19 Jul The Richest Man In The World Has Been Announced, And Most People Have Never Even Heard Of Him

ABBA famously sang about all the things they would do if they had a little money, and it’s something which we can all relate to in one way or another. Even if you’ve got an ample paycheck, I think we can all attest to feeling the strain of a five-week month, or weeping internally when we realize that we’ve purchased one drink too many on a spontaneous night out.

But for some lucky people, money really is no object. In fact, it would take them countless lifetimes of extravagant spending to use a fraction of their colossal earnings. While it’s a nice enough fantasy for us Average Joes, every time I think about the super-rich, I keep my mom’s words in mind: if you had that much money, you wouldn’t enjoy it forever. After a while, fancy cars and five-star restaurants would become a part of your day-to-day life and not be the treat that they are for most people.

Many of the super-rich also make sure that they stay rich with a specific type of bank account:

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Still, the thought of having more than you could ever need will always be a source of fascination. That’s why the Forbes’ Rich List hits the headlines every year, with people desperate to find out who’s on it and how they made their cash.

After all, some of the world’s biggest earners come from extremely humble beginnings, proving to everyone that if you’ve got the right idea and/or enough talent, almost anything is possible. The most commonly cited example of this is J.K. Rowling, whose literary talents transformed her from being a penniless single mother into one of the world’s richest women.

To discover the 10 richest female actresses of 2018, check out the video below:

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But J.K. Rowling is also a brilliant example of how the super-rich often use their immense wealth as a way to do good in this world, eventually losing her billionaire status by giving so much money to charity. Just this month, Elon Musk also proved this by agreeing to do anything he could to help the Thai football team and their coach when they were trapped in a cave.

What makes the Forbes list so interesting is that it’s often full of surprises and the mega-rich of 2018 are no exception to this rule. Céline Dion, for example, despite no longer being a regular hitmaker in the music industry, managed to surpass some of the biggest stars of 2018 with her wealth, which Forbes estimated as being a whopping $430 million.

While you might assume that this would give Dion a reasonable placing on the list, actually only ranked as the 46th richest woman in the United States – qualifying because she is a resident of Nevada. So who do we know that was close behind the ‘My Heart Will Go On’ singer? Well, there’s Beyoncé AKA Queen Bee who ranked 53rd with her $355 million fortune.

As for ‘Shake It Off’ singer Taylor Swift, well, she’s lagging a fair bit behind these two, coming in as the 60th richest woman in the United States with $320 million to her name, but given that she’s a fair bit younger than these two, she’s got plenty of time to catch up.

However, one musician who managed to trump Swift’s earnings despite being younger than her by two years is the world most beloved red-head, Ed Sheeran (okay, maybe he’s joint first place with Prince Harry), who earned $110 million last year.

As a result, Sheeran was given the esteemed title of being the world’s highest-earning solo artist, but what made his placing on the 2018 list so remarkable was that he jumped a whopping 62 places from where he was ranked in 2017.

Okay, so we’ve covered surprises in the music department, and we know who the richest female actresses in the world are, but what about the men who dominate our screens? Who’s riding the money train into the sunset after filming their blockbusters?

Well, coming in at third place is Robert Downey Jr., closely followed by his Avengers co-star Chris Hemsworth.

Coming in at second place for the second year in a row is Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson. He banked a whopping paycheck after Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle‘s success and estimated to be worth $124 million.

It’s also great that The Rock’s a famously nice guy.

But the dark horse of this year’s highest paid actors was undoubtedly George Clooney. Last year, he placed sixth on the list, despite previously being the highest earner, and this year he has reclaimed his gilded-gold crown.

Clooney’s jump up on the list was almost entirely down to the sale of his tequila company, Casamigos. Founded in 2011 with two other investors, who shelled out $600,00 each, it was sold to Diageo – the world’s largest drinks company – for $1 billion last year, making up for the disappointing box office returns that the movie he directed, Suburbicon, made.

However, Clooney’s big investment payday barely hit the headlines compared to the announcement that Kylie Jenner – who became a first-time mom in February after trying and failing to keep her pregnancy a secret – was almost a billionaire.

The 20-year-old’s famously surgically enhanced pout, which she used to front Kylie Cosmetics when it launched its $29 lip kit back in 2015, earned the youngest member of the Kardashian/Jenner clan a whopping $630 million.

Since then, the 20-year-old makeup mogul has branched out in terms of products (which now includes eyeshadow and concealer), and even when a conservative multiple and Forbes’ standard 20% discount, her company has been valued at a staggering $800 million. But a true testament to the brains of the 20-year-old is the fact that she owns 100% of it.

That’s not to mention the millions that Kylie has made from appearing in reality TV shows or through endorsements on social media, all of which have taken the 20-year-old’s value to a staggering $900 million – and that’s a conservative estimate.

As a result, she’s now the youngest person on the fourth annual ranking of America’s Richest Self-Made Women. If Kylie’s business continues to go from strength to strength, she will trump Mark Zuckerberg and become the youngest billionaire ever.

However, Kylie’s impressive place on the list has not been without its critics, many of whom have said that the 20-year-old’s fortune is by no means self-made because she is a member of “America’s First Family of Reality Television”.

Kylie’s older sister, Kim, however, spoke out in her defense, saying, “I really didn’t get it, because she is ‘self-made’ – we are all ‘self-made’. What, because we came from a family that has had success? To me, that doesn’t really make sense.”

But perhaps the biggest surprise of all to come from Forbes 2018 list is the fact that the richest man in the world is someone that the majority of us have never even heard of – having knocked Microsoft founder Bill Gates off the top spot in July 2017.

That being said, Gates is still worth a whopping $90 billion, which is enough to keep his family wealthy, well, forever.

But the richest man in modern history is now Jeff Bezos, who is worth a jaw-dropping $50 million more than Gates.

Don’t worry if you don’t recognize him, I legitimately had no idea who he was until today either, but it turns out that he’s the man behind the world’s largest online retailer, Amazon, which has earned him an unbelievable $151.3 billion.

Now officially the richest man in the world, the 54-year-old is coming under an increasing amount of pressure to be charitable, and it wasn’t until January of this year that he made his first big donation, gifting $33 million to TheDream.us which provides scholarships to undocumented immigrants who arrive in the US as children. Let’s just hope he keeps it up.

Well, if there’s one thing evident from this article, it’s further evidence of my statement at the beginning: if you’ve got a bright enough idea and/or enough talent, you really can earn a fortune, and hopefully, make a real difference with your money.

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