Biography & Early Wealth Journey

The next way to become a billionaire is to inherit it. About one third of today's billionaires joined the club by inheriting their fortunes. This includes seven members of the Walton family and the Walmart fortune, Francoise Bettencourt-Meyers, whose family founded L'Oreal, and Jacqueline and John Mars. If you happen to live in Europe, you have a better chance of becoming a billionaire through inheritance. Half of European billionaires inherited their money.

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Okay, so maybe you don't have a big idea to start your own company and it's kind of late to be born (or marry) into a billion dollar fortune. There is another way – you could become a hedge fund manager. There are more than 140 people in finance with fortunes bigger than $2.5 billion – that's more than any other industry. Many of those hedge fund billionaires are American. A full 25% of American billionaires made their money in finance, like Ken Griffin, Michael Bloomberg, Ray Dalio, and David Tepper.

Primary Income Streams & Multi-Million Contracts

There is a catch here (besides an aptitude for math and finance), you really need to start your own firm. Only JP Morgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon rose through the ranks of a company to become a billionaire. In the finance industry, hedge fund financiers become billionaires at a more rapid rate.

Of course, the fastest way to becoming a billionaire AND being one of the richest in the world is to found a tech company. Four of the top 10 richest people in the world made their fortunes this way.