Latest news with #wealth
Yahoo
an hour ago
- Business
- Yahoo
Elon Musk Has Almost 4 Million Times More Money Than You — Here's What That Looks Like
The average American's income was $43,313 in 2023, the latest year for which U.S. Census data is available. Elon Musk, on the other hand, has earned about $147 billion in the last year, based on changes in his net worth cited by Forbes Real-Time Billionaires. That's 3,393,900 times more money than the average American. It's hard to wrap your head around that kind of figure, so GOBankingRates did some math to put Musk's wealth into perspective. See Next: Trending Now: Comparing Musks' Money to the Average American's You know how a $1 bill feels inconsequential? For Elon Musk, $3,393,900 feels the same way. The average American earns $28.82 per hour. Musk? A cool $70,673,077. Musk earns about $19,631 per second. The average American has to work nearly 5.5 months to earn that much. Americans are struggling to buy homes, which currently have an average value of $369,147, per Zillow. Elon Musk's annual income would let him purchase 1,091 of them. Most Americans spend $11 to $30 to dine out in 2024, per U.S. Food. Say the average is $25 per person this year. That's about equivalent to Musk buying Chipotle Mexican Grill and Texas Roadhouse at their current market capitalizations, with enough money left over to treat the entire populations of New York and California to dinner. If you face an unexpected emergency expense, you might have to dip into your savings to cover it. The average American family had $62,410 transactions accounts in 2022, the most recent year for which Federal Reserve data is available. Musk could find himself in a bind, too. After all, big money can bring big money problems. But Musk has roughly $129.92 billion worth of Tesla stock he can cash in — or, more likely, borrow against, to avoid paying capital gains tax. Trending Now: Let's Throw Tesla Into the Mix Of course, no Elon Musk wealth comparison is complete without a Tesla example. At a starting price of $99,990, the Cyberbeast is a major splurge for the average American. Musk, on the other hand, would have to fund the entire Texas state budget for two years to feel the same pinch, according to The Texas Tribune. More From GOBankingRates Mark Cuban Warns of 'Red Rural Recession' -- 4 States That Could Get Hit Hard 10 Genius Things Warren Buffett Says To Do With Your Money Mark Cuban Says Trump's Executive Order To Lower Medication Costs Has a 'Real Shot' -- Here's Why This article originally appeared on Elon Musk Has Almost 4 Million Times More Money Than You — Here's What That Looks Like
Yahoo
2 hours ago
- Business
- Yahoo
You'd Need To Work for 3.5 Million Years To Match Elon Musk's Net Worth — Here's the Math
Elon Musk has been in the news quite a bit lately, and his venture into politics has put his net worth on a yo-yo string. However, Musk remains the world's richest person: As of early July 2025, his net worth was $403.4 billion. Find Out: Read Next: That number is astronomically large and may be difficult to wrap your head around. Someone making around $115,000 annually, or $55 per hour, would need to work 3.5 million years to accumulate that amount of money. Here are some other salaries and how long you'd need to work with them to catch up to Musk. Minimum Wage In the U.S., the federal minimum wage is $7.25 per hour. While the minimum wage can be higher throughout the country, states like Texas, Indiana and Wisconsin stick to the federal minimum. If you work a minimum wage job in one of those states, don't owe any taxes and could save 100% of your income, you'd need to work 55.6 billion hours to become as rich as Musk. Taking into account that most people work 40 hours a week, it would take 26.7 million years of full-time work. Washington currently pays out the highest minimum wage to employees at $16.66 per hour. While this is quite a leap from the federal minimum wage, it would still take 11.6 million years to reach Musk's net worth. Learn More: Salaries at Musk's Companies Musk owns various high-profile companies, which employ some of the brightest minds in the world. While many of his employees receive high salaries, none of them are close to reaching Musk's net worth anytime soon. Process Technician at SpaceX SpaceX, which designs, makes and launches rockets, has been vocal about its mission to reach Mars. However, getting there involves a lot of coordination between different roles, such as process technicians. Process technicians monitor the industrial processes of a company to make sure they're efficient and safe. At SpaceX, the average process technician's salary is $67,400 per year, so to reach Musk's level, they would need to work for about 6 million years. Software Engineer at X On Oct. 28, 2022, Musk completed his purchase of Twitter for $44 billion and began transforming the social media platform into X. As of 2025, a software engineer working at X in the U.S. makes $147,524 annually. This is considered an excellent salary by many, but it would still take a considerable amount of time for someone in this position to catch up to Musk: Dividing Musk's net worth by $147,524 amounts to 2.7 million years. CFO at Tesla The chief financial officer oversees a business' financial health, determining its strategies, forecasting and managing its cash flow. Because their role is so crucial to the success of the company, they typically receive high salaries. Currently, Tesla's CFO is Vaibhav Taneja, and in 2024, he earned $139 million. What Taneja made in just a year is much more than most people will make in their lifetime. However, even Taneja would need to keep up this high salary for 2,903 years to be as wealthy as Musk. More From GOBankingRates 3 Luxury SUVs That Will Have Massive Price Drops in Summer 2025 How Much Money Is Needed To Be Considered Middle Class in Your State? 5 Cities You Need To Consider If You're Retiring in 2025 This article originally appeared on You'd Need To Work for 3.5 Million Years To Match Elon Musk's Net Worth — Here's the Math
Yahoo
2 hours ago
- Business
- Yahoo
Are You Smarter Than Elon Musk? If So, You Can Avoid His 5 Money Mistakes
Regardless of what you think of Elon Musk, the man certainly knows money — after all, with a net worth that vacillates from $380 billion to $420 billion, he is currently the wealthiest human being on the planet. A great deal of that wealth stems from his ownership of the space tech company SpaceX and the automotive company Tesla. Also See: Learn More: That said, not everything Musk has touched has turned to gold. He certainly has made mistakes along the way that have cost him financially. While Musk is in the enviable position to be able to afford such mistakes, that's a luxury most people don't have. As a result, Musk's moments of money mismanagement can provide lessons for those who don't happen to have the $400 billion safety net that he does. Without that buffer, many of his financial errors are things you'd likely not repeat. Right? Here are five lessons you can learn from his money mistakes — unless you know better already. Don't Overpay In 2022, Musk spent a whopping $44 billion for the social media platform Twitter (and changed the name to X). Following his takeover of the platform, the social media outlet was beset by technical problems, as well as controversial content issues. Musk later admitted that he was 'overpaying for Twitter right now.' Musk was so determined to acquire the platform that he appeared willing to pay almost any amount of money — a buyer's instinct that can lead to financial disaster for those who can't afford it. Sometimes a shiny object, be it a new car or new house, can be enticing, but almost nothing is worth overpaying and risking financial ruin or wasting your money. Also Discover: Check Out: Avoid Risky Investments When Musk purchased Twitter/X, it reportedly dropped in value by a shocking $25 billion. The Twitter value crash took Musk's Tesla with it, dropping the automotive manufacturer's stock value by 23%. The lesson here? As billionaire investor Warren Buffett once said, 'Never invest in a business that you cannot understand.' To that end, you could view Musk's investment in the Donald Trump presidency as a wash — Musk reportedly spent $290 million to help return Trump to the White House in the 2024 election. While the gambit paid off, Musk's involvement with the Trump administration led to Tesla's stock dropping and an eventual messy public rift between Trump and the world's richest man. Find More: Keep Partner Disagreements Internal Despite Musk previously being all in on the Trump administration (financially supporting Trump's reelection, becoming 'the First Buddy' to Trump, heading up DOGE), the two men had a very bitter and public split following Musk's criticism of the president's 'Big Beautiful Bill.' Musk argued that the bill (which has since been passed into law) would massively increase the federal deficit while devaluing electric vehicle tax credits — and thus hurting Tesla. This led to the two men trading insults over their social medial platforms (X for Musk, Truth Social for Trump) — the result of which was Tesla stock falling and knocking Musk's net worth down by $15 billion. Trump also threatened to cut $38 billion in federal contracts for Musk. Don't Do Business With Family In 2016, Musk's Tesla acquired the solar energy company SolarCity — an outfit that was co-founded by Musk's cousins. Tesla shareholders were critical of the move, which appeared to be a bailout orchestrated by Musk to assist SolarCity. Musk defended the move, calling it an investment in sustainable energy; meanwhile, Tesla shareholders balked and filed lawsuits, calling it a personal move rather than a business one. Beware Messy Divorces Musk has married two women, with both marriages ending in very costly divorces. His first divorce to Justine Musk ultimately cost him $20 million in a settlement, which reportedly includes $20,000 monthly in expenses. Musk divorced actress Talulah Riley in 2012, settling the split with a relatively inexpensive (for him) $4.2 million payout. He remarried Riley a year later, but they split again in 2015 with a divorce settlement of $16 million — meaning Musk paid $40 million to end his marriages. More From GOBankingRates Mark Cuban Says Trump's Executive Order To Lower Medication Costs Has a 'Real Shot' -- Here's Why This article originally appeared on Are You Smarter Than Elon Musk? If So, You Can Avoid His 5 Money Mistakes
Yahoo
19 hours ago
- Business
- Yahoo
One change that could leave Aussies $830,000 better off at retirement
Most people think building wealth is about how much you save or how smart you are with your investing. But what makes the real difference isn't your income, your investment knowledge, or even your budget — it's how early you start. Consider an example of two people with the same goal of growing their money through investing. One starts investing just a few dollars a day from the age of 20. The other waits until they get to age 40, when their financial position is more settled, they're earning more, and they're able to invest a more 'meaningful' amount of $500 monthly. But when we look at the numbers, you can see that by waiting, the damage is done. Even though the late starter is investing more than triple the amount of money, they end up with less than half the amount of money at the end. This is the power of time — it works silently in the background, and if you ignore it, the cost is huge — even if you're doing everything else right. RELATED Expert's 'crucial' money tactic to retire with $2.9 million Centrelink's 'balancing' move could provide cash boost or expose debt Commonwealth Bank's fresh alert for millions over mass text messages The power of time (and compounding) Going back to our example, we've got two people, Emma and James. Emma starts investing $5 daily from the age of 20, and James is our late starter who invests $500 monthly from the age of 40. Because Emma starts early, her money has more time to grow — and that's where the magic of compounding comes even though she's investing less money overall, her money starts growing sooner. And through compounding, Emma benefits from growth on her growth, which cranks up her investment balance over time. Based on the Australian long-term (30-year) average sharemarket return of 9.8 per cent, Emma's $5 daily investment would grow to be worth more than $1.48 million by the time she's 65. For James, even though he's putting away $500 monthly, or more than triple what Emma is investing, he starts 20 years later. By the time he reaches age 65, his money has grown to just under $650,000. This is a solid result, but is $830,000 less — or less than half of the final amount Emma has from her much smaller investment. For James to 'catch up' to Emma given his delayed start, he'd need to invest around $1,250 monthly — or almost 10 times the daily investment amount Emma is putting in — all because he starts later. The cost of waiting It's not about earning more. It's not about investing huge amounts of money. It's about giving your money time to work for you. When you start early, you don't need to be perfect. You don't need to pick some hot stock that takes off. You just need to get started. Small amounts of money, invested regularly and consistently, are how regular people can build a life-changing amount of money. It isn't 'sexy', and doesn't need to be 'risky' — but it is effective. Waiting even a year to get started with investing can cost you a lot more than you think. Delaying by 12 months might not seem like much, but following our example above, waiting just one year to start your $5 daily investment (starting at age 21 vs 20), your final balance drops by $140,000. But it gets worse. If you delay to age 25, that's over $580,000 you'll miss out on. And if you wait until age 30, you're giving up a whopping $940,000 in investment growth. That's the opportunity cost of inaction — it's not just about not investing now, it's about future options you're missing. The earlier you start, the less effort it takes — and every year you wait, the cost of your inaction grows. This is the hidden danger of inertia. Most people don't realise the real cost of waiting, because it doesn't really feel like you're losing money. But you are, because you're giving up future wealth that only time can create for you. That's why time is your greatest asset. The longer you wait, the more effort it will take to catch up, and for most people that gap simply becomes too much — and they end up settling for an outcome well below where they really want to be. This works for anyone And the best part of all of this is that investing $5 daily is something that's possible for almost anyone. It doesn't require a huge income, lots of time, or heaps of experience in investment markets. Instead of stressing about trying to save hundreds or even thousands of dollars, simply automate a small daily investment and let it grow. Thankfully today, technology is making this easier, with dozens of investment accounts that can help you easily automate a regular investment. Follow this approach, and over time your investment growth will outpace how much money you're putting in — and eventually it will do more of the work than you ever could on your own. Most people spend too much time trying to predict the perfect time to invest, or waiting for their financial situation to get more comfortable so investing is 'easier'. But the real winners are the people that crack on and get started, and focus on being consistent over a longer period of time. The wrap Investing doesn't need to be some big, bold action you take once you have heaps of money. It just has to be consistent, and the sooner you start, the more you'll be rewarded. Don't wait until you make more money, or saving is easier, or even until you're more of an investing expert. You just need to make the decision — $5 a day today, or thousands monthly later trying to catch up. Because when it comes to getting ahead, how soon you start is the single thing that will make the biggest difference. Ben Nash is a finance expert commentator, podcaster, financial adviser and founder of Pivot Wealth. Ben's new book, Virgin Millionaire; the step-by-step guide to your first million and beyond is out now on Amazon | Audiobook. If you want some help with your money and investing, you can book a call with Pivot Wealth here. Disclaimer: The information contained in this article is general in nature and does not take into account your personal objectives, financial situation or needs. Therefore, you should consider whether the information is appropriate to your circumstances before acting on it, and where appropriate, seek professional advice from a finance in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data
New York Times
a day ago
- Politics
- New York Times
How Do I Tell My Rich Friends to Stop Talking About Fleeing the Country?
I have a wealthy friend (not billions, but well over $20 million) who talks almost incessantly about leaving the country because of her and her family's concerns about the current political situation. Nearly every week, it's another 'Check this one out!' — always accompanied by a link to a villa in the south of France or a seaside four-bedroom condo overlooking the coast of Spain. I'm not the sort to let money drive a relationship; I don't defer to wealthy people, and I wouldn't expect deference if the roles were reversed. So how do you navigate things when you're simply tired of hearing the same conversation on wash, rinse, repeat? I can't just say: 'Stop. Your friends with less money don't want to hear it.' That would only create anger. But 'Have you thought about how these comments affect others?' feels condescending. I'm not sure it's appropriate to tell her to stop, or how to do it. — Name Withheld From the Ethicist: One way of being obnoxious is by condescending to people, treating them in a way that implies they're lesser. Another, opposite way is by failing to notice that other people lack the advantages you enjoy. If the first obliquely asserts superiority, the second obliviously betrays self-absorption. Both of them grate. I can imagine other misgivings you might have about these upscale escape fantasies. When the political weather in your country turns threatening, there's much to be said for staying put, if you safely can, and trying to make things better. Given her resources, your friend might wrest herself from the Sotheby's International Realty website and spend more time reviewing political campaigns that could benefit from her backing. It doesn't sound as if she's facing persecution; if anything, she's on the verge of a tax break. So her weekly search for a bolt-hole on the Riviera just seems an attempt to dodge an unpleasant atmosphere. In our 24/7 digital era, though, is there truly more solace in brooding over news alerts from a villa in Cap Ferrat than from a ranch in Montana? You don't have to make it a confrontation. There are plenty of ways to signal the realities she's exasperatingly deaf to. The next time she sends you a link to a coastal villa, you might respond with a listing for a studio apartment in a Communist-era block in Bucharest — ample stair climbing, intermittent hot water and panoramic views of concrete — explaining that it better fits your budget. If she's miffed for a minute, that's the price of honesty. And a small one, surely, compared to that spread in Cap Ferrat. Want all of The Times? Subscribe.
