If anything the Medean income seems like a good ballpark for enough. But, it's really hard to stop.
Even if MicroSoft didn't take off, he'd still be wealthy. He's the kind of guy that waits to get the absolute maximum value out of each dollar he spends.
That's not a bad thing, by the way, just unusual.
As to being rich, sure he inherited millions. But, connections, background, timing, and luck only go so far. You really can blow any amount of money.
I've never met the guy. By all accounts he's smart, dedicated and hard working. I think he'd be doing just fine regardless of the field he went into. He got very lucky, so he's a billionaire 80 times over.
And, yes. The prince of Brunei is a great example of not thrifty. 14 billion in just 10 years. [1]
[1] http://www.vanityfair.com/news/2011/07/prince-jefri-201107
It's natural to think of spending in morale term so donations or gifts don't count or relative to income. Which makes finding a reasonable limit on the absolute scale meaningless. Supose he had 10 trillion and spent 1% on a house would a 100 billion be extravagant in that context?
I guess you're saying he's just doing whatever he thinks is fun from moment to moment, like prince Jefri. It seems like there's a subtle difference there, but I don't know how to articulate it.
I make good money as a developer and live well below my means, but I am not thrifty. I simply don't have much interest in buying most things, but I can point to 10's of thousands of dollars in wasteful spending.
Being the richest man in the world makes pretty much everything appear a trivial expense, but there has to be a limit somewhere.
1. http://blog.dupontregistry.com/celebrity-cars/bill-gates-ame...
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I get what you're saying. I just don't see the millions thrown away into nothing. Drugs, parties, wrecked cars, pissing away cash. Mike Tyson was worth $400,000,000. now he has nothing. It's easy to find people that got rich and lost it all. Lottery winners and pro athletes are prime examples.
Granted, spend one dollar less than you earn, and you're winning. He just seems like the kind of guy that has a hard time parting with cash for any reason.
The real difference is often positive vs negative investment returns. Most sports stars lose more money from poor investments than they do spending.
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