Friday, September 21, 2007

Who Wants to be a Billionaire?

Forbes magazine released its list of 400 richest Americans yesterday. To even make the list now, you must be a billionaire. It was not many years ago (seriously, I'm not kidding) when Ross Perot topped the list at about 3.5 billion. I'm thinking maybe the mid-90's.

Well, I looked over the list several times and have not yet found anyone in whose will I am going to be listed as an heir. I think I will spend some time this weekend tracing family roots. Who knows?

Topping the list is Bill Gates. He is currently worth $59 billion dollars. This means that if he invested his money at only 5% interest, he would earn $295 million a year. I know what you're thinking. Investing at only 5% would not be wise. After all, it would be hard to live on $24.5 million -- A MONTH! Can't you hear the conversations in that home? "Honey, we need to watch our spending this week. It's a 31-day month, and we had a big utility bill. So we only have $5 million to make it til Thursday."

I can't even relate to it. Hmm. Come to think of it, Joel Olsteen is sounding better all the time:)

5 comments:

Unknown said...

At the height of the dot-com bubble, I think I remember Bill Gates having a net worth of about $90 billion.

While we don't really comprehend those kinds of dollar figures on a personal level, the message is the same: moth and rust destroy. Or, in this case, wild speculation.

Somehow, though, I doubt Bill has missed his $30 billion.

Another thing I thought intersting about that article was the designation of how many on the list got their wealth. A big majority were deemed, "self-made." While that is partly true, that's quite a misnomer on many different levels when you really, really think about it.:)

Anonymous said...

Do you think I'm wasting my time shooting at rabbits to find oil? "Well, the first thing you know ol' John's a millionaire."

Rick Ross said...

John,

You are hilarious! If you hit a "bubblin' crude", would you remember me -- your greatest admirer?

I can think of someone who would probably be moving with you to "Beverly, hills that is." I've heard he is really good at everything he thinks about doing.

Jeff said...

I have not seen the article but I don't think I made it this year. I do wonder what it's like to lose $30 billion and not really miss it.

John, when you hit oil remember me when you start building your NASCAR team.

Anonymous said...

Neithor Bill Gates nor Ross Perot gets to go to church with the people that I do.