Forbes 2014 Billionaires List, Bill Is Back

It is not easy being a billionaire; just ask Bill Gates. The founder of Microsoft fell to second place last year to billionaire, Mexican mogul Carlos Slim Helu in Forbes’ top billionaires list. In a role reversal, the telecommunications prince has now been replaced, with Bill back at number one and Slim second. Bill is worth a considerable $76 billion and Slim’s listed worth is $72 billion.

Over the last 20 years of the Forbes big list, Bill has nabbed the top spot an impressive 15 times. The highest earning female on the list was none other than Wal-Mart Stores heiress Christy Walton. She ranked number nine with a stunning, “wish I could be her,” $36.7 billion. Amazon CEO’s Jeff Bezos, who is worth $32 billion, made for a great sandwich piece between the two Google founders. Larry Page reported a worth of $32.3 billion, while Sergey Brin was listed at $31.8 billion.

While Bill is sitting pretty, and disgustingly rich, at number one, one particular tycoon saw the billionaire carpet yanked from his expensive loafers. Eike Batista, who was once worth $10.6 billion, is now barely topping $300 million. The oil tycoon watched as his empire imploded due to extensive debt.

The list also saw new billionaires enter the fold. Mark Zuckberg has previously sat on the list, but his worth doubled to $28.5 billion, due, in part, to the social giant’s soaring shares. He did not leave his top peeps out in the cold, however. COO Sheryl Sandberg and VP Jeff Rothschild are stepping into the Forbes spotlight for the first time. Zuckerberg made overnight billionaires of WhatsApp founders Jan Koum and Brian Acton when he bought them out for $19 billion, plus restricted stock.

Bill Gates joined 491 other American billionaires on the Forbes 2014 list. China was second with a reported 152 billionaires, and third was Russia with 111 billionaires. Two thirds of the reported billionaires are listed as self-made. This shows that anyone can have one bright idea and join the Forbes 2015 list. Time to get started.