The Annual Forbes List of the World's Richest is out and there have been some big changes. First off, for the first time in 13 years, Bill Gates is not Number 1! He is replaced by a fellow Omaha native, Warren Buffett (Go Huskers! :) )
Mr. Buffett watched his fortune jump $10 Billion in 2007, to reach $62 Billion. Berkshire Hathaway continues to be the company to beat for long term investment prowess. His friend and List buddy Bill Gates saw his fortune jump $2 Billion to $58B, not good enough to even hold on to #2.
Gates slipped to number three behind Mexican Telecon Kingpin, Carlos Slim Helú, who has seen his fortune double to $60B in just two years. An amazing financial run.
Mr. Helú is part of a growing International trend to the list. Four of the Ten Top Billionaires are from India. In comparison, two years ago, 10 of the Top 20 were from the US, now only four are. The US still leads in total number of billionaires with 42% coming from our shores.
However, Russia becomes the number two country overtaking Germany as the new minted Russian capitalists rush the poll. Karl Marx RPM meter now reads 7200RPM :).
The other interesting stat was how many younger people were on the list. 50 of the 1125 billionaires were under 40! The youngest? Would you be surprise if they were from an Internet company?
It is Mark Zuckerberg from facebook. He just made it based on the current guesstimate valuation of the Social Site, but then again he is already 23 and past his prime ;).
Anyway it is an interesting read. So many different ways that people hit the list. Stocks, Internet, Real Estate, and everything else under the sun.
Me? Not quite yet. Maybe next year. In fact I am going to go see if I can cut my entertainment budget a bit more just to make sure.
