In every social group, there are those down-to-earth individuals, but also, those who like to do things in their own unique way...
And if that one unique individual has unlimited funds to spend... well, check out what happens then.
10. Nicolas Berggruen
Nicolas Berggruen is a son of a famous and renewed art dealer and collector, Hein Berggruen. His tendencies and life go in a little bit different way, compared to his father’s life. To be more specific, he’s leaning towards government and financial markets. He managed to create a real fortune of two billion dollars from only 250.000 dollars, but, he also plans to donate most of that money to charity organizations.
He’s a unique case among the billionaires, since he doesn’t own a house! He travels from one luxury top notch hotel to the other, and carries all of his belongings with him, as the famous Latin saying states.
9. Peter Thiel
Co-founder of PayPal, Peter Thiel is one of the most famous investors in the field of technology. After he earned a small fortune by starting the PayPal service, he began his investment in a series of companies with variable success rate, while he was also one of Facebook investors.
He doesn’t just splurge his money; he invests it in only particular companies. He is one of those imaginary investors, led by ideology. He invests large amounts of money in companies which he sees as important, like those which dedicate their work to rejuvenation process. He is also a great liberationist and he funded a project which has for its goal creating permanent accommodation units in the sea, which would be out of any government or state jurisdiction, and which would give its residents the option of experimenting with any kind of social, economic and legal systems.
8. Paul Allen
While Bill Gates is most certainly the face of Microsoft, Paul Allen was equally important in the early ages of this enterprise. The fact that he is almost unknown for the general public is not really surprising: he left this company three decades ago, retired from public life, and he even makes his party guests sign confidentiality waver. All those facts made it possible for him to become known as the Loch Ness monster in the age of internet.
As many other people who have more money than they can spend in two lifetimes, he also spent a part of his fortune on pricey toys, like jets, yachts and several still functional planes from WWII. He also founded several institutions which are dedicated in searching for extraterrestrials, developing artificial intelligence and work on private trips to space.
7. Larry Ellison
Larry Ellison is the co-founder and CEO of Oracle, and also one of the richest men in the world. He literally has unlimited funds, which give him the option of purchasing expensive cars, yachts and villas like it’s no big deal. Actually, he is the investor of the American Cup winner, and sometimes he’s even a part of the team. He isn’t focused only on sea, but he holds a mayor part of his investments in the sky – he owns several jets, some of them are military, and he actually owns his own pilot license.
This technological tycoon also has one investment, which is truly unique. He bought a larger part of the Lanai Island, for half a billion dollars, which makes it the most expensive private island in the world.
6. Roman Abramovich
Roman Abramovich is probably one of the most famous Russian oligarchs, especially thanks to the fact that he owns the FC Chelsea. After becoming the leading man of gigantic oil company Sibnet, Abramovich made it on the top of the list of the wealthiest people in the world and Russia. He used to splurge his fortune around and invested in a remote part of country called Chukotka. He invested over one billion dollars in improving quality of live and infrastructure of that place. Also, he is known for spending enormous amounts of money on yachts, including the famous Eclipse yacht, which also contains a mini submarine and anti paparazzi laser.
5. Mark Zuckerberg
Mark Zuckerberg is a nerd with enormous amounts of money and influence, which he made before even turning 25. The chances that some parts of his personality, which are a bit quirky, will easily come up to surface in those circumstances.
Founder and CEO of Facebook is known for his informal appearances. He can most often be seen in jeans, t-shirts and sneakers. He actually went on one of his very important meeting in pajamas and gave the presentation named “Top 10 reasons why you should NOT invest”. He was also featured in many newspaper headlines for the past few years because of this controversial statement that he only eats the meat of animals he kills himself.
4. Silvio Berlusconi
Media tycoon and owner of one of the most prestigious football clubs of Europe, FC Milan, as well as one of the dominant figures of Italian politics for the past few decades… you would think we’re not talking about someone who had more trouble with the law than the infamous Soprano family. His troubles consist of corruption charges, money laundering and many other things, while he was convicted for tax fraud.
He is also known for his, so to say, lack of modesty, since he called himself Jesus of Politics a few times, and referred to Barack Obama as “some tanned guy”.
3. Ingvar Kamprad
Even though we heard stories that Warren Buffet lives in the very same house he bought 50 years ago and wears 200 dollars suits, Swedish billionaire Ingvar Kamprad is even more explicit.
Even though he has several billion dollars on his checking account, the founder of IKEA brand is so cheap that it is just legendary: he flies in economy class, drives a car he bought 20 years ago, recycles tea bags and even takes salt and pepper packs from restaurants. We heard that he even buys Christmas gift AFTER the holidays, because that is the time of discounts.
2. Jefri Bolkiah
Even though he technically is not a billionaire any more, we had to put him on this list. He is the brother of one of the richest monarchs of today, Sultan of Brunei. Still, he is a person who splurged and wasted 14.8 billion dollars! If he doesn’t earn the place on this list, then who does, really?
And yes, indeed, he wasted 14.8 billion dollars of state money, for 12 years how much he spent in the position of economy minister. He spent them on many luxury artifacts. He bought entire stores all at once, pricey cars, yachts, jets… and we also need to state he is a famous playboy, who organized parties which would make Hugh Hefner feel shy.
1. Richard Branson
Even though he owns one of the largest wealth in Britain, with his 60 years of life and experience, Richard Branson does not intend to slow down. Actually, he’s living his life in a specific manner, like he has nothing to lose.
In the variety of companies he founded, under the wings of Virgin Group, Branson risked his life several times in order to break some world records. Also, he isn’t really shy on cameras; he actually appeared in numerous TV shows.
