Celebrity Biographies
Top 10 Wealthiest Couples on the Planet – 2015 Edition
The richer you are, the less likely you are to get divorced. No need to raise eyebrows. And I’m not saying that. A report by Michael Greenstone and Adam Looney of the Hamilton Project says so. The report states that couples making over $125,000 a year are 51% less likely to divorce than couples making less than $25,000 a year. Financial security is therefore a major factor in ensuring happiness in marriage.
And all the couples listed in this article are some of the richest individuals in the world right now. And most of them have been together for a long time. For example, number one on the list is Bill Gates and Melinda Gates, who have been together for 21 years. And some of the couples on this list have been together for more than 25 years. So if you are rich, you may increase your chances of a happy married life. Let’s immediately take a look at couples who have both wealth and marital bliss.
( PS – The net worth listed in the article is rounded. Given the constant fluctuation in the market, it is almost impossible to know exactly the wealth of these figures. The net worth mentioned is as of August 6, 2015 )
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Bill and Melinda Gates
Combined Net Worth – 80 Milliarden US-Dollar
Since resigning from the position, Bill Gates, Microsoft’s chairman in February 2014, has officially stated that he will focus more on his philanthropic work. And he performed admirably in his role, just as he did as the driving force behind Microsoft. Its innovation and genius have made Microsoft the largest software company in the world. He has been a staple of the list since he was included in the Forbes list of the world’s richest people in 1987. In fact, he was the richest overall from 1995 to 2014—except for a few years after the 2007–08 financial crisis. The non-profit Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, founded by Gates and his wife Melinda, was funded by NGOsCompany the wealthiest charitable foundation in the world with reported assets in excess of $34.6 billion.
Melinda herself is considered one of the most influential philanthropists. She and her husband have them. Received the Spanish Prince of Asturias Prize for International Cooperation on May 4, 2006 in recognition of her community service. In 2013 she was made a Lady of Honor of the British Empire for her services to philanthropy and international development.
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Amancio Ortega Gaona and Flora Perez
Combined Net Worth: 73,9 Milliarden US-Dollar
Spaniard Amancio Ortega grew up as the son of a With a net worth of $72.3 billion as of June 2015, he was ranked the second richest person in the world by Forbes. In fact, he’s now the richest retailer in the world and has invested money in real estate in marquee cities like Madrid, Barcelona, London, Chicago, Miami and New York. He co-founded Zara and his former wife Rosalia Mera in his living room with lingerie and bathrobes. Within a decade, Ortega had grown Zara into a major retail company in Spain and was poised to expand overseas. And the international expansion was similar to the national one – fast, fierce and successful. Ortega prefers limited promotion, rapid expansion, and control of its own supply chain. His entrepreneurial genius helped him sail in style through the crippling Spanish recession. From 2009 to 2014, he personally made $45 billion as his shares of Inditex outperformed the rest of the Spanish stock market.
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Warren Buffett and Astrid Menks
Combined Net Worth: 67,5 Milliarden US-Dollar
Warren Buffett is undoubtedly the most successful investor of the 20th century. Buffett, the chairman, CEO and largest shareholder of Berkshire Hathawaywas ranked as the richest person in the world in 2008. Buffett, known for his multitude of successful investments, often claimed that his best investment to date was buying Benjamin Graham’s book The Intelligent Investor in 1949. He later studied with Graham before beginning his business career. He relocated to Nebraska and made life-changing investments by acquiring a heavy textile company, Berkshire Hathaway, in 1962. As of February 2015, it was the fourth largest publicly traded company in the US with a market capitalization of $355 billion. Buffet is also a well-known philanthropist and has pledged to use 99 percent of his wealth for philanthropic causes, primarily through the Gates Foundation.
On the eve of his 76th birthday, Buffett married his longtime companion Astrid Menk’s th birthday. Menks had lived with Buffett since 1977, since Buffett’s wife, Susan, left for San Francisco. Susan had arranged for the two to meet before leaving Omaha to pursue her singing career.
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Jeff and Mackenzie Bezos
Combined Net Worth: 47,8 Milliarden US-Dollar
Jeff Bezos is often credited with playing a key role in the growth of e-commerce. He has made Amazon , the largest retailer on the World Wide Web and a top model for internet sales. Bezos, who holds two bachelor’s degrees in electrical engineering and computer science from Princeton University, began his career on Wall Street in computer science. He then played a key role in building an international trade network for a company called Fitel . To start Amazon, he left his “well-paying job” at a New York hedge fund and began working in his garage. Bezos was inspired by the rapid growth of internet usage and felt certain he could capitalize on it.
Known for his interest in new things and whacky technologies, Bezos has made bold bets on cloud computing and drone deployment. In July 2015, the company had announced plans to create a high-speed drone air transport zone that would allow flying robots to potentially deliver packages to consumers. Cool, isn’t it?
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David and Julia Koch
Combined Net Worth: 44 Milliarden US-Dollar
David Koch is an American businessman, philanthropist, political activist, and chemical engineer. In 1970 he joined the family business Koch Industries, which is the second largest privately held company in the United States. In 1979 he was appointed President of the Koch Engineering subsidiary. In 1983 he became co-owner of Koch Industries with his older brother Charles. He is currently the Vice President of the company. Koch has also done well as a political activist. He is an influential libertarian and has donated millions to political advocacy groups and political campaigns over the years. In fact, he was the 1980 nominee for Vice President of the United States of America from the United States Libertarian Party. He is also one of the most generous philanthropists but prefers to keep a low profile. He has worked for various charities such as Lincoln Center, Sloan Kettering and the David H. American Museum of Natural History Koch Dinosaur Wings. It was renamed the David H. Koch Theater in 2008 after a $100 million gift to renovate the New York State Theater at Lincoln Center, which hosts the New York City Ballet.
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Charles and Elizabeth Koch
Combined Net Worth: 44 Milliarden US-Dollar
David’s older brother, Charles, has been the chairman of Koch Industries since 1967 and was a driving force behind the massive growth that has made the company the second-largest privately held company in America, behind commodities giant Cargill. Initially, the company’s scope of work was only limited to oil refineries and chemicals. However, over the years, process and pollution control devices and technologies, polymers and fibers, minerals, fertilizers, commodity trading and services, forest and consumer goods, and livestock have also been introduced. In 2014 alone, Charles led the company to acquire more than $5 billion in assets. Like his younger brother, Charles is an active philanthropist, supporting several free-market educational organizations such as the Institute for Humane Studies and the Mercatus Center at George Mason University.
His wife Elizabeth founded and directs the Koch Cultural Foundation . The foundation has funded several artistic projects and creative artists.
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Mark Zuckerberg and Priscilla Chan
Combined Net Worth: 42,2 Milliarden US-Dollar
Famed Mark Zuckerberg turned billionaireOn February 4, 2004, at the age of 23, the chairman and chief executive officer of Facebook launched the popular social networking site in his Harvard dorm room. Within eight years, the company had 1 billion Facebook users worldwide. By June 2015, the social networking site had 1.49 billion monthly users and massively improved mobile advertising revenue. He is currently hard at work on Facebook’s Internet.org initiative. Since its launch in July 2014, the company has provided free basic internet services to more than a billion people in 17 countries across Asia, Africa and Latin America. In October 2014, he and his wife Priscilla Chan donated $25 million to help fight Ebola virus disease. Last summer, they donated $5 million to a scholarship fund for undocumented students. Additionally, Zuckerberg has donated more than $1 billion to various charities.
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Bernard Arnault and Hélène Mercier
Combined Net Worth : $40.5 million
Under the umbrella of LVMH, Bernard Arnault has gathered some of the world’s leading luxury brands. As CEO of LVMH, he was responsible for acquiring some of the most prestigious brands such as Dom Perignon, Bulgari, Louis Vuitton, Fendi and Sephora. Most of his wealth is tied up in Christian Dior shares, through which he holds the majority stake in LVMH. Arnault has been at the forefront of the company’s impressive expansion over the years. In the first eleven years of its founding, LVMH’s market value has been multiplied by at least fifteen, while sales and profits have increased by 500%.
Arnault is also a well-known art collector and has an impressive collection of contemporary art. His collection includes works by Picasso, Yves Klein, Henry Moore and Andy Warhol. He was also the driving force behind establishing LVMH as the main patron of the arts in France. Arnault is married to Hélène Mercier, a Canadian pianist from Quebec. This is his second marriage.
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Jim and Lynne Walton
Combined Net Worth: 36,4 Milliarden US-Dollar
Jim Walton, who is the youngest child of the. IstWalmart’s Legendary Founder Sam Walton is a Board Member of Walmart. In 2014, the company had sales of $473 billion from 11,000 stores in 27 countries. He currently serves on the Strategic Planning and Finance Committees. He is also Chairman and CEO of the family -owned Arvest Bank , which has offices in Arkansas, Kansas, Oklahoma, and Missouri. In 2013, the bank had net income of nearly $130 million and has assets in excess of $15 billion. He has pledged about $2 billion to the Walton Family Foundation.
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Wang Jianlin and Lin Ning
Combined Net Worth: 33,7 Milliarden US-Dollar
Wang Jianlin is the chairman of Dalian Wanda GroupChina’s largest real estate developer. Like other prominent figures in this list, Jianlin did not start his career in the corporate world. At the age of 16 he joined the People’s Liberation Army. He stayed in the army for about 16 years and in 1986 took a job at the Dalian City Government in Liaoning Province. In 1988, he established Wanda Group in Dalian, Liaoning Province as a residential real estate company. The company was founded in 1992 and was one of the first investment companies in communist China. Jianlin has turned Dalian Wanda Group into a real estate powerhouse that owns and operates more than 200 department stores, malls and luxury hotels. He has also set up a joint venture with internet giants Baidu and Tencent, to start an e-commerce business called Wanda E-Commerce. In 2014 he announced investment projects in Beverly Hills, Australia and Chicago. In January 2015, it was reported that he had acquired a 20% stake in Spanish football club Atletico Madrid for €45m.