If you have traveled around the country a little, you may have toured the “estates” of some rich corporate barons from the past. The Carnegie Mansion, the Biltmore Estate, The Getty Villa, etc. These gentlemen made their money from the manufacture of steel or the pumping of oil. Other historically wealthy men made their wealth from real estate, mining or many other areas.
The “New Rich Guys” are a little different. Most of the recent corporate wealth has been created by some form of technology company.
You may have read recently where the share price of Facebook (FB) dropped about 20% in one day; thus destroying $120 billion of market value for the company. The company’s founder, Mark Zuckerberg, age 30, saw the value of his shares drop by about $15 billion.
But, don’t feel too bad for the young entrepreneur as he is giving about $45 million in stock every single trading day to his philanthropic foundation. (MarketWatch, July 30, 2018.)
Or, what about the parents of Amazon’s Jeff Bezos? Apparently, they invested all they had, about $245,000, in Amazon when it was founded in 1995. They could have lost it all, but instead Bloomberg estimates they are now worth about $30 billion…making them two of the richest people in the world. (Business Insider, July 31, 2018)