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Bill Gates is worth $95 billion and he plans to give most of it away - here's how he spends his money now, from a luxury car collection to incredible real estate
Bill Gates is worth $95 billion and he plans to give most of it away - here's how he spends his money now, from a luxury car collection to incredible real estate
Hillary HoffowerSep 1, 2018, 20:58 IST
Thierry Chesnot/Getty Images
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Bill Gates, the world's second-richest person, has an estimated net worth of $95.7 billion, according to Forbes.
While he indulges in a few luxuries, they only make up a fraction of his fortune.
He mainly spends his billions on charity through the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, and plans to give away most of his fortune.
Bill Gates, cofounder of Microsoft, is the world's second-richest person, sitting on an estimated net worth of $95.7 billion, according to Forbes.
It's hard to imagine what to do with that amount of money, but Gates knows how to make the most of it. While he has some indulgences - like a Washington estate worth $125 million, a private airplane, and a luxury car collection - they only make up a fraction of his massive fortune.
He and wife Melinda previously said it's unfair they're so rich. Instead of spending billions on themselves, they often donate it to charity through the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. They've also pledged to give away most of their fortune through the Giving Pledge, which they launched in 2010.
Despite his massive fortune, Gates previously told Ellen DeGeneres that when he became a billionaire at age 31 (history's youngest billionaire at the time), he didn't go on a spending spree.
Gates also spent a lot on his estate, "Xanadu 2.0," in Medina, Washington. It took him seven years and $63 million to build. He purchased the lot for $2 million in 1988.
There's roughly $80,000 worth of computer screens sitting around the house. Devices worth $150,000 can display different paintings or photographs on the screens at a single touch.
That's not to mention the 2,100-square-foot-library, which is home to a 16th-century Leonardo da Vinci manuscript that Gates bought at auction for $30 million in 1994.
It's perfect for Gates, an avid luxury car collector. His first big splurge after founding Microsoft was a Porsche 911 supercar, he told DeGeneres. He later sold it and it was auctioned for $80,000.
Outside of his Washington pad, Gates also has a 4.5-acre vacation ranch in Wellington, Florida, with a 12,864-square-foot mansion. He reportedly dropped $27 million to buy a whole string of properties in the area.
Gates' real estate portfolio doesn't end there. He's made numerous real estate investments through his personal investment firm, Cascade, including partial ownership of Charles Hotel in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
He reportedly owns nearly half of the Four Season Holding's hotel chain through Cascade, including hotels in Atlanta and Houston. Gates shares 95% ownership with Prince Alwaleed bin Talal of Saudi Arabia.
When he's not busy buying real estate or working, Gates needs a vacation or two to unwind. He's traveled to Australia, Belize, Croatia, and the Amazon in Brazil.
He's also treated his family to a Mediterranean vacation on board the 439-foot superyacht Serene that he chartered for $5 million a week, which included a helicopter.
But Gates' splurges are only a fraction of his massive fortune. He previously told The Telegraph: "I have no use for money." Instead, he often donates to or invests his money in good causes.
He continued these efforts by recently investing $30 million with a group of investors into the Diagnostics Accelerator, a "venture philanthropy" fund to diagnose Alzheimer's earlier.
Gates and wife Melinda are huge on philanthropy. They were recently named the most generous philanthropists in the US by The Chronicle of Philanthropy, having donated more than $36 billion to charitable causes through the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.
They've pledged about $2 billion to defeat malaria, donated more than $50 million to fight Ebola, and pledged $38 million to a Japanese pharmaceutical company working to create a low-cost polio vaccine.
