Jimmy Rane

Net Worth: $700 million

How He Got Loaded: He’s the founder of a lumber company, Great Southern Wood Abbeville. Hilarious name, probably a boring career. 

Jonathan Rubini

Net Worth: $340 million

How He Got Loaded: He is the CEO and chairman of a mega-popular real estate developer, JL Properties. Feel like hefting some lumber?

Bruce Halle

Net Worth: $6 billion

How He Got Loaded: He’s the founder and chairman of Discount Tire, a chain of tire stores. There’s a joke in there about keeping

it safe with rubber…

Jim Walton

Net Worth: $38.5 billion

How He Got Loaded: He’s got Wal-Mart cash, baby! This guy is the son of founder Sam Walton.

Mark Zuckerberg

Net Worth: $62.4 billion

How He Got Loaded: Remember how everyone told you college was important? Mark Zuckerberg proved them all wrong by dropping out once his little

dormroom-based company, Facebook, took off. But still, you barely know how to text, so probably stick with college. 

Charles Ergen

Net Worth: $18.8 billion

How He Got Loaded: It pays to be in the entertainment biz. Ergen is the co-founder and chairman of Dish Network. Apparently, people don’t

JUST stream Netflix these days. 

Ray Dalio

Net Worth: $16.8 billion

How He Got Loaded: This guy invested in an investment firm (Bridgewater Associates). He’s the founder of the business, and is probably great at

dad jokes too. 

Robert Gore & Elizabeth Snyder

Net Worth: $720 million each

How They Got Loaded: These two are siblings who get their money from the family company, W.L. Gore & Associates,

which produces Gore-Tex, a waterproof fabric for outdoor wear. 

Thomas Peterffy

Net Worth: $13.2 billion

How He Got Loaded: This day trader took his work online like any good digital nomad. He’s the founder of Interactive Brokers Group, Inc. 

Jim Kennedy

Net Worth: $12.6 million

How He Got Loaded: Much like Dish, it may be shocking to hear people still have cable—Cox, to be exact. Well, they do, and

it’s keeping people like Kennedy in the Billionaires Club. His grandaddy started the company and he’s running it today. 

Pierre Omidyar

Net Worth: $8.9 billion

How He Got Loaded: This dude really got in on the ground floor of the internet—he’s the founder of eBay, or, “the digital antique

store before Amazon was a thing.”

Frank VanderSloot

Net Worth: $1.9 billion

How He Got Loaded: He’s the founder and CEO of a vitamin and supplement company known as Melaleuca Inc. Surprisingly, he’s not in Southern

California.  

Ken Griffin

Net Worth: $8 billion

How He Got Loaded: Griffin has gotten rich off a hedge-fund he runs in Chicago. Want to start a hedge fund but don’t know

what that is? Don’t worry, no one does. Including this guy, probably.

Carl Cook

Net Worth: $8 billion

How He Got Loaded: Medicine has been extra kind to this dude. He is the SEO of Cook Group. It’s makes medical devices of

various kinds. 

Harry Stine

Net Worth: $3.3 billion

How He Got Loaded: It turns out all of those huge farming fields in Iowa were actually goldmines. Stine is responsible for the mega-company

Stine Seeds. 

Charles Koch

Net Worth: $47.5 billion

How He Got Loaded: Sorry to be the bearer of bad news, but it looks like being insanely rich is a family title, not

a job title. This guy got his money mostly from an inheritance.

B. Wayne Hughes

Net Worth: $2.7 billion

How He Got Loaded: Ever heard of Public Storage? Thank this guy. He’s the founder and chairman of the company and part of

the reason why America is a land of hoarders. 

Tom Benson

Net Worth: $2.6 billion

How He Got Loaded: Once you get your first billion you can do things like buy the New Orleans Saints. Benson’s first billion came

from owning auto dealerships and banks. 

Susan Alfond

Net Worth: $1.4 billion

How She Got Loaded: Maine is full of lobster and lighthouses and also over a billion dollars. She inherited her cash from her dad,

who sold his show company to Warren Buffet in the early ‘90s.

Ted Lerner

Net Worth: $5.8 billion

How He Got Loaded: This guy developed so much real estate, he earned enough cash to buy a baseball team. Okay, not so shocking. 

Abigail Johnson

Net Worth: $14.9 billion

How She Got Loaded: Apparently, you’ve got to work with money to actually earn any. She’s the president of the financial firm, Fidelity Investments. 

Daniel Gilbert

Net Worth: $5.9 billion

How He Got Loaded: If you’ve ever needed a loan, chances are you’ve worked with the company this guy owns—Quicken Loans. Oh, he’s also

got an NBA team (the Cleveland Cavaliers). 

Whitney MacMillan

Net Worth: $3.8 billion

How He Got Loaded: Apparently, there’s wealth to be found in the Midwest. He’s the grandson and inheritor of the agricultural company Cargill. 

Leslie Lampton

Net Worth: $760 million

How He Got Loaded: One of the few people on here who’s not in the Billionaire’s Club. Still, he made enough to rule over

Mississippi. 

Stanley Kroenke

Net Worth: $7.5 billion

How He Got Loaded: If you’re renting land, it might just call this guy "daddy". Yup, he’s one of the largest real estate owners

in the US—AND he’s married to a Wal-Mart heiress!

Dennis Washington

Net Worth: $5.9 billion

How He Got Loaded: “There’s gold in them there hills.” This guy took that line to heart and went to work making a fortune

by mining the hills of Montana.  

Warren Buffett

Net Worth: $ 76.2 billion

How He Got Loaded: Though this investor has had his hands in many pies, he’s also the founder of Berkshire Hathaway. It’s a

holding company, and if you can figure out what exactly a holding company does you’re halfway to being a billionaire. 

Sheldon Adelson

Net Worth: $35.6 billion

How He Got Loaded: Why run one casino when you can run the company that operates MANY casinos? That’s exactly what he does as

the chairman and CEO of Las Vegas Sands Corp. 

Andrea Reimann-Ciardelli

Net Worth: $1.1 billion

How She Got Loaded: She may have gotten her money from being an heiress, but she keeps piling it up through smart investing. 

Donald Newhouse

Net Worth: $12 billion

How He Got Loaded: Another inheritor, this time from his father—the founder of Advance Publications, a communications and media company. 

Mack C. Chase

Net Worth: $910 million

How He Got Loaded: If you want the big bucks, then it might be a good idea to work your way into the

oil and gas game. This is what the owner of Chase Energy Corp did. 

Michael Bloomberg

Net Worth: $50.7 billion

How He Got Loaded: This is rich. Like, really rich. Like, richest man in NYC rich. He’s the founder of Bloomberg LP. 

James Goodnight

Net Worth: $10.1 billion

How He Got Loaded: As usual, technology proves to be a great way to make the big bucks. He’s the co-founder of software firm

SAS Institute. 

Gary Tharaldson

Net Worth: $900 million

How He Got Loaded: If you want to get into the hospitality game, it might just be a way to get a million bucks.

This guy founded Tharaldson Hospitality Management LLC.

Les Wexner

Net Worth: $6.2 billion

How He Got Loaded: Who loves fashion? Also, who loves making money from fashion? This guy! He’s the CEO of L Brands, which owns

Bath & Body Works.

Harold Hamm

Net Worth: $10.2 billion

How He Got Loaded: This guy is the go-to for energy. We’re not talkin’ energy drinks! No, we're talking the more natural kind of

energy that powers appliances: gas. He’s the CEO of Continental Resources.

Phil Knight

Net Worth: $25.1 billion

How He Got Loaded: “Just do it.” This guy took that message to heart—he’s the co-founder and chairman of Nike, Inc.  

Mary Alice Dorrance Malone

Net Worth: $3.8 billion

How She Got Loaded: It’s in every store and your mom made it for you every time you were sick...soup! This heiress

is living the high life off the Campbell’s Soup fortune. 

Jonathan Nelson

Net Worth: $2 billion

How He Got Loaded: The master of investing obviously invested in the right ideas because his investment firm Providence Equity Partners has earned him

the high life. 

Anita Zucker

Net Worth: $3 billion

How She Got Loaded: She came into her fortune due to the sad death of her husband, who was the CEO of retail firm

Hudson’s Bay Co. 

T. Denny Sanford

Net Worth: $2.1 billion

How He Got Loaded: Who would have thought you could rake in the cold, hard cash by keeping other people’s money safe? This

bank holding company CEO knew what was up and made a business out of it. 

Thomas Frist Jr.

Net Worth: $8.8 billion

How He Got Loaded: As co-founder of Hospital Corp. of America, this guy has made it big in the medical world. Like, really

big. Like, “he buys hospitals for profit” big. 

Alice Walton

Net Worth: $38.2 billion

How She Got Loaded: Alice Walton is the proud member of the Wal-Mart family. That’s not a cutesy way of saying she shops there.

No, she’s part of the family and got an inheritance. 

Gail Miller

Net Worth: $1.2 billion

How She Got Loaded: Pretty much since their invention, cars have been raking in crazy piles of cash for investors. Miller makes her money

through auto dealerships. 

John Abele

Net Worth: $625 million

How He Got Loaded: One of the few on this list to not be in the billions, this Boston scientific medical device manufacturer has

still made enough to make it to the top of the Vermont moneybag charts. Not to mention, he gave $100 million to charity.

Jacqueline Mars

Net Worth: $27.6 billion

How She Got Loaded: The Mars candy company has many heirs, and Ms. Mars is one of them. She’s keeping cozy with her inheritance

from her grandfather co-founder. 

Bill Gates

Net Worth: $88.9 billion

How He Got Loaded: Obviously, it super pays to be in the computer game. Gates is the co-founder of one half of the computer

empire, Microsoft. Apple better watch. Okay, honestly, it’s doing excellent too.

Jim Justice

Net Worth: $1.6 billion

How He Got Loaded:  Not only is this governor a savvy coal mining businessman, he’s also a savvy politician. Well, they all are. Minus

the coal part. 

John Menard Jr.

Net Worth: $10.9 billion

How He Got Loaded: Ever heard of Menards? While it’s not The Home Depot status, it’s still a home improvement chain that appears

to be raking in the dough. 

John Mars

Net Worth: $27.6 billion

How He Got Loaded: We don’t have Mars Bars on this side of the Atlantic, but plenty other things fall under the same brand.

The lack of his namesake on a wrapper doesn't stop this candy tycoon from setting up a home base here.