Top 5 richest investors in the world - 2023 (2024)

Richest investors in the world

Ever wondered what it takes to succeed in the cutthroat industry of finance? Well, it’s not easy. They make billions of dollars for their client and in the process accumulate immense wealth and power for themselves.

You would think that to accumulate this kind of immense wealth and power one would have to come from a privileged background with solid connections but you would be surprised.

Here are the top 5 richest investors in the world and their stories:

1. Warren Buffett

Net worth: $103 Billion

Founder & CEO of Berkshire Hathaway

Aka ‘The Oracle of Omaha’

Not just the richest but also the most popular investor in the world Warren Buffett started his investment journey well before he reached the age of 10. He bought his first stock at the age of 11. Inspired by a book called ‘1000 ways to make $1000’ he tried his hands at multiple small businesses like selling co*ke bottles, magazines, etc. By the end of high school, he had bought a 40-acre farm from his earnings.

With all his early success, you would think that his life was easy. Buffett wanted to go to Harvard Business School but was rejected. His father-in-law also did not believe that he would succeed in life.

Most of his wealth was accumulated after the age of 60. His investment strategy was always to look for long-term gains and be unfazed by short-term market fluctuations.

Click here to learn and apply his investing principles and strategies to gain success in your investment journey.

2. Jim Simons

Net worth: $28.6 Billion

Founder of RenTech, a quantitative hedge fund

Aka ‘Quant King’

Next in the line of richest investors is Jim Simons. Not only a successful investor but also an award winning mathematician who decided to use his mathematical skills for investing.

He has a Ph.D. in mathematics from the University of California. He also worked as a code breaker with the National Security Agency during the Vietnam War. He was made to resign due to his opposition to the Vietnam war.

He worked as a mathematics professor at multiple prestigious universities like Harvard, and MIT among others.

Jim Simons is highly regarded as one of the first people to bring his mathematical skills to the investing world. He is a quantitative investment strategist. His hedge fund Renaissance Technology focuses on using mathematical models to trade.

3. Ken Griffin

Net worth: $27 Billion

Founder & CEO of Citadel LLC, a multinational hedge fund

Ken Griffin is the only one on the list to come from a privileged background. His father was a project manager for General Electrics and his grandmother inherited substantial property.

Like fellow investor Jim Simmons, Griffin was also interested in math from his early childhood. He went to Harvard to study economics and made his first investment during that time. It was also during this time that he started his first hedge fund from his college dorm room. He was 19 years old at the time.

He owns 85% of his firm Citadel LLC, which is managing over $50 Billion in 2022.

4. Ray Dalio

Net worth: $22 Billion

Founder of the world’s largest hedge fund, Bridgewater Associates

Ray Dalio, like his contemporary Warren Buffett, started his investment at a very early age. He made his investment at the age of 12. He tripled his investment when the company merged with another company.

He came from a very humble background and used to work as a caddy in golf clubs during his childhood. It is during this time that he met many wall street investors playing golf and got interested in the stock market.

He founded Bridgewaters Associates from his apartment in New York which went on to become the largest hedge fund in the world. He is also an author and his book ‘ Principles ‘ was a New York Times bestseller.

He was awarded Time’s ‘100 most influential people in 2012.

5. Carl Icahn

Net worth: $17.5 Billion

Founder of Icahn Enterprise

Carl Icahn has one of the most inspiring stories on this list. He grew up in Queens, New York. He was not a very good student and his teachers discouraged him from applying to Ivy League colleges. Even his parents did not think he would get in. They promised they would for the college if he got in thinking that he would not get in.

He eventually got in at both Yale and Princeton but his parents told him they would only pay for his tuition and he had to figure out his food and boarding on his own.

He learned to play poker and won enough money playing it at his country club job that he was able to pay for his food and boarding. He studied philosophy there and even went on to study medicine for some time.

His real calling however was Wall Street. He eventually started Icahn Enterprise which currently owns about $20 Billion in assets.

One of the common themes you will find in all of the five richest investors mentioned here and any other successful person in finance is that they all start early. Most of them start investing and thinking about making money at a young age. This gives them the advantage of compounding and allows them to have a learning experience well before they handle big money.

This is why one of the most important rules of investing is to start as early as you can. Click here to learn how you can unleash the power of compounding and build wealth over time.

Blog last updated on 17.4.2023

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