Top 10 Wealthiest People In The World, 2008

photo credit: indoloony

I know there are tons of lists like this, but it is a blog dedicated to money, so I thought one more wouldn’t hurt.

Next I will list the names of the 10 wealthiest men (yes, they are all MEN), and then…we’ll see what happens:

1. Warren Buffett (click on the link to find out more about him)
2. Carlos Slim Helú
3. Bill Gates
4. Lakshmi Mittal
5. Mukesh Ambani
6. Anil Ambani
7. Ingvar Kamprad
8. Kushal Pal Singh
9. Oleg Deripaska
10. Karl Albrecht

This is the official list published by Forbes, Wikipedia, you name it… Do those names sound familiar? Of course, I’m not talking about Warren Buffett or Bill Gates (pretty much the only names on the list that I can pronounce ) The others on the list don’t get that much publicity, so many people have never heard of them. They are the ones that are breathing the “rarefied air” at the top after all, so I think it’s good to know their story and their names…although with Lakshmi, Ingvar Kamprad, Kushal Pal Singh and Deripaska might take a while.

1. They are all over 40 years old, 8 of them over 50, 4 over 70, 2 over 80
2. 6 of them are self-made billionaires, 4 of them have inherited the wealth
3. Most of them are from India (4), 2 from USA
4. More than half of them are worth over $40 billion
5. They are all men
6. They all have a family life, have been married and have children

“The Gross Domestic Product, or GDP, of a country is one of the ways of measuring the size of its economy. GDP is defined as the total market value of all final goods and services produced within a given country in a given period of time (usually a calendar year)” - Wikipedia

I know (apparently) it has nothing to do with the subject, but I think this is interesting:

• There are only 70 countries in the world with a GDP of over $40 billion, from a total of over 190 countries. Liberia (one of the poorest countries) has a GDP of $1.6 billion
• 40% of the world’s population lives on less than $2 per day

OK, the wealth of these people is incomprehensible, which makes talking about them so much more interesting. Some of them are using the wealth for good causes, and are even thinking about donating it all.

I will post detailed articles about each of these people, to see how they started, where they are now, what they plan to do with the money, and of course some other “spicy” details from their lives.

I hope you enjoyed the post, leave me a “Hello” if so.

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