REUTERS/Sergei Karpukhin
Mikhail Fridman, Russia's 11th-richest person.
- The 19-year-old son of a billionaire Russian investor rents a $500 a month apartment on the outskirts of Moscow and uses the city's high tech subway system to get to work, Bloomberg's Alexander Sazonov and Irina Reznik reported.
- Alexander Fridman decided to try his hand at entrepreneurship over attending college, telling Bloomberg that he believes he can "earn more money, and in a more clever way."
- Fridman's father, Mikhail Fridman, built a $13.7 billion fortune after co-founding investment company Alfa Group.
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Not all children of billionaires live luxurious lifestyles.
Alexander Fridman, the 19-year-old son of billionaire Russian investor Mikhail Fridman, rents a $500 a month apartment on the outskirts of Moscow and uses the city's high tech subway system to get to work, Bloomberg's Alexander Sazonov and Irina Reznik reported. Despite his father's $13.7 billion fortune, Fridman says he's financially independent, supporting himself through the hookah distribution and online marketing companies he founded.
Fridman is still relatively new to this humble lifestyle. He graduated from an English boarding school last year with plans to attend New York University's Stern School of Business, Bloomberg reported. Fridman later decided that he would rather focus on being an entrepreneur than getting a business degree.
"I have friends who graduated from Yale and are 23 years old now and who earn $80,000 to $100,000 working 16 hours a day," Fridman told Bloomberg. "You can earn more money, and in a more clever way."
Fridman's father, Mikhail Fridman, became Russia's 11th-richest person after co-founding investment company Alfa Group. The company has stakes in supermarket owner X5 Retail Group and Russia's fifth-biggest bank, according to Bloomberg. Mikhail told his son that he planned to donate his multibillion-dollar fortune to charity after his death instead of keeping it in the family, Alexander told Bloomberg.
"My father told me that in our country business and politics are deeply intertwined," Alexander Fridman told Bloomberg. "I lived with the understanding that I wouldn't inherit any fortune."
Fridman's path is relatively unusual among the children of Russia's richest people. Billionaire steel tycoon Victor Rashnikov's daughter joined her father on his company's board and fellow billionaire Andrey G. Guryev's son became the CEO of the fertilizer maker he founded, Bloomberg reported.
Russian heirs don't often shun opulence. The daughter of another Russian billionaire made headlines in 2018 when she got married in an extravagant $1.6 million ceremony at a Moscow country club. The bride's dress was estimated to cost nearly $219,000, and the food alone rang in at more than $460,000, Insider reported.