Are the rich really getting younger?

There are still plenty of people on the list who are older. In fact, the top three richest people in the world, Jeff Bezos, Bernard Arnault and Elon Musk, respectively, are all above 50 years old. 

Well, are they?

• While it would absolutely be newsworthy if Bill Gates or Richard Branson had figured out some sort of anti-aging potion that made them 30 again, that isn’t what we’re talking about.

• But even if anti-aging cream is the best we can do in the “getting younger” department, it does seem like there are a trend among the world’s richest people.

• A recent report from the Australian Financial Review found that the average age of the members in their annual list of richest executives was the youngest it’s ever been, at 58.

• The list also includes seven people who are 45 or younger, which represents 14% of list of 50 people.

• The report supports another survey that found the average age of investors in the United States with US$25 million or more dropped from 58 in 2014 to 47 in 2019.

Why are young people getting rich?

• Well, there are a few competing theories, but it’s likely that it’s a little of each of them.

• Some people have gotten their money from an inheritance with 90% of investors under the age of 38 attributing their success to “inheritance” and “family connections.”

• But, the report also found that the same proportion of people said, “hard work” and “running my own business” played a role too, pointing to the idea that much of it is still self-earned.

• And, a study commissioned by PhysicalGold found that, of the richest millennial billionaires in the world, the technology industry not only had the most billionaires in it, but it also had more billionaires than the next four industries behind it combined (Finance and Investments, Automotive, Fashion and Retail, and Healthcare, respectively).

• This is backed up by a Forbes analysis that found that, of the four self-made billionaires in their 20s, one of them designed sensors used in self-driving cars, one is a cryptocurrency magnate and two run a little food delivery service called DoorDash.

Are they really all that young?

• Well, no, there are still plenty of people on the list who are older than the millennials just listed; in fact, the top three richest people in the world, Jeff Bezos, Bernard Arnault and Elon Musk, respectively, are all above 50 years old.

• And the classic billionaires like Warren Buffett, Bill Gates and Michael Bloomberg are all still regularly making it on the list.

• But it’s clear from continuous mentions of people like Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg in number four, that younger people are making their mark and are sticking around – that is until they get old.

What’s next?

• The richest people in the world can indicate which sectors of the economy are growing and which are shrinking.

• With that said, these kinds of trends are also just for fun, and probably shouldn’t be taken too seriously.

• The Forbes list of billionaires shows that there were a record amount of new billionaires coming out of 2020, indicating that at least some of it is driven by short-term whims of the masses, rather than longer term trends.

• That isn’t to say that some of those industries aren’t here to stay; if Facebook has proven anything, it’s that the world wants it to stick around.

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