Billionaires | wealthymatters

Bloomberg Billionaires List

May 25, 2012 1 Comment

wealthymatters The Bloomberg Billionaires List consists of a daily ranking of billionaires by net worth.You can access it here http://topics.bloomberg.com/bloomberg-billionaires-index/

What I find interesting about the list is the daily fluctuations in these net worth figures.Obviously,these figures are for staggering amounts of money simply because these people are so wealthy.But as a percentage of their net-worth it’s not all that large.This is in huge contrast to the “financial advisers” who so glibly talk about “true investors” being comfortable with upto a 50% drop in portfolio values.It’s obviously easier to play round with and/or lose someone else’s money. Read more of this post

Filed under Tidbits, Tool Kit Tagged with Billionaires, Bloomberg, Bloomberg Billionaires List, capital safety, financial advisers, net worth, postaday, reducing risk, risk averse, Wealthy

Just How Well Off Are You?

September 8, 2011 Leave a comment

wealthymatters.com Do you know if you are a HNI? Or if your income makes you rich in India?

Envy and jealousy are pretty useless but there’s nothing like goal setting to get where you want to be wealth wise. It helps to know just where you stand.

According to the National Council for Applied Economic Research (NCAER), you are rich if your family’s annual household income exceeds Rs 17 lakh.There are 3 million rich households in India comprising some 16 million individuals.So 1.38% of Indians are rich in income terms.

However income doesn’t equal wealth just as being rich doesn’t mean being wealthy.For more on this distinction please refer to this older post here: https://wealthymatters.com/2011/01/26/the-definition-of-income-and-wealth/ . Read more of this post

Filed under Theory, Tidbits, Tool Kit Tagged with annual household income, Billionaires, Credit Suisse’s Global Wealth Report, HNI High Networth Individual, Income, Indian wealth pyramid, Millionaires, net worth, postaday2011, RandomBlog2011, Rich, wealth, wealth pyramid

Cold Steel

February 18, 2011 4 Comments

wealthymatters.com

‘Cold Steel’ is a mesmerising read.It is a narration of the takeover battle waged by Lakshmi Narayan Mittal against the management of Arcelor to emerge as the Emperor of Steel.

In 2006, the two largest steel-producers in the world-Arcelor and Mittal Steel, are in the middle of a bitter battle for total market domination

At first Lakshmi Mittal proposes a friendly merger with rival Arcelor, a pan-European company whose interested parties include the governments of Spain, Luxembourg and Belgium.

Arcelor’s mercurial CEO, Frenchman Guy Dollé, firmly refuses,using intemperate language.To quote,“The answer is clearly no…There are two categories of steel. There is premium-quality steel and there is commodity steel. It’s like, there’s perfume, that Arcelor specialises in, and then there’s a sort of eau de cologne which is Mittal’s domain… a lot more technology and grey matter goes into each tonne we sell.” ….. “Part of Mittal’s offer consists, if you’ll excuse the expression, of monnaie de singe.”(literally meaning “monkey money” or “funny money” or tainted money).These same words come back to haunt him later.

The refusal sets the scene for a massive hostile takeover involving billions of dollars of finance and government and shareholder manoeuvring. The corporate battle that ensues takes on epic proportions and becomes one of the world’s biggest and most hard-fought industry takeovers of recent years. It sends shockwaves through the political corridors of Europe, excites the world’s financial markets, enriches thirty hedge funds and transformes the global steel industry.The participants come from many different continents and include six billionaires, many of the world’s top investment bankers (interestingly with two brothers, pitted against each other, one working for Goldman Sachs and the other for Morgan Stanley),top law firms and public relations outfits , presidents , prime ministers and politicians occupying the highest positions in the current and emerging superpowers. Read more of this post

Filed under Entrepreneurship Tagged with Arcelor Mittal, Belgium, big business, Billionaires, book, book review, Byron Ousey, Cold Steel, commodity steel, corporate takeover, corporate war, deal making, Dhirubhai Ambani, Emperor of Steel, Entrepreneurship, France, Friends Of Mittal, Guy Dolle, hedge fund, hostile takeover, intrigue, investment bankers, Lakshmi Narayan Mittal, Law Firms, LN Mittal, lobbying, Luxembourg, Mittal Steel, monnaie de singe, networking, politicians, PR firms, quality steel, racism nationalism, RandomBlog2011, Spain, steel, steel industry, steel technology, Tim Bouquet

Why Not Teach People How To Become Wealthy?

February 13, 2011 6 Comments

This post is in reply to this post http://goodnewsforisla.wordpress.com/2010/12/11/day-58-billions/ and other articles in a similar vein.

To quote from the above post:

Here are a few facts about billionaires and the wealthy (taken from ‘The Hole In Our Gospel ‘by Richard Stearns).
1) Today’s 1,123 billionaires hold more wealth than the wealth of half the world’s adult population.

2) The wealthiest 7 people on earth control more wealth than the combined GDP (Gross Domestic Product) of the 41 most heavily indebted (poor) nations.
3) The poorest 40 percent of the world’s population accounts for just 5 percent of the global income. The richest 20 percent accounts for three-quarters of the world’s income.

These facts are staggering when you consider the disparity between the wealthy and the poor. If only those that were extremely wealthy would share their wealth, perhaps the poor wouldn’t be as poor. The sick could be cured. Thirst could be quenched, and hungry tummies fed.

Please consider the following points:

(1) Billionaires hold about one percent of the world’s house hold wealth( source:http://www.ppionline.org/ppi_ci.cfm?knlgAreaID=108&subsecID=900003&contentID=254950).So what would happen if all the world’s rich gave away their wealth?Something like this…..The world’s richest man Carlos Slim Helu has a estimated networth of less than US$60billion.There are some six billion souls on earth.So if we were to distribute his money amongst all the people of the world,each person would get an additional US$10.And if instead of all the people if we were to give the money to only the poorer 50% ,each person would get US$20.Still money but not that much….. Read more of this post

Filed under Philanthropy Tagged with asset creation, Billionaires, book, How to Become Wealthy, income disparity, indebted, Philanthrophy, poor, Richard Stearns, Teach People How To Become Wealthy, The Hole In Our Gospel, wealthiest, World Vision

Sunsigns and Wealth

February 8, 2011 17 Comments

Since ancient times people have looked to the stars to figure out whether they will be wealthy.They have consulted astrologers to figure out how to make their fortunes.Horoscopes have been cast, and many derived charts prepared, to study a peoples’ wealth potential and best source of wealth.

In Western Astrology, at the rudimentary level, the focus is on the Sun Signs as they are held to account for most of the personality traits of a person.Forbes Magazine,through its study, has found that roughly 12% of the world’s billionaires in its annual list were born between Aug. 23 and Sept. 22, making Virgo the most common sign among billionaires.And the least common sign is Sagittarius , i.e those born between November 22 – December 21, with 6% of the people in its billionaire list.

However,every Sun sign is home to some or other billionaire.I have tried to find the wealthiest individual belonging to each Sun Sign.Each one of these billionaires has made his money in certain fields and by harnessing certain personality traits.If astrology really works, maybe you too could make your fortune in the same field or by adopting similar tactics.So why not look up the richest person featured against your Sun-Sign and start googling up the name.Just check out what they may have in common with you. Read more of this post