SOI: Forbes' Top 400 Billionaires

The Forbes list of the Top 400 Billionaires (hell if that's the TOP, how many ARE there? lol) is out and of course Microsoft founder Bill Gates is still holding down the number 1 spot ... the 52 year old mogul nearly made his age in billions, taking in $57 billion last year.



Also making the top 10 (and many other spots on the list) are the children of the late Sam Walton (of Wal-Mart ... and Sam's Club). At numbers 4-6, each of the children listed in those spots brought home a little over $23 billion.

It also seems that cosmetics company Estee Lauder is a billion-making business because several children (and executives) made the list.

Other notables in the billionaire's club: 68-year-old Ralph Lauren (yes, the fashion icon) .. who made a meare $4.7 billion last year and came in at #76. Oprah made the list at #155. The 54-year-old media queen made $2.7 billion last year.

Oprah made a tad more than 80-year-old hotel giant William Hilton, who came in at #163 with $2.5 billion. Sharing the #281 spots (with like 10 other people) are heads of Yahoo and Google .. all of which are boasting a $1.7 billion paycheck.


Other company CEOs making the list (at a little over $1 billion a piece) are those at Mars (#20, maker of candy bars like Snickers and Milky Way made $12 billion), Dell (#11), Enterprise Rent a Car (#18), Hobby Lobby, Subway, Home Depot, Gap, Gateway, PayPal, the UFC, the New England Patriots, the New York Yankees and the Dallas Cowboys. You may want to put your money on these CEOs and invest!!!



One of the strangest ways a billion was made has to be the story of self-made money man James Leprino. At age 18, Leprino joined his father's company and turned his family's homemade cheese-making business into the world's largest mozarella producing business (now 11 plants around the U.S. and Europe).



You taste Leprino cheese every time you eat at Domino's, Papa John's & Pizza Hut (and if you eat Hot Pockets). Leprino made $2.3 billion in "cheddar" (which they don't produce) last year.



Also noteworthy is 48-year-old billionaire Peter Sperling of the Apollo Group who started the University of Phoenix (where many of my friends have gotten Master's degrees from recently) and actually holds a MBA from his own school. He took in $1.6 billion last year and shares the #321 spot with about a dozen others.



Pizza mogul Michael Ilitch (Little Caesar's) also took in $1.6 billion. Maybe because the self-made billionaire has been making pizza for nearly 50 years .. or possibly because he also owns a hockey team (the Detroit Red Wings) that just won a Stanley Cup.


Most of the people on the list made money in corporate america in areas like real estate, stocks, computers/software, oil and publishing.

So for the golddiggers (male and female) out there, the money is in investment bankers, stock brokers, computer executives, software developers, oil tycoons and publshiing CEOs (not to mention the Walton kids lol) ... and most reside in New York City, Dallas/Forth Worth and various parts of California



Check out the full list HERE (click on their name when you get there and you can even check out how then came to fame and fortune -- plus their marital status lol).




Source/mahogani media

soi = story of interest