Forbes 400 did a quick survey to find out how the 400 billionaires on their list actually made their money. Out of these 400, 127 inherited their billions (which is a total cop out but something that I totally wouldn’t mind) and one strategy that none of us are lucky enough to possibly use. But the rest of the Forbes 400 billionaires (273 of them) made their money the old- fashioned way — by working for it. Now that’s something we can learn from because if these guys (and gals) can make a billion dollars starting from scratch, what’s stopping us from achieving even just a percentage of what they have? That’s still a tidy sum of $10 million — which would allow you to kick back and live like a college bum again. (You know, like before you made all that money?) Sure, some of them might have certain advantages — like being born into a country with opportunity, proper education, etc. — that others might not have, but the point is that they made it to the billion-dollar club on their own efforts. So why are we interested in how billionaires make their money? Simply because the Forbes 400 list contains some of the brightest and most enterprising individuals on the planet who seriously know how to rake in the dough. In other words, they know the best and fastest ways to make a billion bucks. And if we peasants are interested in growing our wealth and make a paltry $10 million (sniff), shouldn’t we be looking at how some of the richest people in the world are making their money? Makes sense to me. So here goes – the top 10 ways how billionaires actually make their money:
Source: fifthperson.com/top-10-ways-how-billionaires-actually-make-their-money/

#10 Manufacturing

If you like making money the old-fashioned way
like Henry Ford and his Model Ts at the turn of the
Industrial Age , then manufacturing might be the thing
for you. Obviously, you need huge amounts of capital
and scale to be successful in this industry.
So unless you have really deep pockets to start off with,
this might be out of the question. But then if
you do make it here, the sheer scale that manufacturing
requires will make sure that you’ll be making millions in
no time flat.


#9 Sports

If you like a little more excitement and drama in
the way you make your millions (or billions), then
owning a sports team might just be your cup of tea.
It’s nice knowing that your entire business model is
almost entirely reliant on a bunch of sweaty, grown
millionaires being able to win a game of football,
baseball, hockey, whatever.
Win and watch the fans lap up ticket price
hikes, overpriced merchandise, and another new jersey
design season after season with fanatical gusto. Lose
and watch the faithless mobs literally call for your
head and your business profits go down the drain. But
hey, what better way to make a billion, right?


#8 Healthcare

If you like something more intellectual and
cerebral, then healthcare might be the thing for
you . Do you remember how much money Pfizer made
exactly when they released Viagra to starving hordes of
50+ year-old men? I don’t. But it must have been a 5#!
+load of money because what else can happen when
you finally give old men the chance to think they’re in
high school again?
If you can create a drug that can cure cancer or HIV,
you might just become the richest person that ever
lived. But you know, even if you don’t set your sights
that far, if you could just create a penis enlargement
pill (like we see advertised everywhere on the Internet)
that actually works, you might just be the next Bill
Gates (or should I say… Pill Gates. Cue laughter.
Thanks.)
Or you could take the high road and give your medical
cure and patent to the world for free. Like Jonas
Salk and what he did with his cure for polio, thereby
missing out on a chance to be an extraordinarily rich
man but in the process virtually single-handedly
wiped the world clean of polio.
When he was asked who owned the patent to his polio
vaccine, he replied:
“There is no patent. Could you patent the sun?”
What a man. Salute.

#7 Energy

But if your goal is to live it up like the oil sheikhs in
the Middle East and parade around in your gold-
plated Lamborghini, preferably with a wild cheetah as
your passenger, then energy might just be the thing for
you.
The world needs energy. We have an insatiable need
for it. We are addicted to it. It’s no surprise that some of
the biggest companies in the world by market cap are
energy giants like Exxon Mobil, PetroChina and Royal
Dutch Shell. Not to mention the largest company that
probably exists on the planet: Saudi Arabia’s state-
owned petroleum and natural gas company, Saudi
Aramco, which has been estimated to be worth up to US
$10 trillion. (In comparison, Apple, the largest public
company, is “only” worth around US$600 billion.)
Obviously, it’s no easy feat becoming an energy czar but
if you somehow managed to come from nowhere and
pull it off like how Roman Abramovich did, then stuff
that made other people rich (like buying a sports team)
becomes small change for you.


#6 Food & Beverage

Another thing that world needs and literally can’t
live without . We all need to eat and drink so
desperately that we’ve made McDonald’s one of the
biggest companies in the world even though they serve
us burgers that never rot.
Not only is McDonald’s incredibly profitable, the people
who were smart enough to secure a McDonald’s
franchise for themselves are fantastically rich as
well due to our appetite for food that apparently never
goes bad.
Not to worry though if you missed out on a golden
ticket to making a McFortune, many food entrepreneurs
have made it big starting their very own F&B business
as well. Not the easiest industry to be in because of all
the competition, but hey — we all need to eat
sometime.


#5 Media

If mass control and propaganda is more your thing,
then the media industry is perfect for a
megalomaniac like you . I mean, what better way to
affect the desires and dreams of people everywhere
than through the images, stories and information they
consume?
Just have a look at how an entire generation of teeny
boppers practically worship the ground Justin Bieber
walks on even though he might be the biggest douche
under 5 feet 7 inches that ever lived. If you don’t
believe me, this should convince you.
I know owning a mega media company like Disney, Fox
or CNN might be entirely out of the question for normal
folks like you and me. But this is 2014 and the Internet
has given us so many ways to create a personal media
empire all by ourselves.
Felix Arvid Ulf Kjellberg, or better known by his online
alias PewDiePie, is a Swedish video game commentator
who happens to have the most subscribed YouTube
channel in the WORLD (only surpassed by YouTube’s
own news, sports, gaming and music channels).
With over 30 million subscribers, PewDiePie lets
viewers watch how he plays video games — along with
all the epic swearing, screeching and gibberish he
spews out. Seriously folks, if you haven’t caught
PewDiePie in action, you really need to check him out.
(If you can’t stand him and his antics, 30 million people
around the world think otherwise.)
Here’s the kicker — Pewds makes over $4 million a
year in ad revenue from his YouTube
channel thanks to the millions and millions of views his
videos get. That’s $10,989 a DAY — all from playing
video games like a zany madcap high on Red Bull.



#4 Fashion and retail

If beautiful people and beautiful clothes are more
your thing, then fashion and retail is
definitely right down your runway . The billionaires
on the Forbes 400 who made their money in this
industry include entrepreneurs like Jin Sook & Do Won
Chang, the founders of Forever 21 and Amancio Ortega,
the founder of Zara, who also happens to be the
fourth richest man in the world currently.
On a more local scale but still hugely successful is one
of Singapore’s forerunners in online fashion retail —
Love, Bonito. What started out as a project to sell pre-
owned clothes in 2005 is now a massive seven-figure
business that recently won the SME Asia Award
2013/2014 by The Asian Business Journal and The Trade
and Industry Association. The brand is so prominent
now that they even showcased an exclusive
collaboration collection with renowned Parisian Haute
Couturier, Julien Fournié.
But I don’t need all these instances to tell me that Love,
Bonito is doing really well. All I need to do is to watch
my girlfriend slavishly hooked to her iPad over the next
hour as she continually refreshes her browser hoping
to see that sold-out lilac dress she’s been eyeing
covetously the last two weeks suddenly in stock again.
Whereupon it is, she lets out a massive yelp, whips out
her credit card, and proceeds to buy that dress with a
look of triumph worthy of any ecstatic, half-
crazed marathon finisher.

#3 Real estate

It’s no surprise that real estate is number three on
the list and the third most common way for
billionaires to make their billions . As Mark Twain
famously quoted:
“Buy land, they’re not making it anymore.”
We all intrinsically know that real estate is one of the
most valuable assets we can own simply because we all
need land to live on!


#2 Technology

It’s no surprise that technology is the second most
common way for billionaires to make their
money; the sheer scale and speed at which technology
can reach and affect people globally allows someone to
generate wealth in ways not possible a hundred years
ago.
Microsoft might seem really old school now but back in
the 90s Windows was the hottest thing around since
sliced bread and has made Bill Gates the de facto
richest person in the world for the last two decades. (He
still is by the way.)
Today, it’s tech companies like Google and Facebook
which are changing the way we practically live our
everyday lives. Google kicked off as a research project
in Stanford in 1996 and Facebook started life in 2004 as
a closed network for Harvard students before morphing
into the multi-billion dollar behemoths they both
are today and in the process making their founders
exceedingly rich. Facebook founder, Mark Zuckerberg,
has a net worth of $33.3 billion and was for the longest
time the richest person under 30. He’s a little too old
for that now. Snigger.
But if ruling the tech world is not something you
envision, you can still strike gold as a “regular guy” in
other ways. In Singapore, two brothers started an
online coupon deal site, Beeconomic, in 2010 with life
savings of $50,000. Six months later, their business
was bought over by the largest coupon deal site in the
world for a reported $24 million and is now Groupon
(Singapore).


#1 Investments

And finally… the #1 way of getting rich
for both self-made and inherited billionaires
is investing. And it shouldn’t be a complete surprise
that investments are the most common way for
billionaires to make their money.
As an investor, you can invest and make money across
the board — manufacturing, healthcare, food, tech, etc.
— you’re not limited to any one industry. As long as you
know how to pick the right companies to invest in, you
can make a fortune through your investments.
Instead of running a business the likes of Microsoft or
McDonald’s, Warren Buffett has simply devoted nearly
his entire life to picking the best stock investments and
he does it so well that he’s the third richest person in
the world with a net worth of $67.6 billion.
His holding company, Berkshire Hathaway, owns
significant stakes in companies across different
industries including IBM, Coca-Cola, Goldman Sachs,
GEICO, Proctor & Gamble, American Express, Heinz,
and Business Wire.