The Billionaires Are Getting Poor

If you are a billionaire, please don´t take this article too personally. I just didn´t have anything serious to do. Imagine. I was seated in class, waiting for my lecturer to come to class, and teach us. For some reason, she came late. Instead of waiting idle, I decided to put a few thoughts on paper. So here goes:

So recently I browsed through Forbes´ magazine´s ranking of the richest people in India. Forbes is like this crazy magazine that puts a lot of emphasis on materialism. They practically worship rich folk. Very so often, they come up with lists of the richest people in the world. Well, I read the lists.

India has lost a lot of billionaires. At the beginning of the year, India had well over ninety billionaires. Now it has barely 30. The richest individual Indian, according to the magazine is Mukesh Ambani- worth some $20 billion. Around February this year, this was worth over $40 billion. He has lost over half of his net worth. So many of its rich people have lost more money in a few months as the whole budget for many countries in Africa.

But it is not only the Indian billionaires who have felt the impact of the global economic crisis. Many of the world´s super-rich are losing big millions, and some, billions. Russia´s rich folks- the so-called Oligarchs are also feeling a lot of pain. An English tabloid recently reported that Abramovich, once worth over $22 billion, is now worth only $3 billion. The famous spender may now have to check on his excesses- his yacht fetish, love for sport teams, and his recent fancy for expensive art. Many of Russia´s billionaires are getting broke.

So be rest assured that it is not only middle-class folk like you and me who are feeling the credit crunch, I bet even Donald Trump too is feeling the itch. I think I pity him. I hope he is still a billionaire…

I pity the billionaires. I bet many of them are sad, and can´t sleep well at night because they´ve lost so much money. Well, there are a couple of lessons I want us to derive from these rich folks.

Money is not everything. The more you have, the more you want to have. Never put your heart so much in your wealth. The problem with lots of rich folk is that their whole lives center on their wealth. When a financial crisis like the one rocking America comes up, they lose it all. It´s good to have money- but treat it like one of those things you know you need, but are not very concerned about. I hope I´m making sense.

Another lesson we all must learn from this financial crisis, it is that in wealth building and management, nothing beats diversification. Many of the top guys who have lost so much money have lost so much because they concentrated all their eggs in a few baskets. My advice is, diversify your investments.

I am so sorry billionaires. I hope you get rich once again. Buy my book –Crazy Billionaires Speak on amazon.com