Wesley Snipes worked his butt off for more than a decade to reach the pinnacle of wealth and success in Hollywood. He smashed through perceptions and stereotypes along the way to becoming arguably the biggest action star on the planet in the 1990s. Along the way, he earned tens of millions of dollars from his blockbuster film salaries. Unfortunately, like many other stories of Hollywood ascension, what goes up must come down. But unlike most fallen stars who succumb to drugs or alcohol, Wesley Snipes' personal demon was much more bland. He stopped paying his taxes.

During that career pinnacle when he was earning tens of millions of dollars, Wesley Snipes wasn't sending Uncle Sam his cut. Amazingly, he truly believed he did not have to pay. He believed so strongly that he fought all the way up to the Supreme Court. This is the story of how Wesley went from Passenger 57 to prisoner #43355-018…

Wesley Snipes Tax Problems / Frazer Harrison/Getty Images

The Rise: Snipes The Action Star

When Wesley was 23, an agent discovered him in 1985 during a martial arts competition. A year later, he made his film debut in the 1986 Goldie Hawn movie "Wildcats". That same year, he appeared on the hit TV show "Miami Vice" as a drug-dealing pimp. In 1987, Snipes put his dance performance training and martial arts skills to good use when he appeared in the Martin Scorsese-directed music video of Michael Jackson's "Bad". That video caught the attention of director Spike Lee, who offered Snipes a small role in "Do the Right Thing". Snipes turned Lee down, opting for the larger part of Willie Mays Hayes in "Major League".

"Major League" was the first in a string of big box office hits for Snipes throughout the late 1980s and 1990s. He appeared in Spike Lee's "Mo' Better Blues" and as the lead in the interracial relationship at the center of the drama in "Jungle Fever". Snipes' role as the drug kingpin Nino Brown in 1991's "New Jack City" was written especially for him, and his amazingly nuanced performance cemented his status as a Hollywood superstar. Snipes worked steadily throughout the 1990s in films such as "Passenger 57", "Demolition Man", "Money Train", "The Fan", "U.S. Marshals", "Rising Sun", and "To Wong Foo, Thanks for Everything! Julie Newmar" in which Snipes played a drag queen.

Snipes was on a roll, showing audiences and Hollywood studio executives that he had range- playing everything from drug lords to drag queens. In fact, in 1997, Snipes won the Best Actor award at the Venice Film Festival for his dramatic performance in the Joe Eszterhas-written, Mike Figgis-directed film "One Night Stand". The film was a flop, in large part due to an interview Snipes gave in Ebony magazine in which he lashed out at African American women and listed all the reasons he didn't date them.

The following year, "Blade" gave Snipes his biggest box office success, grossing more than $150 million worldwide. Snipes was also awarded a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame and an honorary doctorate from his college alma mater, SUNY/Purchase. Blade was also turned into a franchise. Wesley was at the top of the Hollywood food chain and the peak of his career. Unfortunately, Wesley's arrogance and ego were beginning to lay a path of destruction in his life that would last for more than a decade.

As the third installment of the "Blade" franchise was getting ready to go into production, Wesley's arrogance led him to believe that he was owed input on every aspect of the production. New Line froze him out of all decisions, which pissed Snipes off mightily. Snipes filed lawsuits against New Line Cinema and the director of "Blade: Trinity", David S. Goyer, claiming that he was intentionally cut out of casting decisions and that his role was reduced to make more time for the roles of co-stars Ryan Reynolds and Jessica Biel. The suit with New Line was settled, but Snipes' problems were just beginning.

Unlike most Hollywood celebrities, Wesley's self-imposed path of destruction did not involve a single drug or a drop of alcohol. Wesley's downfall involved something far more dangerous than drugs and alcohol: The Internal Revenue Service.

The Fall: Snipes The IRS Protestor

Wesley's problems with the IRS date back to 2006 when he was charged with attempting to avoid paying taxes and filing $12 million worth of false refunds dating all the way back to 1996.

Between 1996 and 2004, Snipes earned approximately $37.9 million from various acting jobs. Unfortunately, during those years, he apparently failed to pay a single penny in taxes.

In 2002, Wesley bought a lavish 10,000 square foot mansion in Alpine, New Jersey. He paid $5.6 million. Within a few years, he also stopped paying the property tax bill. Here's the mansion:

He was forced to sell this home in 2014 at a $2.1 million loss.

As if failing to pay taxes for many years wasn't bad enough, Wesley took things a step further.

Wesley also used forged documents to receive $12 million worth of undeserved refunds reflecting his income between 1996 and 1998. So why did he essentially ignore and steal from the IRS? This is where the story takes a crazy turn. Wesley explained his actions by using a controversial tax theory called the..

"861 argument"

The "861 argument" revolves around the language of section 861 of the Federal tax code. People who use this 861 argument claim the tax code's language makes domestic income of U.S. citizens and residents not taxable. The language instead states that "compensation for services" is taxable. This argument claims that because the 861 provision does not specifically list wages, for example, from acting in a movie, they therefore are not taxable. As a side note, the 861 argument has never been successful for anyone in the history of American tax law. Furthermore, Snipes failed to file tax returns for 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, and 2004.

Unfortunately, the government wasn't buying what Wesley was selling. Wesley Snipes spent four years battling the government on his tax charges. He went to trial in February 2008. His defense team intimated that their defense would take a month, and they planned to call an illustrious list of witnesses, including Muhammad Ali, Spike Lee, and even Barbra Walters. However, in the end, his defense spent just ONE HOUR arguing his case.

The prosecution was not as brief. They presented a fairly rock-solid and simple case of a person earning $40 million, paying zero in taxes, AND requesting $12 million in refunds.

Wesley was found guilty of three misdemeanor counts of failure to file federal income tax returns. He was sentenced to three years in prison. And while three years may sound like a long sentence for a silly tax issue, the prosecution had been seeking a 16-year sentence. So Wesley got off easy in a way.

In addition to his prison sentence, over time, Wesley was ordered to pay $17 million in back taxes, interest, and penalties to the IRS.

Snipes appealed the verdict without success in 2010. He began his three-year sentence at McKean Federal Correctional Institution on December 9, 2010. Snipes took his appeal all the way to the United States Supreme Court, but in 2011 the justices declined to hear the case.

Between December 2010 and April 2013, Wesley Snipes served 845 days in federal prison in McKean County, Pennsylvania. He served 90% of his three-year sentence.

Wesley was released from prison on April 2, 2013.

An Offer They Can Refuse

After being released, Wesley made what is called an "Offer In Compromise" (OIC) to the IRS.  Essentially, with an OIC, a tax offender offers an amount of money he or she hopes the IRS will accept to settle the debt once and for all, typically for pennies on the dollar. By this time, with interest and penalties, Wesley's debt had ballooned from $17 million to $23.5 million. Wesley offered to clear that debt in exchange for an OIC of $842,061, citing his lack of means to pay the remainder. That's 3.5% of the total amount due.

Perhaps not surprisingly, the government rejected his OIC.

This rejection kicked off another legal appeal. That appeal would drag on until November 1, 2018, when a judge upheld the IRS' rejection of his OIC, claiming that Snipes had failed "to provide bona fide documentation to prove his assets and financial condition."

The IRS countered that based on his assets and income potential, Wesley's "reasonable collection potential" was $17,482,152.

After yet another appeal, the IRS extended an offer to reduce the debt to $9,581,027.

Wesley rejected this offer!!! Instead, he reasserted his original OIC of $842,000.

From the judge's ruling:

"Given the disparity between petitioner's $842,061 OIC and the settlement officer's calculation of $9,581,027 as his RCP, as well as petitioner's inability to credibly document his assets, the settlement officer and her manager had ample justification to reject the offer… Accordingly, we conclude that the settlement officer did not abuse her discretion in determining that acceptance of petitioner's OIC was not in the best interest of the United States."

Wesley has continued to work in the years since his release from prison. His first film role of his post-prison career was in the third installment of the Sylvester Stallone "Expendables" franchise. He has appeared in a number of television series over the years, and in 2021, he had a memorable part in Eddie Murphy's "Coming 2 America."

I actually can't determine if Wesley has paid off any of his debt. I could not find a recent filing from the government showing he had either paid or failed to pay down what is presumably the $9.5 million proposed offer. Considering how stubbornly he has fought the debt up to this point, maybe he's still fighting. We may not know the answer until the IRS officially clears him after the debt is satisfied, OR if they file another suit due to lack of payment. Either way, what's the lesson of this story? Simple. Pay your damn taxes!

Read more: Wesley Snipes Played Chicken With The IRS… And Lost. Badly. Really Badly. He Literally Went From Passenger 57, To Prisoner #43355-018

Unlike a pop song that has a life span of maybe three or four months before being shoved aside for something newer and shinier, Christmas songs keep coming back every year. Furthermore, Christmas songs are arguably the most covered type of song in the world. Every year, hundreds of popular artists from every musical genre around the world line up to pay top dollar for the rights to cover a popular Christmas song.

"Rudolph, The Red-Nosed Reindeer"

This song was written by Johnny Marks. He based the song on a short story his brother-in-law, Robert May, wrote in 1939 for the department store Montgomery Ward. This is the song that gave birth to the idea of flying reindeer. It was a 1949 hit for Gene Autry. Marks wrote a number of other Christmas songs, including "A Holly Jolly Christmas," "Rockin' Around the Christmas Tree," "Run Rudolph Run," and "Silver and Gold."

"Let It Snow! Let It Snow! Let It Snow!"

This song was written by Sammy Cahn (born Samuel Cohen on the Lower East Side of Manhattan) and Jule Styne. They wrote the song during a 1945 heatwave in Hollywood. Styne (born Julius Stein) wrote the music. Dean Martin made the song a hit.

"The Christmas Song (Chestnuts Roasting on an Open Fire)"

Mel Torme, the son of Russian Jewish immigrants, teams up with Robert Wells, who is also Jewish, to write this classic tune in 1945. The two were longtime collaborators. Like "Let It Snow!", this song was also written during a hot summer in Chicago to conjure up cold thoughts. Torme was just 19 when he wrote the song. It took him less than 45 minutes to write and has made him more than $45 million in the past 74 years. It has been covered by hundreds of artists, including Michael Buble, Tony Bennett, Garth Brooks, Bob Dylan, Frank Sinatra, NSYNC, and many more. Despite having written more than 250 songs during his career, "The Christmas Song" was by far Mel's biggest financial success. He often referred to it as "my annuity."

Mel Torme in June 1967. (Photo by Larry Ellis/Daily Express/Hulton Archive/Getty Images)

"It's the Most Wonderful Time of the Year"

Edward Pola, a Hungarian Jew born Sidney Edward Pollacsek, wrote this Christmas classic with George Wyle, born Bernard Weissman. It was a huge hit for Andy Williams in 1963. Given the fact that this song was written by two Jews and contains the lyric "scary ghost stories and the glories of the Christmases long, long ago," makes you think.

"Santa Baby"

This song, written by Joan Javits and Philip Springer  – both Jewish – was a huge hit for Eartha Kitt in 1953. The song about Santa's annual gift-giving spree offered a cheeky take on the materialism of the Christian holiday.

"Silver Bells"

This song was written by Jay Livingston, aka Jacob Harold Levinson, and Ray Evans, the son of Philip and Frances Lipsitz Evans. Livingston contends that the song was inspired by sidewalk Santa Clauses and their bells. Evans said the song was inspired by a bell on an office desk. It was a high hit for Bing Crosby. Fun fact: the song was almost called "Tinkle Bells" until Livingston's wife told him that was slang for urination. Dean Martin made this song a hit.

Getty

"White Christmas"

Irving Berlin, a Jewish immigrant from Russia, wrote this Christmas classic, made most famous by Bing Crosby. Crosby's version is one of the bestselling songs in history, with over 100 million copies worldwide. Berlin has earned approximately $65 million from the song, which was named the bestselling single of all time by the Guinness Book of World Records.

Read more: A Lot Of Jewish Songwriters Have Made A LOT Of Money Writing Christmas Songs

As you may have noticed, Mariah Carey's Christmas classic "All I Want For Christmas Is You" is basically unavoidable between roughly November 30 and December 25 every year. Good luck walking through a mall in December without hearing the song several times. It's in movies and holiday TV specials. It lights up streaming services. It is the first song on Spotify's "Christmas Hits" playlist, AND a photo of Christmasy Mariah is the cover image for the playlist. The song generated so many streams back in late 2019 that it actually reached #1 on the Billboard Hot 100. The song was 25 years old at that point, and it was Mariah's first #1 hit in over a decade. It was also the first Christmas hit to make #1 since "The Chipmunk Song," which accomplished the feat back in… 1958!

The craziest part of this story is that Mariah didn't even want to write a Christmas song 30 years ago. When she and her co-writer reluctantly got to work, they spent less than 15 minutes on both the lyrics and melody. So, how did Mariah Carey's now-classic Christmas song come to exist? And, more importantly, how much money does she make from it every December, and how much has it generated in total???

(Photo by James Devaney/WireImage)

All I Want For Christmas… Is Huge Royalty Checks

Back in 1994, 24-year-old Mariah Carey was glowing in the success of her smash-hit third studio album, "Music Box." Music Box would eventually go on to sell 38 million copies worldwide, which is enough to make it one of the best-selling albums of all time. The 32nd best-selling album in music history, to be specific.

At the time, Mariah was married to Sony Music executive Chairman Tommy Mottola. And as you would expect from any good manager/husband/record exec, Tommy was hard at work mapping out the best way for Mariah to follow up that massive hit album. And even though Mariah had just firmly established herself as one of the world's most beloved R&B popstars, Tommy decided her next move should be a… Christmas album???

Mariah was adamantly opposed to the idea. She felt that a Christmas album was something an artist did at the end of their career, not at the beginning. Historically, record companies rushed out Christmas albums to capitalize on what they feared might be a flash-in-the-pan artist or an artist trying to take one last swing in the big leagues. It felt desperate at worst and extremely strange at best for Mariah's next album to be a Christmas album.

Mariah's longtime songwriting partner, Walter Afanasieff, wholeheartedly agreed. They had just put out what was looking like the album of the decade. Mariah's career was white hot. Why would they take a step way back?

But Tommy Mottola could be persuasive. It probably helped that, in addition to being Mariah's husband, he was also the most powerful person in the music industry. Oh, and Tommy had an extra final requirement of the duo: He didn't want Mariah and Walter to simply throw together an album that was made up entirely of covers of pre-existing Christmas songs. He insisted that they write at least one new, totally original Christmas tune. As difficult as that challenge may have been, Tommy knew that writing one Christmas song was a tried-and-true method for generating tons of money in royalties every year forever.

Mariah Carey and Tommy Mottola (Rose Hartman/Archive Photos/Getty Images)

So, in the summer of 1994, Mariah and Walter locked themselves in a studio at The Hit Factory in Manhattan and began putting together an album that eventually would be titled "Merry Christmas."

On a fateful day in August 1994, during one of those summer sessions, Mariah and Walter started playing around with a "boogie woogie, rock and roll" riff (as he would later describe it). Mariah came up with some lyrics off the top of her head.

Call it magic. Luck. Maybe divine intervention. Whatever it was, less than 15 minutes later, they had composed the lyrics AND music for what eventually became "All I Want For Christmas is You."

Mariah's "Merry Christmas" album was released on October 28, 1994. It would eventually go on to sell 15 million copies worldwide thanks very largely to the smash-hit single, "All I Want for Christmas is You."

As of this writing, "All I Want for Christmas is You" has sold more than 16 million singles worldwide. That makes it the 12th best-selling single in music history and the best-selling Christmas song in modern music history.

Neilson Barnard/Getty Images

How Much Money Has The Song Generated For Mariah?

This brings us to the central question of this article: How much does Mariah Carey make in royalties from "All I Want for Christmas is You" every December? And how much money has the song generated in total to date?

Let's start with the second question first. To date, "All I Want for Christmas" has generated at least $80 million in overall royalties. As the song's co-writers and co-producers, Mariah and Walter enjoy the lion's share of that revenue.

Perhaps more importantly, the song has become extremely valuable as an asset. If the song's rights were ever offered for sale, it would likely sell for a 30-40X multiple of its annual revenue. That brings us to the first question:

How much does the song generate every year?

On the low end, every December, Mariah earns $600,000 in royalties from this one song. On the high end, $1.2 million. Using this range, it's presumable that "All I Want for Christmas" generates $2-4 million in royalties every year overall.

Using a 30x multiple on $2 million makes this one song a $60 million asset, which Mariah and Walter majority own. That's a nice little contribution to Mariah Carey's $350 million net worth. Add that to the $80 million the song has generated overall, and you understand why this song truly is the gift that keeps on giving. Not bad for 15 minutes of work 30 years ago!

Read more: How Much Does Mariah Carey Make Off "All I Want For Christmas" Every December?

"Buck" Duke was the founder of the American Tobacco Company. Two years after delivering that horrible dinner table prediction, Buck was dead. He died on October 10, 1925, at the age of 68. Doris was 12 years old. She was just one month shy of her 13th birthday.

Upon Buck's death, Doris inherited a $100 million trust fund. That inheritance instantly made Doris the second-richest person in the world. She was 12. The only person on the planet with a larger fortune was John D. Rockefeller. He was 86.

The media soon gave Dorris a nickname that stuck with her for life:

"The richest girl in the world"

And her inheritance didn't stop with that $100 million. In 1962, Doris inherited an additional $250 million after her mother, Nanaline, died. In total, Doris was worth the equivalent of $3 billion before her 40th birthday.

And despite being hounded by reporters, suitors, and grifters, "the richest girl in the world" still managed to live a vibrant, wild life. For better or worse, Doris spent a lifetime trying to disprove her father's dour prediction about love and money.

Doris and Buck Duke

Marriages and Affairs

Doris married twice. In 1935, she married a gold-digging social climber named James Cromwell. Cromwell would soon use his wife's money to finance an unsuccessful run for the U.S. Senate.

While they were married, Doris became pregnant. She secretly confided to friends that Cromwell wasn't the father. The child was actually the product of an affair she had while on a cross-country train trip. "There was nothing else to do," she told one friend. A daughter, Arden, was born prematurely and lived for just 24 hours. Doris and James Cromwell divorced in 1943.

In 1945, while visiting Rome, Doris confided to a friend:

"All that money is a problem sometimes. It happens every time. After I've gone out with a man a few times, he starts to tell me how much he loves me. But how can I know if he really means it? How can I ever be sure?"

She married again in 1947 to a diplomat from the Dominican Republic named Porfirio Rubirosa. There was one tiny obstacle before they got married. Porfirio was already married. According to legend, Doris was so head over heels for him that she offered his current wife $1 million to divorce him quickly. The offer was accepted. That would have been like being offered $12 million in today's dollars.

Unfortunately, even after a $1 million bribe, this marriage only lasted a year. Rubirosa turned out to be a world-class womanizer who had dalliances with a number of famous women, including Marilyn Monroe, Ava Gardner, Rita Hayworth, Joan Crawford, Veronica Lake, Judy Garland, Eva Peron, and Zsa Zsa Gabor. Fortunately, Doris had an iron-clad prenup.

However, it wasn't his extramarital affairs that really dulled her affection for Rubirosa – it was the fact that after they divorced, he married her arch-nemesis, Woolworth heiress Barbara Hutton. Doris and Hutton were both born into wealthy Manhattan families within a week of each other and spent their entire lives in a heated battle. Doris could claim a victory over her rival with Rubirosa, though – his marriage to Hutton only lasted 53 days.

Doris had a number of high-profile affairs as well. Her lovers included Duke Kahanamoku, Errol Flynn, British politician Alec Cunningham-Reid, and General George Patton.

Duke Ellington serenades heiress Doris Duke (Photo by Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images)

Extracurricular Activities

Doris dabbled in a number of interests and careers.

• She studied singing with one of the most renowned voice coaches of her day. She became a member of a gospel choir.
• During World War II, she worked in a canteen for soldiers in Egypt for $1 a year. She had a short-lived career as a foreign correspondent, even moving to Paris to write for Harper's Bazaar.
• While living in Hawaii, Doris became the first non-Hawaiian woman to take up competitive surfing after learning from the best of the best, Duke Kahanamoku.
• She was an animal lover and supported animal rights and conservation long before it was fashionable.
• She cultivated rare and exotic flowers after learning to do so from Louis Bromfield, the Pulitzer Prize-winning author and horticulturist.

Doris had a priceless art collection. She was especially passionate about Southeast Asian and Islamic art. The collection is on public display at her former estate in Hawaii, which is now the Museum of Islamic Art, Culture, and Design. Here's a video tour of the Hawaiian estate today:

Tragedy and Controversy

Doris Duke lived a wild and exciting life, but it wasn't without tragedy and scandal. In 1966, Eduardo Tirella, the curator of her art collections, told Doris he was quitting to pursue a career as a production designer in the film industry. He flew to Rough Point, Doris' Newport, Rhode Island, estate, to pack his things and give her formal notice. The two were overheard having a heated argument by the estate's staff just before they got into a station wagon to leave.

According to Doris, Tirella drove the car down the driveway and stopped to get out and open the gates. He left the engine running. Doris moved over to the driver's seat so she could pick Tirella up as they left her estate. As she was moving into the driver's seat, she released the parking brake and accidentally hit the accelerator. The car sped forward and pinned Tirella between the station wagon and the gates. The gates soon gave way, sending the car into a tree across the road and killing Tirella. Newport police ruled the death an accident. Tirella's family sued Doris for wrongful death. They were awarded $75,000 — which was far less than they were seeking. Doris never married again after her second marriage failed. She never had children. But she did have deep, personal relationships with two people that would change the course of all of their lives. Here's a Drone video of Rough Point:

Chandi Heffner

In 1984, Doris met a woman named Chandi Heffner in Hawaii. The two women developed a deep bond almost instantly.

For some reason, Doris actually came to believe that Chandi was the reincarnation of her daughter Arden. The two traveled the world together, enjoying Doris' wealth. They spent time in Russia, went to Romania for "fountain of youth" treatments, shopped for a $25 million Boeing 737, and adopted two camels after Doris learned they were an endangered species. Chandi managed Doris's staff and advised her on financial matters. They were inseparable and traveled between Doris's huge New Jersey farm, her Newport, Rhode Island estate, and "Shangri-La," her palatial property on Oahu, Hawaii.

Here's where it gets weird: Doris adopted Chandi in 1988. Why is that weird? Chandi was 35 years old. She also reportedly promised to take care of Chandi in the manner she'd become accustomed to for the rest of her life and make her the executor of her will.

But something changed, and Doris cut Chandi out of her life and her will in 1991.

Bernard Lafferty

Ironically, it was Chandi who brought the other significant relationship of Doris' senior years into their lives when she recommended Bernard Lafferty as a butler. Bernard had formerly worked for Chandi's sister, Charlene, who had recently married billionaire Nelson Peltz. Bernard was Irish and an orphan who emigrated to the U.S. when he was 35. Doris hired him as her butler in 1987. He endeared himself to Doris and became her closest confidant and constant companion.

Doris Duke died on October 28, 1993, at the age of 80. Upon her death, Bernard was put in charge of the estate.

At the time of her death, Doris had a total net worth of $5.3 billion. This included her cash and investments, homes in New Jersey, Hawaii, Rhode Island, and Beverly Hills, her jewelry, and her art collection, which, in addition to her Southeast Asian and Islamic holdings, included works by Picasso, Monet, Van Gogh, and Rembrandt. She had a collection of rare wine –more than 2,000 bottles valued at over $5 million.

According to the terms of her will, the vast majority of Doris's fortune went to charity. Today, the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation controls assets worth approximately $2 billion. The Foundation has already given away $1.84 billion in its roughly 30 years of existence.

Chandi was left $0.

Chandi sued the estate, claiming she was owed a large amount of money as Doris's legal daughter. Amazingly, a jury agreed. Chandi was awarded $65 million in 1995. Today, Chandi lives on a ranch Doris purchased for her in Hawaii. Bernard died in 1996 of a heart attack in his sleep in his $2.1 million Bel-Air home.

It's not totally clear if Doris' father was right or wrong when he predicted people would only love her for her money. Or, at the very least, she never stopped trying to prove him wrong. The headline of Doris' New York Times obituary read: "Doris Duke, 80, Heiress Whose Great Wealth Couldn't Buy Happiness, Is Dead."

Read more: In 1925, The Second-Richest Person In The World Was A 12-Year-Old Girl

You might be surprised to learn that being an NFL ref is actually a part-time job.

That's right. While running up and down the field chasing men who earn an AVERAGE of $3 million per year (and some who earn as much as $40-60 million), NFL refs are essentially contract workers. They do not get paid time off. They do not get health benefits. And they even have to pay some professional costs on their own! For the vast majority of refs, their work on Sundays is simply a side job outside of their normal Monday-Friday job.

NFL Referee Salary

According to the latest data and union reports, for the 2025 season, the NFL referees earn between $205,000 and $250,000 per season. Rookie referees or those in their first few seasons earn less—usually between $100,000 and $150,000 per year.

For context, back in the 2012 season, the average referee made about $149,000. B

Since each official typically works around 18 games (including preseason and regular season), that average works out to roughly $11,000 per game. If you break the average NFL salary of $3.2 million down per game, it comes to $188,000 per game. Dak Prescott, who earns a league-leading $60 million per year, makes $3.53 million per game.

Ed Hochuli (Al Messerschmidt/Getty Images)

Playoff and Super Bowl Bonuses

NFL referees earn additional bonuses for working postseason games. Wild Card and Divisional Round officials typically receive $1,500 to $5,000 per game in extra pay. Conference Championship crews make slightly more. But the biggest single payday comes from the Super Bowl, where referees and their crews can earn an additional $30,000 to $50,000 for one game.

These assignments are considered the highest honor in the profession. Only the most accurate and consistent officials throughout the season are selected, and being chosen to officiate the Super Bowl is the refereeing equivalent of being named MVP.

Part-Time Job, Full-Time Workload

Despite their six-figure salaries, NFL referees are technically part-time employees. They do not receive year-round salaries, paid time off, or health benefits. Most hold full-time jobs outside of football. For example, before he retired, Ed Hochuli (pictured above) famously worked as a lawyer during the week before donning the stripes on Sundays.

That doesn't mean the job is easy. Officials estimate they spend 30 to 40 hours a week preparing for games—studying rules, reviewing film, attending meetings, and traveling. They also train physically to keep up with the athletes they oversee. During the offseason, referees attend seminars and fitness programs to stay sharp for the following year.

How To Become An NFL Referee

Reaching the NFL ranks requires years of experience. Most officials start at the high school or college level, often spending a decade or more working their way up. The league recruits primarily from NCAA Division I football, and candidates must complete extensive evaluations, rule exams, and fitness testing. Once selected, new referees enter a development program where they train under veteran officials before earning regular game assignments.

The Pressure of the Whistle

Referees are graded every week on every call. Those who consistently perform well get playoff assignments and better pay, while those who make too many mistakes risk being demoted or released. Every decision is reviewed by the league office, and the scrutiny can be intense. The introduction of high-definition cameras, replay systems, and social media has made the job more visible—and more stressful—than ever before.

Expenses and Trade-Offs

While the league covers travel and lodging, referees still shoulder a number of personal costs. They must maintain fitness on their own time, travel frequently, and manage their second careers. Since they are part-time employees, they also pay for their own health insurance and do not accrue traditional employee benefits. In other words, while the headline salary sounds generous, it's compensation for a uniquely demanding and pressure-filled role that takes up nearly as much time as a full-time job.

The Future of NFL Officiating Pay

The current collective bargaining agreement between the NFL and the officials' union is set to expire in 2026, and insiders expect the next negotiation to include pushes for higher salaries and better benefits. As the league's revenues continue to soar—thanks to record-breaking broadcast deals and streaming contracts—many argue that officials deserve a raise. There's also growing discussion about whether the league should finally make referees full-time employees to further professionalize the role.

Bottom Line

NFL referees are among the best in the world at what they do. They're expected to be flawless under extreme pressure, and most of the time, they are. In 2025, an average NFL referee earns between $200,000 and $250,000 per season, with top officials and Super Bowl assignments pushing that even higher. For a part-time job, it's an impressive paycheck—but it comes with the kind of scrutiny and stress that only the NFL can deliver.

Read more: How Much Does An NFL Referee Make? What Is An NFL Referee's Salary?

Tim Draper is the founder of Draper Fisher Jurvetson, a venture capital firm based in California. He is actually a third-generation venture capitalist. His father, William Henry Draper III, better known as Bill Draper, founded the Draper & Johnson Investment Company in 1962 and was chairman and president of the Export-Import Bank of the United States. Bill was an early investor in Skype, which eventually sold to eBay for $4.1 billion.

Some of Tim's venture successes include investments in Hotmail, Baidu, and Tesla. He was also a very early adopter of cryptocurrency. At one point, he bought around 41,000 bitcoins when they cost just $6. That set him back $250,000. If he still held those coins today, they'd be worth a little more than $4.8 BILLION. Tragically, Tim lost that entire investment in 2014 when the bitcoin exchange Mt. Gox collapsed, taking with it an enormous electronic fortune held by thousands of investors. Somehow, he wasn't deterred. In fact, he jumped right back into the bitcoin game.

Frederick M. Brown/Getty Images

Ross Ulbricht/Silk Road

Have you heard of Ross Ulbricht? As a quick refresher, Ross was arrested by the FBI in October 2013 and eventually convicted of being the mastermind of Silk Road, the dark web drug and other illicit services market. At the time, he was 29 years old. He served over a decade in federal prison until he was pardoned by President Donald Trump on January 21, 2025.

As the creator of Silk Road, Ross took a small cut of every transaction that occurred on his site. Be it a drug sale, a weapons purchase, or an alleged murder-for-hire, Ross took a little slice as the middleman.

During its time operating, the Silk Road reportedly processed $9 billion worth of transactions. Along the way, Ross built up an impressive little collection of bitcoin, 144,000 bitcoins to be exact. At the time of his arrest (October 2013), a single Bitcoin was trading for around $180. So Ross's Bitcoin stash was worth roughly $25 million.

The Auction

In mid-2014, the U.S. Marshals Service auctioned 30,000 bitcoins that formerly belonged to Ulbricht. Tim Draper was one of 45 people bidding on the confiscated bitcoin during the 12-hour auction. The bitcoins were auctioned off in nine blocks of 3,000 bitcoins and one block of 2,657 bitcoins. Draper was the ultimate winner of all ten blocks of the auction. In total, he paid $19 million for 29,657 bitcoins.

Draper still owns those coins today. Thanks to renewed optimism for digital currency coming thanks to Donald Trump's crypto-friendly administration, bitcoin has been soaring. As I type this article, a single Bitcoin would cost you $117,588. So today, Draper's 29,657 coins are worth…

$3,487,307,316

That's a $3.5 billion return on a $19 million investment 🙂

If you're Tim Draper, do you throw Ross Ulbricht a couple hundred million as a consolation? 

Read more: In 2014 Tim Draper Paid $19 Million For 30,000 Bitcoins Confiscated From The Silk Road. He Never Sold…

In the mid-1990s, Hawkins looked like a man set for life. He owned a private jet, a fleet of luxury cars, two lavish mansions complete with large household staff, and sent his children to elite private schools.

But behind the scenes, his empire was quietly crumbling. Lavish spending habits, poor financial guidance, and a disastrous attempt at tax avoidance would ultimately push him into bankruptcy, spark years of court battles with the IRS, and threaten to wipe out his wealth. As court filings later revealed, Hawkins' private jet cost $11.8 million and required $1 million annually to operate, with $100,000 monthly hangar fees. He bought a $2.6 million La Jolla vacation home, maintained a $3.5 million Atherton residence, and spent over $8,900 annually on SF Giants season tickets. At one point, the Hawkins family was spending $78,000 more per month than they earned.

To keep up, between 1996 and 1998 alone, he cashed out over $66 million worth of EA stock. But instead of paying the required taxes, he relied on elaborate accounting strategies that ultimately proved… not so wise.

And now, nearly three decades later, EA has reached its apex. Yesterday, it was announced that a consortium led by Saudi Arabia's sovereign wealth fund would acquire Electronic Arts in what will be the largest leveraged buyout in history (if it gets approved by regulators). Somewhere out in the world today, Trip Hawkins is definitely feeling the pain of not simply holding on to his shares…

The Rise of a Gaming Visionary

Before Trip Hawkins was building billion-dollar gaming franchises, he was studying game theory at Harvard. He attended Harvard at the same time as Bill Gates and Steve Ballmer. At Harvard, in addition to playing varsity football, Trip created his own major in Strategy and Applied Game Theory. He then went on to earn an MBA from Stanford. That mix of academic rigor and a lifelong love of games shaped his approach to business from the start.

In 1978, Hawkins joined Apple as one of its first 50 employees, serving as Director of Strategy and Marketing under Mike Markkula at first, then eventually reporting directly to Steve Jobs.

During his time at Apple, Trip had a very prescient revelation. All of Apple's developers were artistic weirdos. And all of these artistic weirdos were being paid to channel their creative energy into creating boring operating system software or business applications like spreadsheets. Trip's revelation was that these artistic weirdos should actually be channeling their creative energy into developing software that would build a much more … creative… product. For example, a game.

In May 1982, Trip left Apple and invested $200,000 of his own money to launch a video game development company. In December of 1982, he raised his first round of venture capital money. He also brought Steve Wozniak on as a board member.

One of his founding principles was to treat software developers as artists, just like filmmakers or rock stars. Hence the name, "Electronic Arts." EA's early branding even featured headshots of developers posed like album covers, a bold move in an industry that rarely credited creators.

Trip Hawkins (left) and a young business associate at Electronic Arts in 1984 (Photo by © Roger Ressmeyer/CORBIS/VCG via Getty Images)

Hit Games

One of the company's first games turned out to be a smash hit. It was also the first time a celebrity licensed their name and likeness to appear in a game. Actually, two celebrities. The game was called "1 on 1 with Dr. J & Larry Bird." Dr. J and Larry Bird were each paid $25,000 and received 2.5% of royalties.

Peak Net Worth

EA continued to rise thanks to PC games like Pinball Construction Set, Archon, and M.U.L.E., but the true breakout moment came in 1988 with the release of John Madden Football. EA soon inked licensing deals with professional sports leagues and athletes, leading to the creation of blockbuster franchises like Madden NFL, FIFA, and NHL.

To fund its growth, EA went public on January 9, 1989, listing on the NASDAQ under the ticker symbol "ERTS." The IPO raised significant capital and helped EA scale rapidly, expanding development, acquiring studios, and cementing its dominance in the gaming world. On the day of the IPO, Trip owned 20% of ERTS.

By the end of 1996, the year he divorced his first wife, Trip's stake in EA had dropped to 10%. At that point, the company's market cap was $1 billion. That meant – on paper – his net worth was $100 million.

From Industry Icon to IRS Target

Between 1996 and 1998, Trip Hawkins sold about $66 million worth of EA stock. Those proceeds funded both an opulent lifestyle—cars, houses, private school tuition, a private jet—and a bold new gamble: Hawkins invested $12 million of his own money into a new venture, The 3DO Company. Backed by Panasonic and Time Warner, 3DO aimed to revolutionize home gaming with a cutting-edge console. But the device was overpriced and underpowered compared to Sony's PlayStation. Despite early hype, 3DO flopped—and with it, a significant chunk of Hawkins' fortune vanished.

By then, the damage was already done. The EA stock sales that funded Hawkins' lifestyle and investments triggered approximately $67 million in taxable capital gains. Rather than pay the taxes owed, Hawkins followed the advice of accounting giant KPMG, which pitched him on aggressive tax shelters involving Swiss banks and Cayman Islands entities.

These shelters—known as FLIP (Foreign Leveraged Investment Program) and OPIS (Offshore Portfolio Investment Strategy)—were designed to manufacture paper losses to offset real gains. Under FLIP, Hawkins invested $1.5 million in UBS shares and an option to buy into a Cayman Islands company called Harbourtowne, which entered a $30 million contract to buy more UBS shares. UBS repurchased the shares before delivery, but KPMG told Hawkins he could still add that $30 million to his tax basis—effectively inventing a massive loss. OPIS worked the same way using a separate offshore vehicle. In total, Hawkins claimed more than $60 million in losses between 1996 and 2000 despite only risking about $3.5 million of real money.

In theory, it was all perfectly legal. In practice, Uncle Sam didn't agree. In 2002, the IRS formally disallowed the shelters for tax years 1997–2000, leaving Hawkins on the hook for about $36 million in back taxes and penalties—$21 million assessed by the IRS and $15.3 million by California's Franchise Tax Board. Hawkins managed to pay or forfeit tens of millions in cash and property toward his tax debt—selling homes and turning over seized funds—but even after those payments, the IRS still filed a proof of claim for $19 million and the FTB for $10.4 million more.

In a 2003 family court motion to reduce child support, Hawkins acknowledged owing $25 million to the IRS, stated he was insolvent, and indicated through his attorney that he intended to discharge the tax debt in bankruptcy. This declaration would later be cited as evidence of willful intent to avoid repayment.

A few years earlier, Hawkins purchased a private jet for $11.8 million. That jet required $1 million per year in operating costs and $100,000 per month in hangar fees. Court records show he used the plane for trips to Hawaii, England, Russia, Italy, Aspen, San Diego, and Long Beach. He sold this jet in 2003 for $5 million.

In 2002, he bought a newly built $2.6 million vacation home in La Jolla, maintained a $3.5 million home in Atherton, and spent nearly $9,000 per year on San Francisco Giants season tickets and parking.

Despite these lavish expenses, Hawkins denied that his lifestyle was excessive. In a 2015 interview, he claimed his only major indulgence was the jet:

"I bought a private jet because I thought it would make me more efficient in my work. That was really stupid."

He also insisted his real mistake was trusting his accountants, who told him the tax shelters were legitimate. In his defense, Hawkins wasn't alone. In 2005, the IRS hit KPMG with a $456 million fine—the largest criminal tax case ever filed at the time—for what it called a "multi-billion dollar criminal tax fraud conspiracy." Through FLIP, OPIS, and similar schemes, KPMG generated $11 billion in fictitious tax losses, costing the U.S. Treasury an estimated $2.5 billion. While some KPMG accountants were later prosecuted, clients like Hawkins avoided charges thanks to formal opinion letters declaring the shelters legal at the time.

Bankruptcy and Legal Battles

In 2006, Hawkins filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy. Within months, he sold his Atherton home for $6.5 million and his La Jolla condo for $3.5 million, applying the proceeds to the IRS. But that wasn't enough to avoid scrutiny. Both the IRS and California's Franchise Tax Board argued that Hawkins had willfully tried to evade his tax debts, making them non-dischargeable under bankruptcy law.

In 2011, U.S. District Judge Jeffrey S. White upheld an earlier bankruptcy court ruling that rejected Hawkins' attempt to discharge his debts. In a sharply worded 16-page opinion, the judge concluded that Hawkins knew he was insolvent after the IRS disallowed his tax shelters, but "continued to spend money extravagantly with knowledge of his tax liabilities." Among the cited examples was the purchase of a $70,000 Cadillac Escalade—the fourth vehicle in a two-driver household. Judge White wrote that "Hawkins planned to defeat his taxes via bankruptcy and continue living the lifestyle to which he had grown accustomed."

But in 2014, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals reversed that ruling. In a 2–1 decision, the court ruled that lavish spending alone is not enough to prove intent to evade taxes. It held that tax debts can only be denied discharge if the debtor acted with specific intent to avoid paying. The case was remanded to bankruptcy court for re-examination under this stricter standard.

Judge Johnnie Rawlinson, in dissent, warned that the ruling risked enabling "the shenanigans of the rich." She pointed to Hawkins' own court statements indicating he planned to use bankruptcy to avoid tax payments, and highlighted his extraordinary personal expenses, including $94,000 per month in 2005 and the $1,200 monthly payment on the Escalade.

He still maintains that he is a victim in all this, not a tax dodger. As he explained in a 2015 interview:

"Tax code seems to me to be about as complicated as brain surgery, and I don't pretend to tell either tax experts or surgeons how to do their thing, and I would bet you would feel the same. You ask them to do all the forms, and you trust what they do. If they say they know a way to legally save money on a good investment or deduction, you do what they say. We all make mistakes trusting people, it is just that the higher you are, the further you are going to fall."

"Yes, before I clearly understood and accepted that I had tax problems and obligations, I did spend too much money because I presumed, like most people, that my money was my money and that I was an American living in the USA."

Critics were unsympathetic. As one legal commentator noted, even a basic understanding of tax law should have made it clear that claiming $60 million in losses on a $3.5 million investment wouldn't hold up to scrutiny.

The 2016 Final Decision

On remand, the bankruptcy court reconsidered the case under the stricter "specific intent" standard. In 2016, Judge Thomas Carlson concluded that Hawkins had not acted with specific intent to evade taxes. He ruled that Hawkins genuinely believed the losses from his FLIP and OPIS tax shelters were legitimate, and that while his spending was excessive, it was not a deliberate attempt to defraud the IRS. Later that same year, the court entered a final judgment: all of Hawkins' pre-bankruptcy federal and state tax liabilities were discharged. After more than a decade of legal battles, Hawkins had effectively wiped out more than $25 million in debts.

Life After EA

Even after his fortune dwindled and legal troubles mounted, Trip Hawkins never stopped innovating. While his post-EA ventures didn't reach the same dizzying heights as Electronic Arts, they reflect a continued passion for technology, education, and gaming.

In the 2010s, Hawkins remained active in the tech and gaming space through a number of board and advisory roles. In 2012, he joined the board of Israeli tech firm Extreme Reality, which developed 3D motion control software using only a standard 2D camera. A year later, he became a senior advisor to Nativex, a mobile ad platform for games. In 2014, he joined the advisory board of Skillz, a mobile eSports company that helps developers integrate competitive gaming into their apps.

From 2016 to 2019, Hawkins served as a professor of entrepreneurship and leadership at UC Santa Barbara, where he shared insights from his rollercoaster career with the next generation of founders. He currently resides in Santa Barbara, continuing to straddle the worlds of gaming, education, and mentorship.

What Could Have Been…

Hawkins ultimately escaped his tax debts through bankruptcy, but the real cost was opportunity. Had he simply held onto his EA stock instead of cashing out in the late 1990s, his stake would have been worth billions.

As a reminder, on the day EA went public in 1989, Trip owned 20% of the company. By the mid-1990s, he owned 10%.

On Monday, it was revealed that a consortium of investors—led primarily by Saudi Arabia's sovereign wealth fund—had agreed to take EA private in a $55 billion leveraged buyout, the largest in history. At that valuation, if Trip still held his original stake, he would be walking away with an $11 billion payday. If he "just" still held his mid-1990s 10% stake, today he would be receiving $5.5 billion.

Read more: The Founder Of Electronic Arts Made $100 Million In The 1990s, Lost It All On Private Jets and Bad Tax Advice… And Just Missed Out On $11 Billion

Laptops were in their infancy and did not yet have hard drives. Streaming movies and entertainment did not exist. Mark Zuckerberg was three years old in 1987. Jeff Bezos was a recent graduate of Princeton University. Elon Musk was a 15-year-old schoolboy in South Africa who, when he wasn't being bullied, was programming computer games as a hobby.

The richest person in the world back in 1987 wasn't Bill Gates, although that was the year the Microsoft co-founder became a billionaire for the first time. In 1987, Gates had a net worth of $1.25 billion. Today, Bill Gates' net worth is $120 billion, and that makes him only the SIXTH richest person in the world!

There have been literal revolutions in technology, fashion, music, politics, and culture since 1987. There hasn't, however, been a ton of change in who is the richest person in the world. Since 1985, there have been just eight men who have been, at one point or another, the richest person in the world. Eight. You'll know some of the seven names: Bill Gates, Jeff Bezos, Elon Musk, etc. But who are the others who, at one point in the last three+ decades, wore the crown… if only briefly?

Bill Gates and Carlos Slim Helu (Ronaldo Schemidt/AFP via Getty Images)

Before we dive into our story, if you enjoy reading about people who have made enormous fortunes, please subscribe to our newsletter, Deep Pockets. Once a week, on Saturday mornings, we send one story to your inbox that talks about a massive fortune from history being made (or lost). There are no ads, and the newsletter is totally free. Please subscribe by entering your email in the box below, then hit subscribe. You won't regret it:

The Richest Person In The World: 1985 to 2025

1985 – 1990: Yoshiaki Tsutsumi

• $20 billion (1987)
• $18.9 billion (1988)
• $15 billion (1989)
• $16 billion (1990)

Yoshiaki Tsutsumi took over the company his father, Yasujiro Tsutsumi, founded and expanded it into real estate, railways, hotels, and resorts. At one point, Yoshiaki's Seibu Corporation owned 1/6 of the land in Japan. At its height, Yoshiaki's Seibu Railway Group owned a transport network, a baseball team, more than 80 hotels, 52 golf courses, and dozens of ski resorts in Japan and across the globe. In many cities in Japan, it was quite possible to board a Seibu train to a Seibu shopping center, hotel, or resort without ever setting foot on another company's property. The media called it the Seibu Kingdom.

From the mid-1980s to 1990, Yoshiaki's empire was on top of the world. The Seibu Group was so powerful that local authorities were scared of it. In one Japanese town, Seibu employed a quarter of all employees. Seibu also drove those employees to polling booths to support the firm's preferred candidates during elections. In 1987, Yoshiaki had a net worth of $20 billion. That's the same as around $45 billion in today's dollars.

AFP/AFP via Getty Images

1991 – 1992: Taikichiro Mori

• $18.5 billion (1991)
• $13 billion (1992)

Taikichiro Mori was the founder of the Mori Building Company. Long before he decided to get into the real estate business, he was a professor. Mori graduated from the Tokyo College of Commerce (now Hitotsubashi University) in 1928. He became a professor of economics at Kyoto Sericulture Technical High School (now Kyoto Institute of Technology) in 1932. In 1946, he went to work for Yokohama City University, where, from 1954 to 1959, he was the Dean of the Faculty of Commerce. It was while he was working for Yokohama City University that he founded the Mori Building Company. He died in 1993 of heart failure at the age of 88.

1993 – 1994: Yoshiaki Tsutsumi

• $9 billion (1993)
• $8.5 billion (1994)

Upon the death of Taikichiro Mori in January 1993, Yoshiaki Tsutsumi once again became the richest person in the world. At the time, Yoshiaki had a net worth of $9 billion. Yoshiaki is credited with single-handedly bringing the Winter Olympics back to Asia at Nagano in 1998, using a mixture of money and charm with a whiff of scandal and corruption. Tsutsumi also got into sports, building a stadium in Tokyo for his professional baseball team, the Seibu Lions.

Unfortunately, 1987 would prove to be the peak of his fortunes, literally and figuratively. His net worth waned in the 1990s as Japan experienced widespread economic malaise and soon lost its status as the world's industrial and technological powerhouse. In 1994, Tsutsumi had a net worth of $8.5 billion. Things got worse in the 2000s. Japanese regulators began investigating Yoshiaki and Seibu in the early 2000s. He was arrested in 2005 on suspicion of violating securities laws. He pleaded guilty and was initially sentenced to serve 30 months in prison, but ultimately served a four-year suspended sentence. He was sued by his own company and, in 2016, agreed to pay a $200 million settlement. He is no longer a billionaire.

1995 – 2007: Bill Gates

• $12.9 billion (1995)
• $18 billion (1996)
• $36.4 billion (1997)
• $51 billion (1998)
• $90 billion (1999)
• $60 billion (2000)
• $58.7 billion (2001)
• $52.8 billion (2002)
• $47 billion (2003)
• $46.6 billion (2004)
• $50 billion (2005)
• $52 billion (2006)
• $56 billion (2007)

Bill Gates became the richest person in the world for the first time in 1995, with a net worth of $12.9 billion. After adjusting for inflation, that's the same as around $26 billion in today's dollars.

Microsoft went public in 1986. On the day of the IPO, Gates' equity gave him a paper fortune of $350 million. A year later, he was a billionaire, with a net worth of $1.25 billion. By 1990, his net worth was $2.5 billion. By 1994, it was $8 billion.

In 1995, Bill's $12.9 billion net worth was enough to top the waning fortune of Yoshiaki Tsutsumi and earn him the rank of richest person in the world for the first time in his life. Bill would go on to hold this rank uninterrupted for the next 12 years.

Gates' net worth shot up from $12.9 billion to $90 billion by 1999. Being worth $99 billion in 1999 is the same as being worth around $185 billion today, after adjusting for inflation. And then the dot-com bubble burst. In 2000, Gates' net worth had dropped to $60 billion, then to $58.7 billion in 2001, $52.8 billion in 2002, $47 billion in 2003, and $46.6 billion in 2004. It fluctuated between $50 and $56 billion between 2005 and 2007.

2008: Warren Buffett

• $62 billion (2008)

The Oracle of Omaha, Warren Buffett, has consistently been near the top of the world's richest people for the past, well, as long as a list has been recorded, but 2008 was the only year so far that he has been the world's richest person, thanks to his net worth of $60 billion.

It's fitting, in a way, that 2008, the year that the global financial crisis took hold, was a good one for frugal Buffett. Also easing his way to the top spot was the fact that 2008 was the year that Gates stepped down as Chairman of Microsoft to devote himself to the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.

Today, Warren Buffett's net worth is $130 billion, which is only enough to make him the ninth richest person in the world.

2009: Bill Gates

• $40 billion (2009)

Over the next 12 months, Buffett saw shares of Berkshire Hathaway drop nearly 50% in 12 months and wiped out $25 billion of his net worth. That paved the way for Gates to once again assume the title of the richest man in the world, with a net worth of $40 billion.

2010 – 2013: Carlos Slim Helu

• $53.4 billion (2010)
• $73 billion (2013)

This period in time was remarkable, in the fact that for the third year in a row, there was a new richest man in the world. This time, it was the richest man in Mexico, Carlos Slim Helu, who booted Bill Gates out of the top spot. Slim holds a 57% stake in the mobile phone giant America Movil. He also holds large stakes in the banking and insurance company Grupo Financiero Inbursa and holding company Grupo Carso, and other stakes in companies including Minera Frisco and the New York Times. Even though he has transferred stakes to his six children. Slim Helu reigned as the richest man for four years, with a net worth in 2011 of $74 billion, $69 billion in 2012, and $73 billion in 2013.

Today, Carlos Slim Helu's net worth is $101 billion, which makes him "just" the 15th richest person in the world.

/AFP via Getty Images

2014 – 2017: Bill Gates

• $76 billion (2014)
• $86 billion (2017)

In 2014, Bill Gates grabbed the top spot once again and held onto it for four years, holding off the rise of Jeff Bezos' fortune as well as Bernard Arnault, Warren Buffett, and Carlos Slim Helu. He stepped completely away from Microsoft in 2014. His 2015 net worth was $79.2 billion, $75 billion in 2016, and $86 billion in 2017.

2018 – 2021: Jeff Bezos

• $112 billion (2018)
• $170 billion (2019)
• $111 billion (2020)

A new world order, in many ways, happened in 2018 when Bezos and Gates both crossed the threshold of $100 billion in total net worth. That was also the first full year Jeff was the richest person on the planet. He topped Bill for the first time in July 2017, quickly lost the crown… the re-gained it for the next two years straight.

Bezos' 2019 net worth was, at one point, $170 billion. Then he got divorced and parted with a roughly $40 billion chunk of Amazon stock in his settlement with his ex-wife, MacKenzie Scott.

Photo by Drew Angerer/Getty Images

2021 – 2024: Elon Musk

Elon Musk's net worth was "just" $30 billion at the beginning of 2020. Fast forward to November 2021, and for a brief period, Elon Musk was worth $340 billion. That was enough to make him the richest person in modern history, breaking a record that had been held by John D. Rockefeller for over 80 years. At least for now, that November 2021 number is looking a lot like the zenith for Musk's wealth. He ended 2022 with a net worth of $200 billion. He ended 2023 with a net worth of $220 billion.

2024: Elon + Bezos + Bernard Arnault

In just the first three months of 2024, roughly 75 days, three different men held the title of richest person in the world. Elon Musk started 2024 in the top slot with a net worth of $220 billion. On March 5, Jeff Bezos retook the top slot when his $198 billion net worth surpassed Elon's $192 billion net worth. Meanwhile, LVMH CEO Bernard Arnault was waiting in the cut. With LVMH's stock price inching higher and Amazon's inching lower, on March 8, Bernard ended the day with a net worth of $201 billion, which was $3 billion more than Jeff Bezos was worth. At that point, Bernard became the richest person in the world for the first time in his life. Though it should be noted that other less-reliable outlets have previously reported Bernard as being the richest person in the world, but those previous reports from 2023 were not accurate. March 8, 2024, was the first day Bernard Arnault was the richest person on earth.

As it turned out, Bernard held the crown for just a few weeks. Jeff Bezos regained the title in the middle of 2024, and then, by the end of 2024, Elon Musk had swung back into the top position by a long shot. For a brief moment in December 2024, Elon came within inches of having a net worth of $500 BILLION.

2025: Elon + Ellison

Elon had a very weird start to 2025. After seeing his net worth come very close to $500 billion at the end of 2024, Elon's net worth seemed poise to continue rocketing to Mars in 2025. That's not what happened. After signing up to be Donald Trump's head of the new "Department of Government Efficiency," Elon's popularity nosedived on both sides of the aisle. As his popularity crashed, so did Tesla's share price. After hitting $428 per share in mid-January, Tesla sank all the way down to $220, where it roughly remained from March through April. Along the way, Elon's net worth dropped all the way back down into the $200 billion range before steadily marching right back up to $380+ billion by September.

Meanwhile, Musk's good buddy Larry Ellison (owner of 1.4% of Tesla and 42% of Oracle) saw his net worth absolutely dominate 2025. Ellison's fortune increased by over $200 billion from the start of 2025. And on September 10, 2025, after Oracle gave an extra positive outlook on future growth prospects, the company's share price increased a whopping 40%. With that increase, Larry's net worth jumped a full $100 billion IN A SINGLE DAY. That increase instantly boosted his net worth by $100 billion, taking him from $300 billion to $400 billion in one fell swoop. And in the process, Larry Ellison became the richest person in the world for the first time.

Read more: Who Was The Richest Person In The World Every Year From The 1980s To The Present?

By the time he was 25, Arnold had already built a real estate empire in Los Angeles that would make most seasoned investors envious. While other struggling actors were waiting tables, Arnold was quietly flipping apartment buildings and reinvesting his profits into bigger and better deals.

It's one of the most surprising chapters of Schwarzenegger's life — and it set the stage for everything that followed. Long before the fame, the muscles, the movie contracts, and the political career, Arnold was laser-focused on business. He came to America not just to chase his Hollywood dream, but to get rich, plain and simple. And thanks to a combination of frugality, hustle, and good timing, he did exactly that…

Evening Standard/Getty Images

Humble Beginnings

Arnold Schwarzenegger was born on July 30, 1947, in the village of Thal, Austria. His father was the town's police chief, and money was tight. Arnold has said that the highlight of his childhood was the day his family could finally afford a refrigerator. They had no hot water, no plumbing, and no financial security.

While his father wanted him to pursue soccer, Arnold became obsessed with bodybuilding. In his teens, he began competing across Europe and quickly racked up wins. By his early 20s, he was a multiple-time Mr. Universe champion and one of the most famous bodybuilders in the world.

Arriving In America With Cash And A Plan

In 1968, at the age of 21, Schwarzenegger moved to the United States and settled in Los Angeles. Thanks to his bodybuilding success, he arrived with $27,000 in cash savings — the equivalent of about $230,000 today after adjusting for inflation.

That money didn't just come from prize winnings. Arnold was already hustling: he had a mail-order fitness business and had appeared in the 1969 film "Hercules in New York" in a small role. But acting success was still years away. In the meantime, he set up shop at Gold's Gym in Venice Beach and began making a name for himself in the local bodybuilding community — all while quietly plotting his financial future.

AFP/AFP/Getty Images

Buying His First Building

One of Schwarzenegger's early culture shocks in America was how comfortable everyone seemed renting apartments. He found it wasteful. Where he came from, people bought their homes and built equity. So when he moved to LA, Arnold didn't just rent an apartment — he bought the whole building.

Using his $27,000 as a down payment, he purchased a four-unit apartment building for $214,000. Just one year later, he flipped the property for $360,000 — a profit of nearly 70%. With those gains, he rolled the proceeds into a 12-unit building, then a 36-unit complex, then a 100-unit property.

Each sale allowed him to reinvest without triggering capital gains taxes, and his wealth began to compound. He used this snowball strategy again and again — buying low, selling high, and leveraging each win into the next opportunity.

Building A Real Estate Empire

Throughout the 1970s and into the 1980s, Arnold continued buying up properties across Southern California. He picked up office buildings, apartment complexes, and condominiums — mostly in emerging neighborhoods like Venice Beach, Santa Monica, and West LA.

One of his best flips came when he bought a building in Santa Monica for $450,000, then sold it later for $2.3 million. In another deal, he made $7 million selling an office building in Nevada that he had acquired years earlier for a fraction of that price.

By the time he was 25 years old — a full decade before his breakout acting roles — Arnold was already a real estate millionaire. In fact, it's likely that his early property income helped launch his Hollywood career. Unlike other aspiring actors, he didn't have to scramble for rent money or take every audition just to survive. He could afford to be selective, wait for the right roles, and invest in himself.

Why He Was Able To Get In Early

Schwarzenegger has often said that if he had waited even a few more years, he never could have afforded to break into the Los Angeles real estate market. He had the luck of timing — and the courage to take big risks early.

Within six years of arriving in the U.S., Arnold had gone from immigrant bodybuilder with a thick accent and limited English to a full-fledged American real estate success story. By the early 1980s, he was making acting headway, but his portfolio was already doing much of the heavy lifting.

Still A Property Tycoon Today

Even after becoming one of the biggest movie stars in the world, Schwarzenegger never walked away from real estate. In fact, he expanded into more sophisticated investments and began operating through a series of real estate holding companies.

Today, Arnold is believed to own tens of millions of dollars worth of real estate in Southern California, including apartment complexes, commercial properties, and luxury homes. Much of his portfolio remains concentrated in Venice Beach, where he began investing more than 50 years ago.

Real estate was — and remains — a key pillar of Schwarzenegger's long-term financial empire.

And Real Estate Isn't Even His Most Valuable Side Hustle…

In 1996, Schwarzenegger made a private investment that may have turned out to be even more valuable than his entire real estate portfolio.

That year, Arnold quietly acquired a 5% stake in an investment firm called Dimensional Fund Advisors (DFA) for an undisclosed fee. Founded by David Booth, at the time, DFA was a little-known money management company that catered to institutional clients and academics. When he bought his 5% stake, DFA managed $12 billion in assets.

When Schwarzenegger filed his financial disclosure while running for Governor of California in 2003, he disclosed that DFA's assets under management had ballooned to $300 billion. Today, DFA is believed to manage just under $800 billion.

At current valuation levels, Arnold's 5% stake is estimated to be worth $300 million to $500 million pre-tax — a staggering figure that likely surpasses the value of his entire real estate empire.

The Bottom Line

When you total it all up – movie career + real estate + DFA investment, Arnold Schwarzenegger's net worth today stands at $850 million. A far cry from the Austrian farm boy who grew up without plumbing 🙂

Arnold Schwarzenegger is living proof that financial success doesn't require a silver spoon or Ivy League credentials. It takes hustle, vision, timing — and the willingness to bet on yourself.

Read more: By The Time He Was 25, Arnold Schwarzenegger Was A Multi-Millionaire. And It Had Nothing To Do With Acting.

The question of who holds the title of "richest family in the world" has been debated for decades. Some contenders are business dynasties that turned small enterprises into global giants, like the Walton family of Walmart or the Hermès-Dumas clan in luxury fashion. Others are royal households, whose power and fortunes are deeply tied to natural resources. The ruling families of Qatar, Abu Dhabi, and Saudi Arabia sit atop vast oil and gas reserves that have redefined global wealth. Their fortunes are difficult to untangle from state assets, yet their control is undeniable.

This list ranks the top five richest families in the world today, using the best available estimates of their combined net worth. It is presented in reverse order, from fifth to first. At the end, we also examine "Unverified Fortunes" – families like the Rothschilds, whose legendary wealth remains shrouded in myth and speculation.

5. Hermès Family (Dumas Family) – $170.6 billion

The Hermès family, owners of the Hermès luxury empire, has crafted one of Europe's greatest fortunes. Their net worth is estimated at roughly $170.6 billion, driven by control of the fashion house founded in 1837 by Thierry Hermès. What began as a harness and saddle workshop for the nobility evolved into one of the most coveted luxury brands on Earth.

Hermès is synonymous with exclusivity. Its silk scarves, ties, and especially the Birkin and Kelly handbags are status symbols with years-long waiting lists. By maintaining scarcity and an unwavering focus on craftsmanship, the company has built unmatched pricing power. The brand's cult following in markets like China and the Middle East has only fueled growth.

Leadership today rests with sixth-generation descendants in the Dumas branch. Axel Dumas serves as executive chairman, while Pierre-Alexis Dumas guides artistic direction. The family retains tight control over the business, ensuring it remains independent despite frequent speculation about mergers with rivals like LVMH. Their fortune has soared as Hermès stock repeatedly hit record highs, making the family the wealthiest in France and firmly within the global top five.

4. Al Thani Family (House of Thani, Qatar) – $172 billion

The Al Thani family, rulers of Qatar since the mid-19th century, transformed a desert emirate into one of the richest states per capita in the world. Their fortune, estimated at $172.9 billion, stems largely from Qatar's enormous natural gas reserves.

The turning point came under Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani, who seized power in 1995. He prioritized the development of the North Field, the largest natural gas field in the world. Within decades, Qatar became a leading exporter of liquefied natural gas, supplying major economies in Asia and Europe. That energy wealth created staggering revenues for the ruling family.

The Qatar Investment Authority, its sovereign wealth fund, has expanded the fortune through global holdings. Stakes in Barclays, Volkswagen, Harrods, and London's Shard skyscraper are just a few of their visible investments. Current ruler Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani, Hamad's son, oversees a dynasty that balances political influence with a fortune that stretches far beyond the Gulf. The Al Thanis remain a textbook example of how natural resources can catapult a royal family into the ranks of the world's wealthiest.

3. Al Nahyan Family (House of Nahyan, Abu Dhabi) – $323 billion

The Al Nahyan family of Abu Dhabi, part of the United Arab Emirates, controls one of the world's largest oil fortunes. Their combined wealth is estimated at $323.9 billion, making them the richest family in the UAE.

Abu Dhabi holds about 10% of the planet's proven oil reserves. The family's patriarch, Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan, used this wealth to unify the UAE in 1971 and lay the foundation for today's prosperity. His son, Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan (MBZ), now serves as President of the UAE and head of the dynasty.

The Al Nahyan fortune flows through powerful sovereign wealth funds, most notably the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority and Mubadala. Together, they control hundreds of billions in global assets ranging from real estate to technology companies. The family has also made splashy acquisitions, such as Manchester City Football Club. Their wealth is not just about oil revenue but also about how effectively they reinvested it across the globe. At over $300 billion, the Al Nahyan dynasty sits solidly in the top three.

2. Walton Family – $430 billion

The Walton family represents the pinnacle of business dynasties. With a combined fortune of roughly $432 billion, they are the richest non-royal family in the world. Their wealth comes from Walmart, the retail giant founded by Sam Walton in 1962.

From a single store in Rogers, Arkansas, Walmart grew into the world's largest retailer. The company generated $648 billion in revenue in 2024 and employs 2.3 million people worldwide. The Waltons still control about 45% of Walmart's equity.

Sam's children – Jim, Rob, and Alice – each hold tens of billions. His grandchildren and in-laws are billionaires as well, making the family tree a constellation of wealth. Even as some of their shares have been funneled into charitable foundations, their holdings remain immense. The Waltons' fortune rises and falls with Walmart's stock, but with the company's global dominance intact, their position as the richest American family is secure.

Jim Walton has a net worth of $120 billion. Alice Walton is worth $123 billion. Rob Walton is worth $116 billion. Lukas Walton is worth $40 billion. Christy Walton has $20 billion, and Ann Walton Kroenke has $12 billion.

Rick T. Wilking/Getty Images

1. House of Saud (Saudi Royal Family) – $1.4 trillion

The House of Saud, rulers of Saudi Arabia, is in a class of its own. Their estimated fortune of $1.4 trillion makes them the richest family in the world by a staggering margin.

The family's wealth is inseparable from Saudi Aramco, the state-owned oil company that is the most valuable corporation on Earth, with a market cap approaching $6 trillion. The Al Saud dynasty controls the company's vast reserves, representing nearly 17% of the world's oil.

There are about 15,000 members of the royal family, with power and money concentrated in a few hundred princes. King Salman, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, and billionaire Prince Alwaleed bin Talal are among the best-known members. Their wealth is displayed through palaces, fleets of private jets, and extravagant art purchases, like the $450 million Leonardo da Vinci painting acquired by a Saudi prince. No other dynasty comes close to the House of Saud in sheer scale, cementing their place at the top of this ranking.

AMER HILABI/AFP/Getty Images

Unverified Fortunes & Historical Dynasties

Some families are legendary for their wealth, but too difficult to rank with precision. Chief among them are the Rothschilds, the European banking dynasty that pioneered international finance in the 18th and 19th centuries.

Mayer Amschel Rothschild and his five sons built a cross-continental banking network that once dominated global finance. In relative terms, they were almost certainly the wealthiest family of the 19th century. But their fortune was divided over generations and dispersed into various business branches.

Estimates of modern Rothschild wealth range from hundreds of billions to wild claims of trillions. The truth lies closer to the former. While the family still controls banks, wineries, and real estate, no individual Rothschild ranks among the world's richest people today. Their enduring mystique has made them magnets for conspiracy theories, from claims they control central banks to whispers of shadow governments. Similar "old money" families like the Rockefellers have also seen their fortunes diluted over time.

These dynasties remain wealthy and influential, but in today's rankings, they are overshadowed by the oil-rich royals and modern business empires that dominate the global wealth landscape.

Read more: The World's Richest Families (2025 Edition)