What would you do if you were a billionaire?

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Top Billionaire Cities

Aren’t you curious about which cities are lived by the most billionaires on Earth?

Where are their homes in which they go back to after work?

Which of the places in the world will be the most preferred home-to-be by them?

According to Forbes, the cities mentioned below are home to many of the billionaires around the world.

Not surprisingly, on the top of the list is New York, which is regarded as the most populous city in the United States and one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. Among all the 60 billionaires, the mayor Michael Bloomberg is the wealthiest, with a net worth of $18 billion. Other famous billionaires are fashion designer Ralph Lauren, real estate giant and media magnate Rupert Murdoch.

The second place goes to Moscow in Russia with rich oil and metal commodities. With a total of 50 billionaires, steel businessman Vladimir Lisin with a net worth of $15.8 billion is the richest there. Other prominent billionaires are investor Roman Abramovich, mining and lumber giant Alisher Usmanov and aluminium giant Oleg Deripaska.

Nevertheless, the third billionaire city is London in UK which benefited from the strong pound. The wealthiest resident is steel baron Lakshmi Mittal with a net worth of $28.7 billion. Among all the 32 billionaires, airline and media magante Richard Branson, oil tycoon Leonard Blavatnik, hedge fund giant Alan Howard and the popular ones.

Istanbul in Turkey ranks fourth with 28 billionaires due to its location as a waterfront city. Thw richest resident there is Husnu Ozyegin with a net worth of $3 billion. Other powerful billionaires include chairman of Çukurova Holding Mehmet Emin Karamehmet, owner of construction company Sarik Tara and chairman of Dogus Holding Ferit Sahenk.

Fifth on the list is Los Angles in California. With a sum of 27 billionaires, it is well-known for the entertainment industry. The wealthiest resident is philanthropist Eli Broad with a net worth of $5.7 billion. Other notable billionaires include Oscar-winning director Steven Spielberg, Viacom CEO Sumner Redstone and financier Michael Milken.

Billionaire Celebrity – JK Rowling

"There's always room for a story that can transport people to another place. "

A quote by JK Rowling, the author of the Harry Potter series! Who wouldn’t have heard of her?

Do you know that she is the first billionaire from writing books and even more, is now richer than the Queen of England?

Harry Potter's magic has indeed touched a huge audience of all ages around the globe, it is not surprising that the novels have been translated into more than 60 languages, topped the best-selling lists all over the world and won her numerous awards in which some of them are  the Hugo Award, the Bram Stoker Award, the Whitbread Award for Best Children's Book as well as many other honours. 

Born on July 31st, 1965 in England, she has the ultimate passion for writing. Her first story, titled Rabbit was written at the age or five or six about a rabbit with measles. It is very interesting to note that the best-known British author internationally wanted to be a ballerina once before, but did not because of her thought that it was embarrassing due to her fatness.

She worked as a bilingual secretary before, under the claim of her parents that it would be a great career. However, she describes herself as the worst and disorganized secretary ever, as she actually wrote story ideas instead of taking notes during meetings! She was an English teacher and French teacher too. Her road to fame and fortune have been quite rocky and challenging. After her marriage ended in divorce, she suffered from poverty and depression while struggling to earn a living and raise her daughter alone. It was during this difficult time that she completed the first book of the Harry Potter series, in restaurants or cafes where they could stay warm.

Being a generous billionaire, she has supported a great number of charities and causes which include the Volant Charitable Trust, Maggie’s Centres for Cancer Care, UK Labour Party, Children’s High Level Group and also Multiple Sclerosis Society Scotland.

The Rich Girls Club

I'm not sure about you, but there aren't many rich girls on Forbes' Billionaires List 2010. There are a few women though, and only a few Bachelorettes. In fact, most of the women that are Billionaires inherited their Fortunes from Daddy, Boyfriend or late Husband. Of the Top 10 richest female Billionaires, the Top 5 all inherited their fortunes. 

Here's one:  Alicia Koplowitz, she's worth more than $2 billion currently.

Alicia and her younger sister, Esther, are both billionaires, and inherited their company 'Fomento de Construcciones y Contratas' from their late father. Both of their husbands ran the company from the 1970s until 1989, when both marriages ended. Since then, the sisters ran the company jointly until 1997 when Alicia sold her share for $800 million to Esther. Alicia lost half her fortune in the 2008 economic downturn, and has only recouped $100 million since. Her single sister has been linked romantically to the heir of Spanish aristocratic house of Alba, the Duque de Huescar.

Now, Alicia is a Bachelorette, so we thought we'd go surfing and find her a love interest.

Here's what turned up:  Michael Bloomberg.

Alicia, meet Michael, New York City mayor.  He owns 88% of the financial data and news outfit he founded in 1982:  Bloomberg LP.  Michael was born in Boston, and is son of an accountant.  He has an M.B.A. from Harvard (what a surprise!), and also has an engineering degree from Johns Hopkins.  He became a trader at Salomon Brothers in the 1970s, and quit with $10 million in stock. (I'd quit smoking too if I was paid that much - quip.)  He has given away nearly $1 billion to charity in the past five years.  Michael created financial information services firm Innovative Market Systems to sell financial data and analytical tools to Wall Street.
And we even found Alicia a girlfriend too, I mean, single girls need a friend when they go out right?

Alicia, meet Oprah Winfrey, also worth just over $2 billion...we all know Oprah Winfrey, don't we?

Billionaires' Playground

Interested in going on a vacation?

Where have you been thinking?

London? Paris? Los Angeles?

Would you like to know where those celebrities billionaires went for their holidays?

I'll tell you, they love the Caribbean sun and heat.

Let's talk about Oprah Winfrey,the well known American television host, actress, producer, and philanthropist. She loves the crystal-clear Caribbean water and the region's perfect palm trees of Antigua which brings her serenity. She used to own a 60-acre Maui getaway and a 42-acre estate in Montecito, California. However, the latter get caught in a fire 2 years ago, which brought her a massive lost in investment.

Oprah's house in Mentecito, California.(Palace alike?)

There is another successful billionaire who have the same interest with Oprah, which is Richard Branson of the Virgin Group. He owned the 74-acre Necker island, which forms part of the British Virgin Island. It is surrounded by turquoise waters and comes fully staffed with a water sports crew, a personal chef and a masseuse.

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Richard's private island.

 

If one day you would ever be a billionaire,
where about would you head to?

Home of Billionaire - Bill Gates

I've always been thinking where about do those billionaires stayed, do you have the same thought with me? 

I would like to own such a luxury house in my future, would you?

Let's have a look at some photos of the well known billionaire, Bill Gates's home.

 the landscape view

the front view

He lives in the exclusive suburb of Medina, Washington, in a huge earth-sheltered home in the side of a hill overlooking Lake Washington. 

His house takes up 66000 square-feet of the land, which is 33 times larger than the median American residence size. Through an assessment in the previous year, 2009, his house worth US$147.5 million. 

Luxury life huh? Not yet, you haven't have a look inside his house, he has 7 bedrooms, 24 bathrooms, 6 kitchens and 6 fireplaces incorporated in his house. (I wonder why would he need so many bathrooms and kitchens? =P )

And here are the awesome features of his house:

• 60-foot swimming pool with an underwater music system
• a domed library with two “secret” bookcase doors
• 1,000-square-foot dining room
• pressure sensitive floor where at any given time family member or security can know who is in the residence by the weight of their footstep. ( I won't want people to know my weight! Would you? )
• light would automatically turns on and speakers would be hidden beneath the wallpaper to allow music to follow you from room to room. ( I personally feel that followed by a music like that is rather creepy. )
• Visitors to Bill Gates House are surveyed and given a microchip upon entrance and this small chip sends signals throughout the house, and a given room's temperature and other conditions will change according to preset user preferences. ( It's a big "Wow" for me. )
• no visible electrical outlets anywhere. ( No mess right?Housewives' favorite. =D )
• there are virtually no knots of wood on his house from exterior view.
• floor is heated everywhere including the driveway and walks. ( Great idea in winter to keep the feet warm. )
• doors are blended so well with the walls that it is hard to see them. ( Cool but wouldn't he bang on the door one day when he isn't fully awake? )
• an additional 10-cars parking in a subterranean arched concrete building which can be changed into a basketball court through an electronic transformation.
  
• underground theater in a concrete shell.
• auto sensor of the entry gate where it will opens fully by the time he arrived by.
• master bathtub can be filled to the right temperature and depth by him as he drives home from work.

It's really awesome right? Let's work towards our dream. =)

Will education make you a Billionaire?

Or, which education is most likely to lead you to be a billionaire?

According to Forbes, out of all the college educated people, more have graduated from a Harvard School than any other institution.

Steve Balmer, now CEO of Microsoft, graduated from Harvard in 1977.  Summer Redstone earned two degrees and completed them in three years.  He progressed his career from lawyer to CEO of Viacom and is now the largest shareholder of VIACOM and CBS Corporation.  Michael Bloomberg is now New York City major, and he apparently still supports his Alma Mater.

However, not all Billionaires completed university. 

William (Bill) Gates III took a leave of extended absence from the Harvard Business School when he began Micro-Soft and never returned.

Mark Zuckerberg did the same thing after he had rolled out Facebook to other campuses outside Harvard.  Clearly these two Harvard students didn't need to graduate.

Forbes reports, however, that many of these students probably didn't know they would be billionaires when they entered the Ivy League School.  Instead, it was their internal drive that caused them to continue to strive to achieve beyond their best.