Forbes has once again released its list of the 400 Richest People In America, the 25th year in publishing of this list. It amazes me how much money some people have achieved-Bill Gates still considered the richest American with a 59 billion dollar net worth. The collective net worth of the nation's richest rose $290 billion to $1.54 trillion.
As a member of the young, materialistic generation, I am always interested in who the youngest members that make the elite society list. I was honestly impressed at how many of the richest in this category made their billions just from the Internet/technology industry. Oh to have minds or genius like those on the list! So here is the youngest ranging in ages from 33 to 42 on the top 400 list. Notice three of them were ranked in the top ten.
John Arnold is the youngest on the list at the age of 33. Arnold is from my hometown of Houston and has a net worth of $1.5 billion. A graduate Vanderbilt (did I mention he graduated in three years), he began working at the famous Enron in 1995. In 2001, he had earned $750 million for the company. When Enron went under, Arnold started his own business Centaurus Energy.
The next two youngest are 34-years-old and ranked number 5 on the entire list. Individually they have a net worth of $18.5 billion. They are no other than Google creators Sergey Brin and Larry Page. The two met in the science program at Stanford. They dropped out of school and started Google from a friends’ garage in 1998. Who doesn’t want to be Sergey Brin or Larry Page? Their earnings have outpaces Bill Gates and one day could possibly control the one spot on the list. Brin serves as president of technology, Page heads product division. It is worth going to forbes.com and reading their entire bios.
Can’t have Google without Yahoo following behind, right? Also, on the list is Yahoo founder Jerry Yang, 38, with a $1.9 billion net worth and ranked quite a bit further down the list from Google icons at 261. Also on the young list is his co-founder 41-year old David Filo with a $2 billion net worth. Both were students at Stanford when they started Yahoo. Yahoo is only one-fifth the value of Google.
Also, on the under 40 list is Lorenzo Fertita who made his money by running casinos. His net worth is $1.3 billion ranking him at 380. He bought the Ultimate Fighting Championship arts league in 2001. He runs 15 casinos, including giant Green Valley Ranch, Red Rocks properties
Ranked at number 32 is another Internet genius Pierre Omidyar. You are most likely very familiar with his work if you have ever sold anything online before. He is the founder of Ebay and is worth $8.9 billion. He launched Ebay in 1995 and today more than one million people use it as a primary or secondary source of income. Wow!
Last on my list of notables is no other than number 8 ranked Michael Dell.The 42-year-old Texan is worth $17.2 billion. He started selling computers from U. of Texas dorm room 1984 with only $1,000. He dropped out to start Dell. It was taken public in 1988, grew fast with direct-sales model.
Of course, this is just a sample of the youngest. I left out the young ones who received the bulk of their money through inheritance. The list above for some reason inspires me. It makes me proud of a generation that just on pure genius made their money through hard work and dedication. I encourage you to go to Forbes.com and check out the list for yourself. It was an eye opening experience for me.
