How America’s Richest Man Got Rich

Accumulating large amounts of wealth can be accomplished in a variety of ways. Some individuals acquire great wealth through online investing, options trading, or even online options trading. Others build international companies up from out of nothing. Still others inherit everything but manage to build on what was given to them and expand the family business. The richest individuals in America acquired their money in a variety of interesting ways. Now, they manage to hold onto that money, as well as build even more, through many different methods. According to Forbes, the following are the richest men and women in America. This list discusses something about each individual, how each one achieved his or her wealth, and some of the things these people have done with their massive amounts of wealth and status.

Bill Gates

Gates is worth approximately $81 billion. At age 59, he currently resides in Medina, Washington. He achieved the bulk of his wealth through the company he founded, Microsoft. While Gates’ vast amount of money originated through Microsoft, he’s made a bulk of his fortune through diversified investments in recent years. Gates has an investment company called Cascade Investment LLC that was funded completely by Gates himself. There are many stock investment options he’s purchased lately. A few of the companies he’s added or bought stock in recently include Berkshire Hathaway, Liberty Global PLC, McDonald’s, and ExxonMobil. Some companies he’s either reduced stock in or sold out include Coca Cola, Thai Fund Inc., and Procter and Gamble. So while Microsoft may have put Gates on the map, not putting all of his eggs in one basket, so to speak, has exponentially increased his wealth through the years. He has also used his wealth by becoming one of the most generous philanthropists in history. One of the charitable donations Gates and his wife Melinda made recently was for $500 million to fight malaria as well as several other diseases.

Warren Buffett

The latest figures reveal that Buffett is worth about $73 billion. He lives in Omaha, Nebraska, and is 84 years old. The source of his wealth has come primarily from Berkshire Hathaway. While stocks routinely fluctuate, stock in Berkshire Hathaway has significantly been the most expensive stock in the world to obtain. It currently is more than $200,000 for one class A share. To put this in perspective, the next most expensive stock is about $535 per share. It’s reported that Buffet started out in life selling newspapers as a young boy and went on to invest in his first shares at the age of 11. He was a natural investor and was quite wealthy while he was still in his 20s. But he went from wealthy to extremely wealthy in his 30s while he was running the Buffet Partnership. Buffet’s success has included some interesting investment strategies through the years. Some of the types of companies he has invested in have included undervalued securities as well as workouts and control situations. Workouts have also included stocks in which the financial success depended upon corporate actions rather than buyers and sellers. In general, the genius of Warren Buffet is sometimes said to be his ability to identify undervalued assets. An example of this would be when he purchased silver in 1998. He has also developed a knack for being flexible, reinventing himself when necessary, and always keeping an eye out for new opportunities. Getting back to the incredible price of his stock in comparison to others, this may also be one of the reasons he has maintained and built such massive wealth. Keeping the stock at this rate means keeping out most speculators and day traders. Only serious investors can invest in and have any part in his company.