Extravagant Luxuries Owned By The Richest People

It’s hard for us to imagine having more money than we could possibly spend in a lifetime, but there are many rich people who have such a fortune. We explored the luxury items of the richest people.

Take mega superstar Mariah Carey. You might not be a Mariah fan, but her work has allowed her to amass a fortune that has an estimated value of $500 million. Ms. Carey employs a battalion size staff that literally caters to her every whim. The woman has an assistant whose sole job is to carry around sanitary hand wipes to give to Carey after she shakes hands with anyone. It is reported that she even has an assistant who has the responsibility of telling Mariah how beautiful she is every morning and several times throughout the day.

Mega film starlet Angelina Jolie, with a personal fortune valued at $100 million, employs a small legion of assistants to help her. This includes a gaggle of nannies (of different nationalities to match the nations of birth of her adopted kids), at least 4 nurses and a doctor, a couple of personal assistants, cooks, maids, cleaners, bodyguards and the like.

You have to be insanely rich to afford a franchise in one of the three major American sports (football, basketball and baseball). The Dallas Cowboys of the National Football League, dubbed “America’s Team”, is a perfect example.

Cowboys fan and successful oil industry businessman Jerry Jones, bought the Cowboys in 1989 for $150 million, a hefty price at the time. With a personal net worth at about $1.8 billion, this was a pretty good deal for him because in this exceptional case the stadium was included. That move allowed him to maximize his profit potential once the team improved its play on the field and the fans started to return. Today, that $150 million investment is worth $1.8 billion, as the latest assessment values the Cowboys.

Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen, who is worth about $13 billion, owns two professional teams. In 1988, he bought the National Basketball Association’s Portland Trailblazers for the cool sum of $70 million. Nine years later, he dropped another $200 million for the NFL’s Seattle Seahawks. Today, these investments are worth $356 million and $994 million, respectively.

If you want to make money and you’re a public figure or entertainer, then you might consider owning your own production company. Take craft master Martha Stewart for example. The former caterer has turned her culinary/ home crafts skills into a multi-billion dollar industry by taking control of her business ventures. By consolidating her various enterprises under the umbrella of her media company, Martha Living Omnimedia – Ms. Stewart has amassed a net worth of $600+ million. Martha owns her own magazines (Martha Stewart Living and Martha Stewart Weddings), produces and markets her television show (Martha Stewart Living), and markets/sells a whole slew of product lines.

With a staggering net worth of $2.4 billion, Oprah Winfrey is one of the most powerful and influential media personalities. Her Harpo Productions has long produced her award winning and highly rated, The Oprah Winfrey Show, as well as other media projects. This cash cow (and other ventures such as her own magazine ‘O’), has allowed Ms. Winfrey to take another step in media dominance as she has purchased her own cable TV network. Christened OWN (Oprah Winfrey Network), the cable channel, which hosts a 24/7 affair of Oprah inspired entertainment, allows Oprah to do what she wants, how she wants.

The Ultra-Rich have homes that could house a small country in terms of size. Aaron Spelling’s former home in Los Angeles, for example, is 56,000 square feet! With over 120 rooms, it sits on 4.6 acres of prime LA real estate. And with a $150 million price tag, it can be yours if this fits your lifestyle.

Bill Gates’ lakeside home in Medina Washington is said to be a technological wonder befitting something out of Star Trek (or the tech whiz persona of the Microsoft co-founder and billionaire). Named Xanadu, the Gates family home measures out at an impressive 66,000 square feet and is valued at about $147 million. While the Gate’s home has all of the normal trappings of a mansion – lots of rooms, libraries, etc; the features that garner the most attention are tech based. One in particular requires all guests to wear a special pen that allows the home to tailor certain features of the home to the wearer’s preference – such as room temperatures, music, etc.

A Super yacht is any yacht that measures 80 feet or longer. This is a meager number to the Ultra-Rich. Russian billionaire, Roman Abromovich, happens to own one of the largest yacht (at least currently) in the world. His super yacht, the Eclipse, measures out at 531.5 feet.

One of the next largest yachts in the world, the Dubai – coming in at 526 feet – is owned by one of the richest men in the world, Sheik Mohammed Bin Rashid al-Maktoum, the Ruler of Dubai. These super yachts are literally homes that float. Private gyms, luxurious bedrooms, helicopter pads, full staff, submarines, jet skis – you name it, these super yachts have it. These fall in the $19 million plus range.

The Octopus is a 414 foot (126 m) super yacht owned by Paul Allen, co-founder of Microsoft. The Octopus sports two helicopter pads (at the front and rear), it has a basketball court, a nightclub, a jet ski dock, 2 submarines and a pool. It has more than enough room to hold and entertain 26 guests for weeks if not months. Weighing 9,000 tons Allen snapped it up for $200 million in 2003 and it costs $20 million a year to run.

Mega superstar Mel Gibson ponied up $15 million for his Mago Island (located in Fiji).

The Magic Man himself, Mr. David Copperfield (who pulls in a whopping $57 mil a year) owns not one, but a slew of small islands in the Bahamas.

Pirate’s of the Carribean star, Johnny Depp, enjoys spending his down time on his own private Carribean Island, which he purchased for a mere $3.6 million back in 2004.

The prices for tropical properties surrounded by water vary – depending on location, development and access – but purchasers can expect to spend in the neighborhood of $3 to $25 million. Having an island affords one with a level of privacy and peace that would be hard to capture anywhere else.

With owners like Oprah Winfrey, Warren Buffet, and Ralph Lauren, the G650 has become a quintessential for business and is regarded as the roomiest, most comfortable and fastest type of private aviation.

The G650 can fly nonstop for a little over 7,000 nautical miles (12,964 km). That means this jet could fly round trip from New York to Los Angeles and still have power leftover to hop over to London. Costing $65 million, it features room for 18 passengers as well as a high-tech luxury interior including a full bar and kitchen. It can also cover any two points on the globe without a fuel stop.

Everyone is now familiar with some of the strange pets that celebrities own. Perhaps most famous for this odd characteristic is Mike Tyson, who once owned three Royal Bengal tigers. But we’ve found someone who can top even the most absurd pet purchases.

In 2007, Nicolas Cage decided that spending $276,000 on a dinosaur skull was not out of his reach, and later added to his collection two king cobras and a pet octopus that cost him $276,000. These odd pets complimented Cage’s life perfectly, fitting in with his collection of 22 cars (including 9 Rolls Royces), 30 motorcycles, a medieval castle (amongst other lavish homes and properties), 2 private islands in the Bahamas, a Gulfstream jet, and a collection of shrunken heads.