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3 days ago
- Business
- Yahoo
Jeff Bezos shares a touching tribute after his mom's death: 'I hold her safe in my heart forever'
Jeff Bezos said his mother, Jacklyn Gise Bezos, died at age 78 on Thursday. In an online tribute, Bezos said his mother "always gave so much more than she ever asked for." Jacklyn Bezos had Jeff Bezos when she was 17 and was an early investor in Amazon. Jacklyn Gise Bezos, the mother of Amazon founder and executive chairman Jeff Bezos, died on Thursday. She was 78. Bezos shared the news in a touching tribute on Instagram. "After a long fight with Lewy Body Dementia, she passed away today, surrounded by so many of us who loved her — her kids, grandkids, and my dad," he wrote of his mom, who was diagnosed in 2020. "I know she felt our love in those final moments. We were also lucky to be in her life. I hold her safe in my heart forever." Bezos' mom, whom he's called his role model on multiple occasions, had him when she was a 17-year-old high school student in Albuquerque, New Mexico. "That couldn't have been easy, but she made it all work," he said in his tribute. "She pounced on the job of loving me with ferocity, brought my amazing dad onto the team a few years later, and then added my sister and brother to her list of people to love, guard, and nourish," he continued. "For the rest of her life, that list of people to love never stopped growing. She always gave so much more than she ever asked for." When Bezos was four years old, his mom married Miguel Bezos, a Cuban immigrant, who later adopted him. It wasn't until he was 10 that he learned Miguel Bezos wasn't his biological father, he's said. Bezos' parents were early investors in Amazon, putting more than $245,000 in the company in 1995, which could make them worth billions today, Bloomberg reported. And their support was integral in him taking the emotional jump to start the company. "When you have loving and supportive people in your life," he told Mathias Döpfner, the CEO of Business Insider's parent company, Axel Springer, in 2018. "You end up being able to take risks because you kind of know somebody's got your back." Bezos has called his mother one of his role models on multiple occasions. In 2020, he named a Blue Origin rocket recovery boat in her honor. "New Glenn's first stage will come home to the Jacklyn after every flight," he said st the time. "It couldn't be more appropriately named — Mom has always given us the best place and best heart to come home to." Jackie Bezos was a strong supporter of education — and fought for her own. After she got pregnant, "they tried to kick her out of school," Bezos told Dopfner. But her father "went to bat for her," and she was able to go back and graduate. Decades later, when she was 45, she went back to school to earn her Bachelor's Degree in psychology. In 2000, she, Miguel, and their family started the Bezos Family Foundation, through which she dedicated her efforts to Vroom, which distributes early brain research, and the Bezos Scholars Program for students in the US and Africa. Read the original article on Business Insider
Yahoo
3 days ago
- Business
- Yahoo
Jeff Bezos shares a touching tribute after his mom's death: 'I hold her safe in my heart forever'
Jeff Bezos said his mother, Jacklyn Gise Bezos, died at age 78 on Thursday. In an online tribute, Bezos said his mother "always gave so much more than she ever asked for." Jacklyn Bezos had Jeff Bezos when she was 17 and was an early investor in Amazon. Jacklyn Gise Bezos, the mother of Amazon founder and executive chairman Jeff Bezos, died on Thursday. She was 78. Bezos shared the news in a touching tribute on Instagram. "After a long fight with Lewy Body Dementia, she passed away today, surrounded by so many of us who loved her — her kids, grandkids, and my dad," he wrote of his mom, who was diagnosed in 2020. "I know she felt our love in those final moments. We were also lucky to be in her life. I hold her safe in my heart forever." Bezos' mom, whom he's called his role model on multiple occasions, had him when she was a 17-year-old high school student in Albuquerque, New Mexico. "That couldn't have been easy, but she made it all work," he said in his tribute. "She pounced on the job of loving me with ferocity, brought my amazing dad onto the team a few years later, and then added my sister and brother to her list of people to love, guard, and nourish," he continued. "For the rest of her life, that list of people to love never stopped growing. She always gave so much more than she ever asked for." When Bezos was four years old, his mom married Miguel Bezos, a Cuban immigrant, who later adopted him. It wasn't until he was 10 that he learned Miguel Bezos wasn't his biological father, he's said. Bezos' parents were early investors in Amazon, putting more than $245,000 in the company in 1995, which could make them worth billions today, Bloomberg reported. And their support was integral in him taking the emotional jump to start the company. "When you have loving and supportive people in your life," he told Mathias Döpfner, the CEO of Business Insider's parent company, Axel Springer, in 2018. "You end up being able to take risks because you kind of know somebody's got your back." Bezos has called his mother one of his role models on multiple occasions. In 2020, he named a Blue Origin rocket recovery boat in her honor. "New Glenn's first stage will come home to the Jacklyn after every flight," he said st the time. "It couldn't be more appropriately named — Mom has always given us the best place and best heart to come home to." Jackie Bezos was a strong supporter of education — and fought for her own. After she got pregnant, "they tried to kick her out of school," Bezos told Dopfner. But her father "went to bat for her," and she was able to go back and graduate. Decades later, when she was 45, she went back to school to earn her Bachelor's Degree in psychology. In 2000, she, Miguel, and their family started the Bezos Family Foundation, through which she dedicated her efforts to Vroom, which distributes early brain research, and the Bezos Scholars Program for students in the US and Africa. Read the original article on Business Insider
Yahoo
5 days ago
- Business
- Yahoo
4 Lessons You Can Learn From Jeff Bezos' Early Amazon Stock Sales
Jeff Bezos, with an estimated net worth of $240.9 billion, is currently the fourth richest man on the planet. Most of Bezos' wealth comes from owning approximately 905 million shares in Amazon, the company he founded in 1994, took public in 1997 and helmed until 2021. But what was his Amazon stock origin story when it comes to building his wealth and shaping his fortune? Learn More: Find Out: The way Bezos handled his early stock sales set the path for decades of wealth accumulation that ultimately positioned him as the world's fourth-wealthiest person. You can use lessons from his early years and more recent business activities to help secure your own financial future. Quick Take: Amazon Stock's Current Performance Bezos' Amazon holdings have fluctuated over the years as he has acquired and sold shares. For example, last November marked the completion of a planned divestment of 25 million shares announced in a Securities and Exchange Commission filing last spring. Here are a few takeaways as to how the company's stock is currently performing: Stock price: $222.69 Market cap: $2.363 trillion 52-week high: $242.52 52-week low: $161.38 P/E ratio: 33.73 Lesson 1: Start Where You Are Bezos presumably used cash from Amazon stock sales to launch Blue Origin in 2000. And in 2017, Bezos said at an event that he sells around $1 billion worth of Amazon stock each year and uses it to fund the space company. The company is private, so its financials aren't available to the public. But even though it's entirely possible that Bezos won't live to see people colonize space, Blue Origin seems to at least be holding its own as it develops rockets and engines for commercial and government use. NASA alone has awarded Blue Origin more than half a billion dollars in contracts over the last several years. Read Next: Lesson 2: Build Wealth Through Investing, Not Saving When Bezos worked at Amazon, his salary stayed pretty stagnant at less than $82,000. But he's been selling Amazon shares since shortly after its initial public offering, according to an analysis of Bezos' stock sales. That means he has relied on money from stock sales to support his lifestyle and other business activities almost since day one, which appears to be working out for him. Meanwhile, his wealth keeps on growing because it comes mostly from his Amazon holdings. Those holdings have appreciated far more over time than a savings account balance would have, ultimately providing Bezos with more cash than he could ever hope to spend. Lesson 3: Leverage Your Investments Instead of Spending Your Salary Bezos has sold Amazon shares fairly consistently over the years, so he always has had plenty of cash to spend and invest in other businesses despite a modest salary. But as Amazon shares have increased in value, Bezos has been able to draw increasingly more cash from fewer shares, leaving all those extra shares to continue building his wealth. Raising cash by selling shares instead of increasing his salary has had the additional benefit of saving him a fortune in taxes. Whereas the highest personal income tax bracket is 35% for 2025, the top capital gains tax rate is just 20% in most cases. What's more, he pays tax on the proceeds of his stock sales rather than his accumulated wealth. For someone who has only their salary to spend, it's the equivalent of being taxed at a low rate on what you spend versus being taxed at a higher rate on everything you earn — which is exactly how wage earners are taxed. Lesson 4: Diversify Your Portfolio Considering that the cumulative gain on Amazon stock is over an estimated 157,600% since its IPO, Bezos would've done quite well had he simply kept all of his wealth in Amazon stock. But he hasn't. Through Bezos Expeditions, the family office Bezos established in 2005, Bezos invests in dozens of different companies, including his own Blue Origin and the Washington Post. Caitlyn Moorhead contributed to the reporting for this article. Editor's note: Amazon stock information sourced via Yahoo Finance and is accurate as of Aug. 11, 2025. More From GOBankingRates 5 Old Navy Items Retirees Need To Buy Ahead of Fall I'm a Retired Boomer: 6 Bills I Canceled This Year That Were a Waste of Money This article originally appeared on 4 Lessons You Can Learn From Jeff Bezos' Early Amazon Stock Sales
Yahoo
10-08-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Jeff Bezos Once Said Great Leaders Need More Sleep, Not More Hours — Amazon Founder Then Explained His Point Using This Warren Buffett Rule
Benzinga and Yahoo Finance LLC may earn commission or revenue on some items through the links below. Jeff Bezos, the Inc. founder, once revealed that quality rest and fewer, smarter decisions—not hustle culture—are the keys to long-term leadership success. Bezos On Prioritizing Sleep And High-IQ Mornings In a 2018 interview with billionaire investor David Rubenstein, Bezos explained why he structures his day around rest, family time, and high-quality decision-making. "I like to putter in the morning," Bezos said, adding he reads the newspaper, drinks coffee and has breakfast with his kids. This is because he values mental clarity; he schedules all his mentally demanding meetings for 10 a.m. and avoids major decisions after 5 p.m. Bezos also stressed the importance of sleep, saying he gets eight hours a night whenever possible. "I think better, I have more energy, and my mood is better," he said. "As a senior executive, you get paid to make a small number of high-quality decisions," adding that he doesn't think a person in his position should risk lower quality by being tired. Don't Miss: The same firms that backed Uber, Venmo and eBay are investing in this pre-IPO company disrupting a $1.8T market — and you can too at just $2.90/share. Warren Buffett once said, "If you don't find a way to make money while you sleep, you will work until you die." Here's how you can earn passive income with just $100. Buffett's Philosophy: Fewer, Smarter Choices Bezos cited Berkshire Hathaway CEO Warren Buffett's minimalist decision-making style as a model: "Warren Buffett says he's good if he makes three good decisions a year," adding, "I make like three good decisions a day." He also said that Amazon's senior leaders operate with a long-term mindset and are already working on strategies that will materialize in future quarters. "That quarter was baked three years ago," Bezos remarked when complimented on strong results. "I'm working on a quarter that'll show in 2021," he said during the interview in to the Benzinga Tech Trends newsletter to get all the latest tech developments delivered to your inbox. A Stark Contrast With Elon Musk's Approach Bezos' philosophy stands in sharp contrast with Tesla Inc. CEO Elon Musk, who has said he works over 120 hours a week and gets just six hours of sleep a night. Musk's sleep-deprived grind has become legendary—but it's not without risks. Medical research, including a 2017 study in the journal Annals of Neurology, shows that sleep deprivation can impair decision-making and increase risk-taking. Bezos joins a group of successful figures, including Albert Einstein and Winston Churchill, who championed sleep as essential. While hustle culture persists, his message is clear: Great leadership isn't about burning out—it's about being present, sharp, and forward-thinking. See Next: This HELOC lender lets you borrow, repay, and borrow again —. 'Scrolling To UBI' — Deloitte's #1 fastest-growing software company allows users to earn money on their phones. You can invest today for just $0.30/share. Photo: Lev Radin / This article Jeff Bezos Once Said Great Leaders Need More Sleep, Not More Hours — Amazon Founder Then Explained His Point Using This Warren Buffett Rule originally appeared on © 2025 Benzinga does not provide investment advice. All rights reserved. Error in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data
