How To Be Top of The Rich List
By Fin Sheridan
Every year, The Sunday Times publishes The Rich List: the definitive guide to wealth in the UK. I’ve got to admit – I’m a little bit addicted to the lives and lifestyles of the rich. Anytime there’s a programme, video or article about it, I’m all over it, eyes glued to the screen as I watch people spend my annual salary on a pair of shoes. I can’t be the only one either because there’s a lot of them out there!
It might be shallow but so much of our world revolves around money – making it, keeping it, spending it. It drives and dictates so much of our lives and our decisions. Imagine if you didn’t have to think about the money you had in your bank account – you just knew there would be enough.
How much is enough, though? Well, one quote from Jack Ma, founder of China’s online retail store, said last year “that he believed the optimum level of wealth for happiness came with earning between £2,500 and £5000 per month.” That’s between £30k and £60k a year which is over the average UK salary of £27,500 according to this article. Incidentally, Jack Ma has a fortune of £26.7bn.
“It is the people we love, not the profits we make, that truly make us wealthy.”
Topping the Rich List are brother Sri and Gopi Hinduja with £16.2bn – a jump of £3.2bn from last year when they sat at number 2. With a business empire started by their father in 1914, the Hindujas have interests in oil, IT, energy, media, banking, property and healthcare, spread across multiple nations and employing more than 70,000 people in the process.
Unattainable for most of us, right? Well, dear reader, you are wrong. A quote from Gopi gives you and I the secret to such wealth – a way for you and I to perhaps beat them to the top of next years Rich List.
“If you consider one to be rich only because of his money, you are wrong. I consider someone to be rich if he has good friends, good contacts and good relationships.” Wise words indeed, that are reiterated by the super rich across the world. It is the people we love, not the profits we make, that truly make us wealthy.
With that in mind, Mr Hinduja, could you spare £3 billion? I can repay you in friendship….
