The world’s richest man is John D. Rockefeller if wealth is measured in terms of the national economy; however, Warren Buffet is the richest man in the world. If all the money owned by the richest men in the world was combined, it has a GDP larger than that of Germany which is the third largest economy in the world.

A common characteristic with them is that they make most of their money from investing and do not spend it unwisely. Some of them were not from rich families as it is in the case of Rockefeller who was from a poor family but through innovation grew rich.

Due to the prevailing global trends in financial matters the rich have either not gotten richer or have become poorer this year. The combined net worth of Americas rose by $30 billion, only about 2%. The rise in oil prices and art has made it possible for a come back to those that had been eliminated earlier and also for 31new ones. Unfortunately the shaking in the stock market has seen 33 billionaires leave the list of worlds richest. Critics argue that ingenuity and not industry is highly practiced by these men who make money virtually from everything from coffee, real estate to media and dumplings.

However it is still uncertain how the trend would go given the fact that stock markets have become very fragile which may see some people either get richer or poorer and hence be eliminated within a very short period of time. The ones who got rich by real estate investment are finding it hard in these perilous times.

Despite the shaking in the world markets these are men who have worked hard and live to reap the fruits of their labor and innovation.