The richest person you have personally known

[aaronc879]

I'm not aware fo ever knowing anyone super rich. I'm sure my orthopedic surgeon is rich but I don't know if I would say I really know him. I consider my aunt who has nearly no savings but a large Illinois pension plus SS to be the richest person I actually know.

 

[StuckinCT]

I dated the daughter of a former Forbes 400 family- big family, old Pittsburgh money. No idea net worth. I have some second cousins that are in the $100mm+ category- old money scattered all over the country.

I am definitely the poor cousin but I have no issues with wealth envy. I have a good friend who came into $25mm self made at 45 recently.

There is some top brass from Bridgewater the largest hedge fund at my club who I have bumped into, and the Blue Buffalo dog food company family is also a member who also started Sobie- definitely $100mm+. One of the Hedgies made $70mm in one year according to Forbes...

 

[audreyh1]

The founders of the small startup I worked for became extremely wealthy when the company went public 15 years later. I knew each of them very well personally.

 

[hesperus]

Maybe I'm perceiving the story wrong, but anyone who laughs at his wife for being a teacher isn't someone I'd model my life after.

+1

this thread is like a gawkers convention for lifestyles of the rich and famous.

 

[kgtest]

Nobody particularly well. I'm sure I know some through friends of friends, or if I do know them, they don't flaunt it.


I don't exactly hangout at the yacht club or the club house though.

 

[razztazz]

I'll infer you don't mean necessarily rich in the Thurston Howell III sense. Just the wealthiest person nominally.

Unless someone else springs to mind later it would be my uncle. He started as a GS-1 right after the War but ended up as a GS-15. His boss was a 3 star general. The whole time he worked though, he and his brother-in-law owned and operated a tailor shop and dry cleaner as a side biz. And he was still working there on the side his whole way up to GS-15. Yes. Immigrant. Left the old country when Mussolini started tipping his hand and got to the USA as a boy in 1928 just in time for all the fun. Also, according to family family lore, he was investing in mutual funds of some kind beginning in the late 1940's/early '50's. He always had the nicest cars and house.

 

[The Cosmic Avenger]

I met Estee, Ron, and Leonard Lauder in the 90s in a professional capacity. Leonard and Ms. Lauder were really, really wonderful people, asking about my coworker and my lives. Ron Lauder was the stereotypical rich prick who ignored us little people unless he deigned to order us around. (I don't think I need to explain how they made their money....)

You definitely knew they were rich. She traveled with her driver, her maid, and her cook. But she was still as nice and down to earth as I suppose you can be living like that.

 

[ncbill]

Friend of the family who inherited dad's (or grandad's) business.

Business was in bad shape, he turned it around, big time.

Later sold to the Chinese for over a billion dollars.

I'm sure they're personally worth over $100 million.

Great businessman, but considering how he treated my dad, a **** in real life.

 

[razztazz]

Oh yeah.... And me. Even while at the lower end of net worth of this esteemed community i still consider myself rich.

That would be me too. I am an "off-the-rails rich guy" compared to everyone else I actually know right now and talk to in real life. And it's going to get worse next year when I get SS.

 

[oldphd]

I've never actually known anyone I'd call rich, but we used to live not far from a very wealthy neighborhood. I would sometimes see a guy driving a Rolls-Royce who was very well known locally. He owned two of them and always drove himself, no chauffeur. I thought that was great. He was also a very generous philanthropist, always behind the scenes without publicity. When he died he was worth a couple billion.

I'm north of you (northeast part of Cincy) and live near the location I believe you're referring to. Carl, in IH. His house was on my typical commute for over 20 years. Use to see him driving the other way about once a month or so as our commutes crossed. One time I ran into Skyline near my house to grab a bite. Lo and behold, there's a Rolls in the lot with Edith waiting for Carl who was picking up an order of Coneys to go. About as down to earth as you can get, and for someone with a net worth of 10 figures I'd guess not many like him. (For those not from around here, Skyline is a local chili/fast food place. Coneys are a hot dog on a bun with chili and cheese, maybe onions and mustard.)

Started working at a company while private. Good news, got some stock! But it was too late to make the big $$. However, most importantly, it taught me the potential of investing as I made some great returns on my modest purchase price and saw many others like me become 7-8 figure, with a couple making it to 9. Adopted the high savings rate/investing and LBYM mentality that has gotten us comfortably to where we are today.

 

[Midpack]

The owner of the private company I retired from was worth 9 figures, over $120M that I know of, but beyond that can't be specific. He and two other guys started a company from scratch, and built it up into a firm that did about $600M/yr in sales. One owner sold/dropped out after a few years, leaving two owners. Both of them passed all their wealth on to immediate family, some still execs with the company.

As for friends, I have one who I'd estimate to have a net worth around $10M. He's an orthopedic surgeon, co-founder of a regional surgical center, and he is married to an anesthesiologist. They're both in the early to mid 60's and they've been raking it in for 40 years.

You didn't ask but I've known rich and modest wealth folks who are the nicest people you'd ever want to meet. And I've known modest and rich folks who are mean spirited, self absorbed asshats. I'm not sure there is any correlation between wealth and what kind of human being you are.

And as everyone knows from reading The Millionaire Next Door you can't tell by the trappings folks surround themselves with. I know people who live large but spend everything they have, and others who live very modest lives well below what society would say they could afford.

 

[daylatedollarshort]

The family of a kid I went to public school and public university with owned their own island. They owned a private company so I had no idea what they were worth at the time. I was admiring some vacation pictures on the wall at their house while there for a party, and found out it was their island.

I just looked up the company, which my college friend is now part owner, along with a couple of other relatives and it was estimated to be worth $200M. I had no idea until just now. I grew up in a blue collar town and while there was a rich part of town where this kid lived, he was friendly, usually dressed in overalls (the style back then) and had friends like me from blue collar families.

 

[HighOnLife]

+1

this thread is like a gawkers convention for lifestyles of the rich and famous.

I was thinking more learning how people became financially well off. For the people I've known, it seems like it has been running their own individual businesses. And real estate investing. Surprisingly, very few who have grown their wealth through stock investing, which is my chosen path.

But feel free to give this post whatever spin you like! Some interesting stories here...

 

[Bamaman]

I have had the privilege to know a few truly wealthy people. However most of the really wealthy often have well known names, and I'd rather not do any name dropping.

My college roommate had a famous industrialist grandfather, and his mother and father never had a job. They lived in one of the larger antebellum homes in the South with twelve 45' fluted wooden columns 45 feet tall in front The front yard was 150 manicured acres and the back yard was 450 acres--with miles of white wood fences. Knock on the front door, and the butler answered it. His mother only cooked one meal in her life, so she had a full time cook. They threw two parties per year, one of which was in a circus tent behind the Big House.

I had another friend in a large city, and his father had his hands in many, many businesses. He owned a business magazine, a huge power plant construction company, a company that designed interstate highway projects, a company that dug up gasoline tanks in the U.S. and Europe, a company that did the engineering for the Chunnel under the English Channel, a industrial cabinet company and 6 incenderators that could clean up Love Canal. His city home is 39,000 square feet on 120 acres and his country home is a palatial mansion on 10,000 acres. He also has a home at The Coast. This gentleman has a helipad at home, and flies a Jet Ranger helicopter to work. When he has to drive, it's a Rolls Royce.

 

[CardsFan]

This thread prompted me to check on an old high school semi-friend (we had the same circle of friends, and saw each other often, but were not close). He went to the same college as me, and I knew he started a company, it was doing well, and had even donated enough to the college to be recognized in the news letter.

Well... the company went public, so I could search pretty easily. He is still CEO, is paid $3 million per year, and owns about $270 million worth of the stock. He was a nice guy, and I am glad for him. As far as I can tell, he started the company on a wing and a prayer, and worked his tail off.

 

[Texas Proud]

I think there is a difference in knowing someone and meeting them... I met a few very rich people when I did taxes right out of college...


But before that I did exterminating work and had one client who I used to talk to off and on that was worth north of $100 mill back in the early 80s.. owned a small O&G firm... I would exterminate his various properties and he had a few...

 

[6miths]

Met a few very well off Sheikhs during our time in the middle-east. Wouldn't say I knew them but children went to school with their children and grandchildren and to their homes. Families had net worths north of 10B. Birthday parties and such were more of a female thing there so DW did the honors and my exposure was limited although did get to some nice weddings.

 

[imoldernu]

Didn't really know him, but worked with Rawleigh Warner...

Jeanies' dad owned a textile mill, but I don't think anyone including the family regarded them as rich, but back in the 1950's they did own two cars.

 

[braumeister]

I'm north of you (northeast part of Cincy) and live near the location I believe you're referring to.

Yes, you got it. He really was one of a kind.

Another one I thought of, although I don't know him myself. A very good friend of mine is good friends with a guy who if not literally a billionaire, is very close to it. His father started with nothing after World War II, built up a business he ran until his son could start running it. The son multiplied his dad's business acumen and the company now does well over a billion a year in sales. He keeps a very low profile and hardly anyone who doesn't work for him would recognize his name.

 

[YVRRocketSurgery]

I have a friend that used to pull together these dining events for friends to get together, meet new people, and try new restaurants. One of the people we met a few times during these events was the owner/developer of a popular dating site; very nice and genuine person. These dining events eventually fizzled out but I read he sold his dating site to the Match Group (ie Match.com) for $575M.

 

[LOL!]

I used to work for a non-profit and occasionally met with donors and potential donors that we were trying to extract money from in order to build large buildings. You know, the kind of people with their name on the building.

So I looked up one of them just now. Net worth about $6 billion. I've had dinner at their house.

 

[btdt22]

Won't reveal name but he and his sister are in the top 100 richest people in the world listings. Large inheritance, but took it to the next level. If you RV or tent camp you may have camped next to him and didn't know it

 

[street]

I know many millionaires not sure how many million they are worth but my guess is most are under 10M but some could be much, much more then that.

The Millionaires that I know which is a lot don't live like they are millionaires. The millionaire next door types.

 

[check6]

My next door neighbor was the math teacher (prep school) of one of the richest men in the world.

 

[NYEXPAT]

Who is the richest person you have known? How did they build their wealth?

The first person who comes to mind is a peer of mine from my early twenties. I may have known wealthier people over the years, but considering his age I'd say he wins. He didn't flaunt his wealth but was obviously a millionaire many times over by his early twenties and earned all of it. You couldn't fake his level of living through consumer debt. I once attended a party at his mansion in Chicago, and I remember a lot of spoiled rich wives at the party. He sort of politely laughed at his wife's teacher salary, and hoped she would one day get a real job. This guy was a professional futures trader. He worked for large companies who entrusted large sums of money to his care, and he made it grow by investing in commodities all day long. He had done it since his teens and obviously loved it. Having toyed with trading commodity options already, I once asked him how a person learns to be a successful trader. He replied that yes a person can learn, but really shouldn't try it until he can afford to lose about $100k. I was probably making $6k/year at the time, so we may as well have been discussing how large is the sun. He retired at maybe 26 and now is a philanthropist. Good guy, solidly nice and trustworthy all the way. His age and skill level, and what he did with it, left an impression--of what I *should* be doing with my life.

I've also known a billionaire heiress (who was insane)--granddaughter of the founder of what is now a major public company.
So, business and real estate.

Funny story filled with so many coincidences with my own life! When I first read your post I thought we both knew the same Women (there are very few), but then I realized mine was 4th generation!