Gate$ Dollar$

Money makes the world go round! Sad, but true. Let's be realistic here, we can't live with love alone... In fact, one of the top causes of divorce is money! Anyway, like most of the people in this world, I'm finding ways to earn money. During my search, I came across articles. Articles that I'm not sure whether it can motive me or make me lose hope.

Of course, everybody knows Bill Gates. He's been number one on the "Forbes 400" list from 1993 through to 2006 and number one on Forbes list of "The World's Richest People" from 1995 to 2006 with $57 billion. It was only recently that he lost the title to a Mexican tycoon, but then again, he's been focusing on his foundation for the past years. In 1999, his wealth briefly surpassed $100 billion causing him to be referred to in the media as a "centibillionaire". I can't even reach the 10000 Philippine peso (around $200) mark! I'd like to share a few things I came across my search for money ideas.

Let's start with his company. Microsoft, at one time, announced quarterly revenue of $14.4 billion and net income of $4.93 billion. In other words, Microsoft's daily net income is about $55 million. That's $55 million in pure profit every 24 hours. Do some quick math and you'll learn it takes Microsoft only about...

...10 hours or so to exceed Red Hat's (NYSE: RHT - News) quarterly net income of $20.5 million.
...4 days to exceed Research In Motion's (NasdaqGS: RIMM) quarterly net income of $187.9 million.
...4 days to exceed Starbucks' (NasdaqGS: SBUX) quarterly net income of $205 million.
...1 week to exceed Nike's (NYSE: NKE - News) quarterly net income of $350.8 million.
...2 weeks to exceed McDonalds' (NYSE: MCD - News) quarterly net income of $762 million.
...2 weeks to exceed Apple's (NasdaqGS: AAPL) quarterly net income of $770 million.
...18 days to exceed Google's (NasdaqGS: GOOG) quarterly net income of $1 billion.
...23 days to exceed Coca-Cola's (NYSE: KO - News) quarterly net income of $1.26 billion.
...5 weeks to exceed IBM's (NYSE: IBM - News) quarterly net income of $1.85 billion.
...10 weeks to exceed Wal-Mart's (NYSE: WMT - News) quarterly net income of $3.9 billion.

Amazing, isn't it? Now, let's go to Mr. William Gates III. Most people will have read the reports of how Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates has had his personal net worth soar over 100 billion dollars and then drop down to 55 billion.

Consider that he made this money in the 25 years or so since Microsoft was founded in 1975. If you presume that he has worked 14 hours a day on every business day of the year since then, that means he's been making money at a staggering million dollars per hour, around $300 per second. This means that it is not worth his effort to pick up a $1000 if he dropped one while he was walking. Assuming of course that it takes 4 seconds to pick it up and pocket it.

Another way to examine this sort of wealth is to compare it to yours. Consider an average American of modest wealth. Perhaps she has a net worth of $70,000. Mr. Gates' worth is 800,000 times larger. Which means that if something costs $100,000 to her, to Bill it's as though it costs 12 cents. You can work out the right multiplier for your own net worth.

So for example, you might think a new Lambourghini Diablo would cost $250,000, but in Bill Gates dollars that's 31 cents.

That fully loaded, multimedia active matrix 233 MHZ laptop with the 1024x768 screen you've been drooling after? Half a penny.

A nice home in a rich town like Palo Alto, California? Two dollars. That nice mansion he's building? A more reasonable $63 to him.

You might spend $50 on tickets, food and parking to take your date to see an NHL hockey game. Bill, on the other hand could buy the team for 50 dollars.

You might buy a plane ticket on a Boeing 747 for $1200 at full-fare coach. Mr. Gates could buy six 747s!

Bill could buy every single major league team in Baseball, Football, Basketball and Hockey for only about 35% of his net worth -- plenty left over to buy a European sport. Of course then he wouldn't have around $150 for every person in the USA as he does now. Nor could he still give $6.70 to every person on the planet. Bill could pay Michael Jordan's 1997 salary only 1300 times, but that he could buy 902 million subscriptions to TV guide. He's also fascinated by how much all this money would be if put into dollar bills. Laid end to end, the Bills would stretch 3.8 million miles -- to the moon and back over 8 times. They could paper over all of Manhattan 7 times, or be stacked 2,690 miles high -- watch out for satellites. They would weigh 40,000 tons -- 100 times the weight of one of those 747s he bought above.

BUT, one thing Bill can't do is even dent the national debt. Should he selflessly donate his stock to the U.S. treasury, he would reduce the $5.37 trillion national debt by well under 1%. It's nice to put things in perspective.

If I were Bill Gates, I would have earned thousands of dollars after writing this article. But then again, if I were Bill Gates, I wouldn't waste my time writing this article! By the way, Bill Gates was arrested for running a red light and driving without a license in New Mexico in 1977. Two years earlier, he got tickets for speeding and driving without a license. Hehe, had to throw that in!