and CEO shared the colorful life advice during a recent episode of the "In Good Company" podcast. Dell, 59, ranked 13th on the Bloomberg Billionaires Index with a $115 billion fortune at Thursday's close.

The personal-computing pioneer said humor plays a key role at his company.

"If you can't laugh, joke around, play tricks on people, you're doing it wrong, right?" he said. "You have to be able to laugh at yourself."

Dell said he toiled tirelessly as a young man to build his company, which generated $88 billion of revenue last year. But he warned against overworking and burnout.

"I learned a long time ago that there's a diminishing return to the number of hours worked in any given day, " he said. "And if you're going to do something for a long time, you better find the [right mixture of] working and playing and relaxing."

Dell said he goes to bed at about 8:30 or 9 p.m. each night and wakes up around 4 or 5 a.m. to exercise.

"You won't find me at the nightcap," he said. "I'll be asleep."

Barbecue and bad advice

The Texan businessman also voiced his love for one of his home state's delicacies, even if he doesn't prepare it himself.

"I believe in the theory of labor specialization, so I personally am not cooking a lot of barbecue, but I'm definitely eating barbecue," he said.

Dell also offered some general advice for young people: "Experiment, take risks, fail, find difficult problems, do something valuable, don't be afraid, and, you know, be bold."

He recalled his parents encouraging him to become a doctor and urging him to set aside his passion for building computers. On the other hand, he remembered his mother telling him and his two brothers when they were little to "play nice but win," which became his company's guiding philosophy and the title of his 2021 book.

"Well, yeah, your parents aren't always right, but they're not always wrong either," he said, adding people's "mileage may vary on the parents."

The offers and details on this page may have updated or changed since the time of publication. See our article on Business Insider for current information.

• Esther Perel says couples should talk about money, know their finances, and see value beyond income.
• The psychotherapist said wealth is a fundamental aspect of every relationship.
• Earning an income is just one of many ways to contribute to a relationship, Perel says.

Couples should talk openly about money, regularly review their finances, and recognize that earning an income is just one of many ways to contribute to a relationship, Esther Perel says.

The famed psychotherapist is known for speaking nine languages, hosting the "Where Should We Begin" podcast, and writing "Mating in Captivity: Unlocking Erotic Intelligence."

She spoke to Emily Luk, the cofounder and CEO of Plenty, a financial management platform for couples, in an episode of the "Love & other assets" podcast released Thursday.

Perel laid out how money shapes everything from people's values and identities to the power dynamics in their relationships. It can be "one of the biggest stressors" in any relationship, she said, but couples who manage financial issues well can escape that pain.

Here are the three big takeaways from her conversation.

1. Talk things over

Couples should openly discuss money matters from the outset, Perel said.

"Money is an inherent piece of what the making of a relationship will involve," she said. "It's important, but it doesn't have to be precious, hidden, taboo, queasy. Like any other topic, if you start from the beginning, then it's integrated in the system."

Perel underscored that relationships are both romantic and practical, encompassing love and trust as well as partnership and economic support. Money is a core part of that and financial decisions are inevitable, she said.

"This is about the present, the past, the future, the legacy, what people left behind, what they never left behind, what they had, what they lost," she said. "It's not just how much do you make and what do you want to do with it. "

Money can shape the power dynamic in a couple, but Perel said that's "not a dirty word for me" as all relationships have one. Couples with a healthy attitude toward money can "bring it up and talk about it" without becoming defensive and throwing blame around, she said.

Just as you might ask a prospective partner if they want kids, you should ask them about their feelings around money too, the relationship guru said.

She recommended asking them how important it is to them to earn money, what the money culture was in their family, how much money they ultimately want to make, and how they've navigated any major financial shifts in their lives.

2. Check in regularly

Even when one partner trusts the other to manage their money, that partner should still occasionally check in on their joint finances, Perel said.

Once a year, they should "sit down and have a sense of what's what," she said. "I've met too many people who, when things became problematic, didn't have a clue and it didn't bode well for them. Don't put yourself in that kind of vulnerable position."

Many couples divide roles, but "it's good to not be completely ignorant on some things that have such a direct effect on you," she added.

The psychotherapist and author gave another reason for an annual check-in: a couple's financial situation changes over time, whether a costly health issue crops up, inheritance is paid out, or shares in a company vest.

"Money is not a static thing, and the relationship needs to be flexible around that," Perel said, adding that "the conversation around money needs to evolve as the relationship evolves."

Just as a couple might plan home improvements and vacations, "once a year you should sit with your finances and say, 'Where are we at?" Perel said. "And not, 'what do we have?' but, 'how are we managing relationally? What would you like to change in the way we've been managing the money?' Why, just asking that question to your partner will go a long way."

3. Recognize value in all forms

Perel told Luk about the moment her thinking completely changed around what it means to provide and contribute to a relationship.

An artist told her they'd renovated their home by themselves, raising the property's value and the couple's quality of life by improving the room layout. It would have cost a year's salary to get the project completed externally, Perel said.

The episode made her appreciate the myriad ways that members of a couple can generate value in a relationship besides a paycheck, ranging from DIY to raising children.

"Money is not a thing around which people talk with subtlety," she said about opening client's eyes to non-monetary contributions. "So I had to find other ways to suddenly shift and say, 'Have you ever looked at it this way,' and do a whole reframe."

"So this idea that there's a single household provider — that whole language I began to dismantle so that we could really talk about the power dynamic and the money and what they can afford and who decides and who is really bringing in and providing is a totally different story than just income bracket."

• The Waltons have reclaimed the title of the world's wealthiest family
• The Walmart family fortune has grown by 66% since last year to a record $432 billion.
• Jim, Rob, Alice, and the other Waltons are richer than the royal families of Abu Dhabi and Qatar.

The Waltons are once again the world's wealthiest family, ranking ahead of Gulf royalty, luxury fashion houses, and industrial dynasties.

The heirs to the Walmart fortune have grown their wealth by 66% since last year to a record $432 billion as of December 5, meaning they've regained the No.1 spot on Bloomberg's annual list of the world's richest families.

That wealth figure exceeds the market value of some of America's biggest companies including Home Depot ($412 billion), Procter & Gamble ($402 billion), and Netflix ($396 billion).

Abu Dhabi's ruling family, the Al Nahyans, topped the ranking last year with an estimated $305 billion fortune that dwarfed the Waltons' $260 billion. The two clans switched places this year with the Al Nahyans now worth $324 billion, more than $100 billion less than the Waltons.

Qatar's ruling dynasty, the Al Thanis, placed third this year with $173 billion to their name. France's Hermès family, which includes the Birkin maker's artistic director and executive chairman, landed in fourth with $171 billion. Rounding out the top five were the Kochs, the legendary US industrialists worth an estimated $149 billion.

The richest families on the planet also include Saudi Arabia's rulers, candy dynasties Mars and Ferrero, and the Wertheimer family behind Chanel.

Family fortunes

Walmart founder Sam Walton's three surviving children — Jim, Rob, and Alice — have each grown about $43 billion richer this year, per the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.

The trio joined the $100 billion club in September and ranked among the 15 richest people on the planet as of December 12 with north of $112 billion to each of their names.

Lukas and Christy Walton, the son and widow of Sam's late son, John T. Walton, also feature on Bloomberg's rich list with net worths of about $40 billion and $18 billion each.

The five Waltons' combined fortune has ballooned by more than $150 billion this year, representing a big chunk of the 25 richest families' total wealth gain of $407 billion.

The Walton family's wealth bump has been fueled by a roughly 80% surge in the retailer's stock price this year. Sam Walton gave each of his four children a 20% stake in the family enterprise early on, and his three surviving kids each own upward of 11% of Walmart — now a company valued north of $750 billion — through a family trust. They've also raked in more than $15 billion from stock sales and dividends over the years, Bloomberg says.

• Elon Musk is almost $200 billion richer than Jeff Bezos and worth more than Costco.
• His net worth hit $447 billion after Tesla stock jumped and SpaceX's valuation rose to $350 billion.
• Just five years ago, Musk was worth about $25 billion, and Tesla was valued below $100 billion.

Elon Musk is nearly $200 billion richer than Jeff Bezos, and personally worth more than Costco, after adding $63 billion to his fortune in a single day.

His net worth surged to $447 billion on Wednesday, per the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, after Tesla stock jumped 6% and SpaceX's valuation leaped to $350 billion based on employee share sales.

Musk's fortune has ballooned by $218 billion this year — a sum that exceeds the net worth of every other person on the rich list except Amazon's Bezos ($249 billion) and Meta's Mark Zuckerberg ($224 billion).

Musk is now more than twice as wealthy as Oracle's Larry Ellison ($198 billion), and more than three times as rich as Warren Buffett ($144 billion).

His one-day gain — the largest in the index's history — rivals the total wealth of Binance cofounder Changpeng Zhao, ranked 23rd with a $63.2 billion fortune. It also helped to lift the combined wealth of the 500 richest people on the planet to above $10 trillion for the first time, Bloomberg said.

Musk is now worth more on paper than the vast majority of US public companies, including Costco ($442 billion), Home Depot ($419 billion), and Netflix ($400 billion).

His wealth is largely made up of his roughly 13% stake and some contested stock options in Tesla, and his 42% slice of SpaceX. Musk's other businesses include xAI, Neuralink, The Boring Company, and X Corp, formerly Twitter.

Tesla shares have surged more than 70% this year to $425 at Wednesday's close, valuing the company at nearly $1.4 trillion. That figure comfortably exceeds the roughly $1 trillion market value of Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway and approaches the $1.6 trillion value of Zuckerberg's Meta.

The electric vehicle maker's shares have soared as investors bet it will harness artificial intelligence in revolutionary products such as self-driving cars and humanoid robots.

Musk's prominent role in Donald Trump's campaign, and his emergence as a close advisor to the president-elect who's tasked him with streamlining the US government, have also fueled optimism around his companies.

SpaceX is now valued at $350 billion based on the latest price paid by the company and its backers to buy shares from employees, Bloomberg reported Wednesday. The Starlink owner's valuation was previously $210 billion after a secondary share sale in June.

It's worth underscoring how dramatic Musk's wealth jump has been. He was worth less than $170 billion as recently as April, and only about $25 billion five years ago — around 1/18 of his net worth now.

Tesla was worth less than $100 billion during the Covid crash of 2020, or about 1/14 of its valuation today.

• Financial independence writer Andre Nader built a seven-figure net worth before age 40.
• The former Meta employee shares his top money-related books, including 'The Simple Path to Wealth.'
• Another one of his favorites, 'Die With Zero,' helped him become more comfortable spending his money.

At 37, Andre Nader has enough in savings that he doesn't expect to ever have to work a 9-to-5 again.

After 15 years working in tech — nine of which were at Meta — he was laid off in 2023. Rather than job search, he leaned into the Substack publication he started in 2021, FAANG FIRE, and started doing one-on-one coaching. FIRE stands for financial independence retire early.

He and his wife, who works as a designer for Uber, had been preparing to retire early and had already built a sizable, seven-figure nest egg. Between her tech income and their savings, they had enough to sustain their family of three in San Francisco. While Nader is technically retired in his 30s, he says he'll consider himself "semi-FIRE'd" until his wife walks away from her job.

The financial independence blogger and coach shared three books that changed his money mindset and helped him build wealth.

"The Simple Path to Wealth" by JL Collins

JL Collins' 2016 book is a popular choice within the FIRE community.

The author delivers on his promise of providing a simple path to wealth — his main advice is to buy stocks via Vanguard's Total Stock Market Index Fund — which Nader said he appreciated as a former tech employee: "Particularly in tech, a lot of our work involves being hyper-creative or being extremely analytical and doing very complicated things in our day-to-day. We think we need to take the same approach to our finances."

Collins rejects that belief and suggests the opposite, Nader said: "It doesn't have to be complicated. You can rely on the math that other people have done and then keep it boring."

Nader didn't always keep things simple: He said he lost a good chunk of money trading options in his early 20s. However, once he learned about low-cost index fund investing, he was sold on the effective and hands-off strategy. He's built wealth by investing primarily in Fidelity and Vanguard index funds, including VTI and VXUS.

"Die With Zero" by Bill Perkins

Nader says his spending philosophy shifted after reading Bill Perkins' unconventional financial guide.

While saving money always came naturally to Nader, which was a good quality for someone pursuing FIRE, his frugality sometimes prevented him from spending on things that would enrich his life.

Perkins' book was "a good counter for me," he said. "I'm naturally frugal and naturally live within spreadsheets. 'Die With Zero' forced me to think about experiences more in the same way that I think about my finances: Just like my finances can compound, life experiences can also compound."

Nader says that one of the frameworks detailed in the book particularly resonated with him: Think about your life in five-year buckets. Then, maximize the experiences that make the most sense during those timeframes.

For example, in the first five years of his daughter's life, "maybe those aren't the best years for going to Disney World," he said. "Maybe that's going to be when my daughter is five to 10."

At 37, he's also thinking about prioritizing more adventuresome activities while he can: "In my 55 to 60 bracket, I probably don't want to be downhill skiing because maybe my knees aren't going to be in a place they are while I'm in my 30s and early 40s. So having those experiences matched up with my life stages is helpful."

"Enough" by Jack Bogle

When Nader decided to pursue FIRE, one of the first steps he took was establishing his "enough number," a concept he read about in Vanguard founder Jack Bogle's book.

It's essentially the amount of money that would allow him to never have to earn another dollar.

"'Need' is the big thing," Nader said. "You can continue earning more, but you don't necessarily need it to hit your goals and to live the life that you want. For me, that was always a big motivating factor."

As of late 2024, his "enough" number is around $5.6 million, which he calculated by considering his family's annual spend in San Francisco and future costs like healthcare and his daughter's education.

Having experienced a layoff in 2023, he's hyper-aware that life happens, and his expenses and circumstances will continue to change. For that reason, "I'm constantly running my numbers and trying to calculate how much enough is."

• Unmarried women in the US without kids at home have a median wealth surpassing unmarried men.
• The former tend to be baby boomers, who have benefited from stock and real estate booms.
• Some of them told BI about how they are traveling solo and living life to the fullest.

Ruth Schick, 85, considers traveling in retirement her third career.

She began her solo travel in earnest in 2000 after her husband died. She's been to every continent and every state in the US. Her favorite domestic expedition was retracing Lewis and Clark's route. She's been to Antarctica twice.

"Any number of people have said, 'well, why would you want to go there?' But my only piece of advice is, whether it's travel or something else, don't fritter away your life," she said. Before retirement, she worked as a community college counselor and in historical research.

Schick is one member of a group that's doing surprisingly well in the US: women who aren't married and don't have any of their own kids under 18 at home. Those women tend to be older, and any children they may have had are now adults.

Based on a new analysis of 2022 data from the Pew Research Center, this group's median wealth has surpassed that of unmarried men, with or without kids. Their wealth benefited from rising home values, savings, and no husband or young children. As the US approaches a peak in boomer retirements and birth rates decline, their ranks will likely grow.

The chart above shows the median wealth of US households by marital status and the presence or absence of children under 18. In 2022, unmarried women without kids had a median household wealth of $87,200, while unmarried men had a typical net worth of $82,100. Women classified as unmarried were either divorced, widowed, partnered, or have never tied the knot. Pew could not divide unmarried men by parental status because the group with children living with them was so small.

Big nest eggs, empty nests

So why are unmarried women without kids doing better than their unmarried male counterparts? It's all about age, said Richard Fry, a senior researcher at Pew and the author of the analysis.

The former group is 61, on the median, part of the baby boomer generation. Baby boomers, ages 60 to 78, have had the time and good market fortune to accrue valuable assets through big stock and real estate booms in recent decades.

Unmarried men tend to be younger; they're 50-year-old Gen Xers on the median. Plus, men don't live as long as women. As of 2022, women's life expectancy at birth in the US was 80.2 years old; for men, it was 74.8.

"Your wealth is what you've built up, it's what you've accumulated, it's your nest egg," Fry said. "And effectively it takes time for people over their working lives to build a nest egg."

Despite the benefit of time to accrue wealth, Fry said that by some measures, like wages, women are still far behind men.

"But they're not so far behind in terms of building a nest egg. And wealth is important because you don't always want to work; someday, you want to retire." Wealth is an especially important cushion in case of a sudden loss in income or a health emergency. "Wealth is nice to have around because you can maybe tap it to sort of tide you over the bad economic times."

Older single women were more likely to own their homes and have fewer debts than younger single women, Fry said. Both older single men and women had a median of around $200,000 in home equity. Older single women had around $90,000 in their retirement accounts, compared to $125,000 for older single men.

That's not to say that married couples are falling behind or wage gaps don't exist. Men still outearn women and accumulate larger net worths and married Americans are accumulating much more wealth than their single counterparts. But the data does show that these Golden Girls are doing better than one might expect given those facts.

For Patricia Wahlen, 80, a nest egg has meant the ability to travel the world. Wahlen said she didn't have a passport until she was 46 — she was busy working as a professional fundraiser and parenting two kids. After her husband died when she was 61 — she said he'd only want to visit locations with golf courses — she got the travel bug. She's been to 85 countries; she liked visiting Scotland, where her father was from, and she hopes to return to Turkey someday.

"I love the travel. I love reading about the places I'm going to go to and arranging the trips and seeing the world. I just feel so lucky. I've seen most of the world," she said.

Wahlen said she signed up early for a pension fund, inherited some stock when her parents died, and lived frugally throughout her career. When her husband died, she didn't inherit anything from him — instead, she attributed her finances to managing her savings and retirement well.

Beyond her travels, Wahlen is in two book clubs and another social group of seven women.

"I just can't imagine staying home and doing nothing," she said. "My friends are all exactly having lives just like mine."

Women are unhappier than men for most of their lives — until age 85

Many women are still struggling in retirement and living off paltry incomes; women over 65, in particular, are more likely to live in poverty than older men. And many boomers are dealing with their own retirement and savings regrets, such as not saving enough or investing in a nest egg. Business Insider has spoken with several women over the age of 65 who have had to "unretire" or take other measures to make ends meet while surviving off Social Security.

Conversely, research finds people's self-esteem peaks around age 60 and stays high for the next decade, while satisfaction with being single also increases. And other research suggests that while women are unhappier than men for most of their lives, they take the lead on happiness after they hit age 85. On the whole, studies have suggested that single women are happier than their married counterparts.

For some single women over 65, retirement has meant an opportunity to spread their wings. According to internal data provided to BI by Road Scholars, an educational nonprofit travel company that caters to the 50+ crowd, just 29% of women over 65 setting out on adventures through the company in 2014 were solo travelers. By 2024, that rose to 37.4%. In total, over 19,000 women over 65 traveled solo in 2024 through the program.

Schick, who worked as a counselor at a community college for decades, said she and her husband never had a huge amount of income coming in. They were both on education salaries; she had a pension that she contributed to for 22 years. But thanks to those savings and her husband's thoughtful approach to retirement while he was ill, she's been able to fulfill her travel dreams. Her house and car are paid off, and she's prioritizing putting her income toward travel.

"I'm making the most of what I have, and I know that that's the attitude of most people that I know or that I relate to." She said many of the people she knows in a similar position have the same outlook: "Life isn't over just because you're getting older."

Are you an unmarried woman over the age of 65? Contact this reporter at [email protected].

• Berkshire Hathaway CEO and chairman Warren Buffett's net worth is an estimated $146 billion.
• He's the world's 10th-richest person, per Bloomberg, above Sergey Brin and the Walton siblings.
• Buffett is known for living modestly and being one of the world's most generous philanthropists.

Warren Buffett is having a good year — his fortune has ballooned by around $26 billion.

With an estimated net worth of $146 billion, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, the 94-year-old Berkshire Hathaway chairman and CEO is the 10th-wealthiest person in the world. He's almost $20 billion richer than Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang, and worth considerably more than Michael Dell and any of the three Walton heirs, for example.

Looking at Buffett's frugal ways, though, you might not know it.

Still living in the house he bought in the 1950s and driving an equally modest car, the "Oracle of Omaha" prefers to keep and grow his money rather than take it out of the bank. He often eats breakfast from McDonald's and borrowed furniture when his children were born.

See how Buffett spends — or doesn't spend — his billions.

Buffett's hobbies include bridge, golf, and playing the ukulele.

Buffett loves playing bridge, sometimes playing for over 8 hours a week, the Washington Post reported. He also likes to hit the green for some golf, spends a great deal of his time reading, and loves to play the ukulele — he said in 2020 that he has a collection of 22 ukuleles. He's played the ukulele since he was young and used his skills to court his first wife Susan, their son Peter once told NPR.

Buffett once bought and donated 17 Hilo ukuleles to the North Omaha branch of the nonprofit Girls Inc, and showed up at the group's building to give a group lesson.

His fortune is largely tied to his investment company.

The vast majority of Buffett's net worth is tied to Berkshire Hathaway, his publicly traded conglomerate that owns businesses like Geico and See's Candies and holds multibillion-dollar stakes in companies like Apple and Coca-Cola.

Buffett owns about 15% of Berkshire — a stake valued at over $130 billion.

Berkshire Hathaway itself has assets worth more than $1 trillion.

Buffett began investing at a young age.

The CEO of Berkshire Hathaway began building his wealth by investing in the stock market at age 11, according to Forbes, and first filed a tax return at the age of 13.

As a teenager, he was raking in about $175 a month by delivering The Washington Post — more than his teachers (and most adults). Berkshire Hathaway later owned nearly 30% of the newspaper for 40 years until shedding the stake in 2014.

He also sold calendars, used golf balls, and stamps. He had amassed the equivalent of $53,000 by the time he was just 16.

Most of Buffett's fortune was built later in life.

The vast majority of Buffett's wealth was earned after his 50th birthday. His salary at Berkshire Hathaway last year was just $100,000, the same as it's been the last 40 years, and he reimbursed the company $50,000 in part to cover his personal calls and postage.

The company spent triple Buffett's yearly salary — $313,595 — on his personal and home security last year, according to the company's proxy statement.

Buffett's worst investment was a Sinclair gas station.

Buffett's greatest investment mistake is said to be a Sinclair gas station that he bought in 1951 at the age of 21 — he bought a stake in the station with a friend, and the business was consistently outsold by the larger Texaco station opposite it.

He eventually lost the $2,000 he invested out of his total net wealth of $10,000 at the time, Yahoo Finance reported, referencing Glen Arnold's book "The Deals of Warren Buffett, Volume 1: The First $100M." 

 

Buffett has been married twice and has three children.

Buffett married his first wife, Susan Buffett, in 1952. Together they had three children: Susie, Howard, and Peter. Though he and Susan remained married until Susan's death in 2004, they had lived apart since the 1970s. He married his second wife and longtime companion, Astrid Menks, in 2006.

When Susie was born, Buffett apparently turned a dresser drawer into a bassinet for her to sleep in, according to Roger Lowenstein's 2008 biography of the billionaire. For his second child, Howard, he borrowed a crib.

Buffett lives a modest lifestyle.

Despite his multibillionaire status, Buffett has long lived a relatively modest and frugal lifestyle. He previously told CNBC and Yahoo Finance's "Off the Cuff" that he's "never had any great desire to have multiple houses and all kinds of things and multiple cars."

Buffett lives in the same home he bought in the 1950s in Omaha, Nebraska.

Buffett lives in a modest home in Omaha, Nebraska, which he once called the "third-best investment" he's ever made in a letter to Berkshire shareholders.

He bought the home for $31,500 in 1958 — adjusted for inflation, that's about $342,000. It's now worth an estimated $1.4 million, according to Zillow, and spans 6,280 square feet with five bedrooms and 2.5 bathrooms.

Buffett has made some security upgrades since buying it and it's now guarded by fences and security cameras.

Buffett used to own a vacation home in California.

In 1971, Buffett purchased a vacation home in Laguna Beach, California, for $150,000. Part of a gated community called Emerald Bay, the house has six bedrooms, is walking distance from the beach, and was renovated after Buffett bought it. 

He initially put it on the market in early 2017 for $11 million, then cut the price down to $3 million later that year. It sold in October 2018 for $7.5 million, after almost two years on the market. 

Buffett's choice of vehicle has also long been modest.

Unlike many other ultra-wealthy individuals, Buffett has long driven a fairly modest set of wheels.

He previously drove a 2001 Lincoln Town Car with a license plate that read "THRIFTY" for about a decade, before auctioning it off for charity and replacing it with a 2006 Cadillac DTS. In 2014, he replaced the DTS with a Cadillac XTS, according to Forbes.

"The truth is, I only drive about 3,500 miles a year so I will buy a new car very infrequently," Buffett once told Forbes.

Buffett has splurged on a private jet.

One splurge Buffett has made is on a private jet. Buffett spent $850,000 on a used Falcon 20 jet in 1986, then sold the first jet and upgraded to a different used jet in 1989, spending $6.7 million.

He and his late business partner Charlie Munger nicknamed the second jet "The Indefensible," Buffett revealed in a letter to shareholders.

Buffett used a flip phone for years.

Despite the fact that Berkshire Hathaway is a major Apple shareholder, Buffett didn't upgrade to a smartphone until 2020.

Before that he preferred the Samsung SCH-U320, which can be bought on eBay for under $20.

Though Buffett did make the switch to an iPhone eventually, he told CNBC that he just uses it "as a phone."

Buffett's style includes suits from a Chinese designer and affordable haircuts.

Buffett has said he has about 20 suits, all made in China by designer Madame Li, according to CNBC.

He has a longstanding friendship with Li, an entrepreneur who worked her way up in the business. Buffett's gotten the same $18 hair cut for years from a barber shop in the same building as his office.

Buffett regularly eats at McDonald's and drinks a lot of Coke.

Buffett once told Fortune that he eats "like a six-year-old." He gets his breakfast at McDonald's almost every morning on the way to work.

In 2017, he was spending no more than $3.17 on his order, paying with exact change, he said in the HBO documentary "Becoming Warren Buffett." He also drinks at least five Cokes a day.

 

Buffett is longtime friends with Bill Gates.

Buffett once went to McDonald's in Hong Kong with longtime friend Bill Gates and paid with coupons, Gates reminisced in his 2017 annual letter.

The letter reads: "Remember the laugh we had when we traveled together to Hong Kong and decided to get lunch at McDonald's? You offered to pay, dug into your pocket, and pulled out …coupons!"

Gates has described Buffett as a "thoughtful and kind" friend, and has said that every time he visits Omaha, Buffett drives to the airport to pick him up.

Buffett is one of the world's most generous philanthropists.

Warren Buffett is considered one of the world's most generous philanthropists. He pledged in 2006 to donate about 85% of his Berkshire Class A shares to five foundations: the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the Susan Thompson Buffett Foundation (named after his late wife), and three foundations run by his three children.

He teamed up with Bill and Melinda Gates in 2010 to form The Giving Pledge, an initiative that asks the world's wealthiest people to dedicate the majority of their wealth to philanthropy. Buffett himself has pledged that 99% of his wealth will go to philanthropy during his lifetime or upon his death.

As of 2023, the shares he's already given away were worth about $50 billion based on their value at the time of donation, or about $130 billion given Berkshire Hathaway's stock value at the time. If Buffett had kept those shares rather than donating them, he'd likely be the world's wealthiest person with a net worth of nearly $300 billion.

Buffett plans on leaving his kids $2 billion each, the Washington Post reported in 2014. He once said in a letter to shareholders that he recommends that super-wealthy families "leave the children enough so that they can do anything but not enough that they can do nothing."

Even for Buffett, there are things that money can't buy.

"There are things money can't buy," Buffett once said at a shareholders' meeting. "I don't think standard of living equates with cost of living beyond a certain point. My life couldn't be happier. In fact, it'd be worse if I had six or eight houses. So, I have everything I need to have, and I don't need any more because it doesn't make a difference after a point."

The Department of Energy (DOE) is on a loan-approval spree in the lead-up to President-elect Donald Trump’s inauguration, and the winners are all companies manufacturing clean energy solutions on U.S. soil. Companies like Stellantis and Samsung, Rivian, and most recently, EVgo. Trump has promised to cancel any unspent federal dollars under President Joe Biden’s Inflation […]

© 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.

• President-elect Donald Trump's net worth is estimated to be $5.6 billion, according to Forbes.
• The entire Trump family could be worth over $6.7 billion, including the reported net worths of the Trump children.
• The Trumps spend their money lavishly, from a hefty real-estate portfolio to an aviation fleet and designer clothes.

President-elect Donald Trump's net worth is currently estimated to be $5.6 billion, according to a Forbes report from November 2024.

And that's not to mention the individual net worths of his adult children: a reported $25 million each for both Donald Trump Jr. and Eric Trump, according to Forbes estimates from 2019; and a reported $10 million for Tiffany Trump, according to Celebrity Net Worth. Ivanka Trump, who runs her own business, has the largest net worth of all the children. She and her husband Jared Kushner are estimated to be worth around $1.1 billion, as best ascertained by ethics filings reflecting the couple's real estate holdings and additional investments.

Combined, that means the entire Trump family's fortune could be well over $6.7 billion.

From pricey penthouses and expensive schooling to high-end shopping and a full-on aviation fleet, here's how they spend their money.

Donald Trump's net worth is currently estimated to be $5.6 billion.

Source: Forbes

According to his executive branch personnel public financial disclosure report, he earned anywhere from $597,396,914 to $667,811,903 between January 2016 and spring 2017.

Source: Business Insider, Center for Responsible Politics

Nearly $3.6 billion of Trump's wealth comes from his brand businesses — an estimated $3.5 billion from the Trump Media and Technology Group, and $96 million comes from the Trump Hotel Management & Licensing Business.

Source: Forbes

And $410 million of Trump's net worth consists of cash and liquid assets, according to Forbes.

Source: Forbes

Before he was elected to the White House, Trump spent $66 million of his own money on his presidential campaign, according to campaign finance disclosures examined by Reuters.

Source: Fortune

Trump often traveled during his campaign using his huge aircraft fleet. He reportedly bought a Boeing 727 for $8 million back in the day, and then replaced it in 2010 with a Boeing 757 that he bought from Microsoft's Paul Allen for $100 million.

According to the New York Times, it burns fuel at a rate of thousands of dollars an hour.

Source: The New York Times

Trump also owns a Cessna jet, which was reportedly worth $15.3 million when it was new and had a resale value of $3.2 million in 2016.

Source: The New York Times

Collectively, Trump's fleet, comprising one airplane and one helicopter, is valued at $13 million.

Source: Forbes

Trump has an affinity for Brioni suits, which range from $5,250 to $6,900. While the brand supplied him with suits during "The Apprentice," he started paying for them during his 2016 presidential campaign.

Source: Business of Fashion

Melania Trump also has a taste for pricey fashion. She's been spotted wearing everything from a $2,095 Givenchy cape dress at an International Red Cross Ball to a $7,995 Monique Lhuillier sequined gown at a White House Historical Association dinner. And then there's also the time when she donned a $52,000 Dolce & Gabbana jacket.

Source: Cheat Sheet, Cheat Sheet

On several occasions, the former first lady's also worn more casual and affordable brands, such as Converse, which retail for less than $50.

Source: Business Insider

Melania has had her own makeup artist, Nicole Bryl, who once told US Weekly of Melania's plans to have a "glam room" in the White House. She also has a hairstylist who makes house calls and travels with her.

Source: Cheat Sheet

Melania has said she's a full-time mom and that she refuses to spend money on a nanny. In 2013, she told ABC News that she dresses her son, Barron, in suits and moisturizes him with her brand's Caviar Complex C6 moisturizer. He was seven years old at the time.

Source: Business Insider, ABC News

In New York, Barron was attending Columbia Grammar and Preparatory School, which can costs upward of $59,000 a year. While he lived in the White House, he attended St. Andrew's Episcopal School in Maryland, which can cost up to $47,000 a year. He later attended the Oxbridge Academy in West Palm Beach, Florida, near his father's Mar-a-Lago club. (Barron is now a student at New York University.)

Source: Cheat Sheet, The Washington Post, CNN

The three of them lived in the ritzy $50 million penthouse in Trump Tower in New York before moving into the White House in 2017. Trump reportedly has said the penthouse spans 33,000 square feet, but city records indicate that it's actually 10,996 square feet.

Source: Forbes

The Trumps also have real estate in sunnier climates, including Le Chateau Des Palmiers in St. Martin, worth $11 million.

Source: Business Insider

They also have a 39,000-square-foot mansion in Bedford, New York, called Seven Springs, for which they reportedly paid $7.5 million. The home, used for family getaways, reportedly has a net value of $25 million.

Source: Business Insider, Business Insider

Then there are the two homes in Sterling, Virginia, worth a collective $2 million — and his Palm Beach properties, worth over $300 million.

Source: Business Insider, Palm Beach Daily News

And then there's his golf courses and clubs, worth an estimated $810 million, in the US, Scotland, and Ireland.

Source: Forbes

That includes the estimated $342 million (after liabilities) Mar-a-Lago, a 17-acre estate in Palm Beach that Trump reportedly purchased for $10 million. It has 58 bedrooms, 33 bathrooms, 12 fireplaces, and three bomb shelters.

Source: Business Insider, Forbes

Donald Trump Jr. also owns real estate in Manhattan. He bought two apartments at the Sovereign for $1.5 million and $1.125 million, Town & Country reported. The publication speculated that he combined the two apartments.

Source: Town & Country

Eric and Donald Jr. are big game hunters, which can be very expensive. A 14-day white rhino hunt can cost $66,790.

Source: USA Today

Meanwhile, Ivanka Trump is busy building her own empire. Between January 1, 2016, and May 31, 2017, she earned at least $13.5 million in income, according to forms released by the White House. More than $5 million came from her namesake brand, more than $2.5 million from the Trump Organization, and nearly $800,000 for book and TV work.

Source: CNN

Some media reports speculated that Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner's 2009 wedding at Trump National Golf Club cost them at least $1 million.

Source: Cheat Sheet

The couple's combined assets could be worth at least $1.1 billion, according to ethics filings.

Source: CNN

That includes a $25 million art collection.

Source: CNN

Once Trump took up residence in the White House, Ivanka and Jared moved to Washington DC, where they lived in a $5.5 million house in the upscale Kalorama neighborhood.

Source: Town & Country, New York Times

Like her stepmother, Ivanka also steps out in a mix of high-end and fast fashion, from a $6,280 Oscar de la Renta dress and coat to an $870 Roksanda dress and a $35 Victoria Beckham for Target dress.

Source: W Magazine

Tiffany Trump's schooling was always paid for by Donald Trump, according to a source who talked to People Magazine. She attended the University of Pennsylvania for her undergraduate degree and in 2020 graduated from Georgetown Law School, which costs upwards of $80,000 per year for the full-time JD program.

Source: People, The Washington Post, Georgetown Law School

She's been spotted wearing $725 Aquazarra shoes and has worn couture designer Daniel Basso — whose gowns can cost thousands of dollars — to formal events several times.

Source: Teen Vogue

Tiffany Trump married businessman Michael Boulos in November 2022 at her father's Mar-a-Lago club in South Florida. Her engagement ring was reportedly worth $1.2 million.

Source: Insider

There's debate on the extent of Trump's philanthropic efforts, but in 2009, he and Melania donated $5,000 to $9,999 to the Police Athletic League of New York City. He also donated $1 million of his own money to Hurricane Harvey relief in 2017.

Source: The New Yorker, GOBanking Rates, The Washington Post