Biography & Early Wealth Journey

Of all those billionaires, it was Facebook's Mark Zuckerberg who saw the biggest single loss, perhaps not a surprise given the social media platform's steady stream of PR nightmares in 2018. His fortune saw a total of $23 billion slough off throughout the year.

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Not everyone saw a net loss in 2018, of course, but even the year's biggest gainer – Amazon founder Jeff Bezos – was an occupant of a steep and fast financial roller coaster all year. In September, his fortune hit its peak for the year, with a total gain of some $69 billion, but then he saw most of those gains erased when it plunged $53 billion after that. That net gain of $16 billion represents the biggest growth any individual's fortune had in 2018.

Primary Income Streams & Multi-Million Contracts

Katie Nixon is the chief investment officer at Northern Trust Wealth Management, and for Bloomberg she summed up how investors feel about the market at the tail end of the year:

"As of late, investor anxiety has run high… We do not expect a recession, but we are mindful of the downside risks to global growth."

Hopefully for everyone's sake, the financial fortunes of the world's richest people are not in fact an indication that a recession is on the way.