How does the world's richest person like to spend their money?

At the end of October, Elon Musk "pocketed" over $36 billion in a single day, becoming the first person with a net worth of $340 billion. Although Tesla's stock recently fell, causing a significant decrease in his massive fortune, as of November 17th, the billionaire was still nearly $100 billion richer than Amazon owner Jeff Bezos.

However, Elon Musk's path to success wasn't all roses. Growing up in a wealthy family in South Africa, Elon Musk's childhood, as the New York Times described it, was "extremely painful." His mother recounted that as a child he was introverted, often lost in thought, and spent most of his time reading. Because Elon didn't react when people talked to him, she even thought he had a hearing problem. From a boy who was constantly bullied by his peers, in less than half his life, Elon Musk became a millionaire, then a billionaire, and finally the richest person in human history.

Today, Elon Musk's net worth is so large that it has surpassed a market capitalization estimated at around $283 billion. Some have even calculated that if someone spent 1 billion VND (approximately $1 billion) every day, it would take 7.16 million days – about 19,700 years – to use up all of Elon Musk's wealth.

But obviously, the world's richest people don't own (and spend) money in the usual way we do. Musk told investor Cathie Wood on a podcast last year, "Some people think I have a lot of cash. That's not true." Like many other powerful executives, he still needs mortgages and credit day after day. So, what does his enormous wealth go to do with?

Elon Musk uses money to pursue his passion for luxury, build his own empire, and even create the impossible.

"Burning" money on a passion for classic cars.

Despite being the owner of a modern electric vehicle company and possessing a forward-thinking mind, Elon Musk has a particular passion for classic cars.

According to The Guardian, Elon Musk spent $997,000 to buy the Lotus Esprit S1 sports car that appeared in the 1977 "James Bond" film. He said that as a boy in South Africa, he was incredibly impressed when he saw James Bond driving the Lotus Esprit on a pier and pressing a button to transform it into a submarine. And so, he didn't hesitate to splurge on the car, simply because he liked it.

Elon Musk also owns several gas-powered cars, such as a 1920 Ford Model T – a classic model produced by Ford from 1908-1927, a 1967 Jaguar E-Type Series 1 Roadster convertible, a McLaren F1, an Audi Q7, a Hamann BMW M5, and a Porsche 911.

Among them, the Jaguar Series 1 E-Type Roadster is a gift Elon Musk bought for himself as a reward. He has loved this car since he was 17, after reading a book about classic convertibles. When he received his first bonus of $40,000 at Zip2, he immediately bought this dream car.

Although willing to spend a lot of money on his favorite cars, this could be considered the billionaire's only real "money-burning" hobby. Elon Musk isn't one for extravagant vacations – or any kind of vacation for that matter. In 2015, he shared that in the 12 years since founding SpaceX, he'd only taken about two weeks off. At the end of the day, the billionaire enjoys relatively inexpensive hobbies like listening to music, playing video games, and reading. "Going out with the kids, meeting friends, doing normal things," he says, "Sometimes I tweet crazy things. But usually I just talk about work."

SELL ALL THE VILLAS TO BUILD A HOUSE ON MARS

With his enormous earnings, Elon Musk once owned numerous mansions and valuable properties in the US. However, in May 2020, he announced he would sell all his homes and other tangible assets as a way to counter criticism of his wealth, and because, according to him, "wealth is a hindrance."

In June 2020, he sold his first home on Chalon Street in Los Angeles for $29 million. By October, he had sold a 350-square-meter ranch-style house.²for $7 million. In December 2020, he sold four houses in Bel Air simultaneously for a total of $61.89 million. In that year alone, Elon Musk profited $19.2 million from selling six of his California properties. In June of this year, he put his final mansion on the Hillsborough Hills in California up for sale for $37.5 million.

Furthermore, the main reason this billionaire sold all his houses and land was to… save money to build a city on Mars. In October 2018, Elon Musk wrote on Twitter: “The reason I make money is not what you think. I have very little time for leisure, nor do I have a vacation villa, yacht, or anything like that. Half of my wealth will be used to solve the world’s problems, and the other half to build a self-sufficient city on Mars, in case our planet is hit by an asteroid, or World War III breaks out and humanity destroys each other.”

With this extraterrestrial settlement project, Elon Musk claims he wants to send one million people to Mars by 2050. Sending one ton of supplies to Mars costs $100,000. A self-sufficient city would need approximately one million tons of supplies, costing between $100 billion and $10 trillion for the project. However, he also argues that the plan isn't as expensive as many people think. In a 2019 debate with Jack Ma, Elon Musk stated that the project would actually only require about 0.5%-1% of the world's GDP, slightly more than what people spend on cosmetics and roughly the same as healthcare costs.

Elon Musk also doesn't donate a lot of money to charity. Although he signed The Giving Pledge, an organization that encourages wealthy individuals to donate a large portion of their assets to charity, Musk's foundation has only given away about $100 million. Analysis shows that Elon Musk donates less than 1% of his wealth to charity.

Ambition to BUILD A CITY OF THE FUTURE

After selling all his homes, Elon Musk moved from California to a rented house in Texas in December 2020. Texas currently has no state income tax regulations, while California has the highest tax rate in the US. Moving to Texas could save Elon Musk billions of dollars. Furthermore, this is also the location of Tesla's new factory and is about to welcome a city of Elon Musk's own, serving his space ambitions: Starbase.

Since 2016,SpaceX aerospace companySpaceX, founded by Elon Musk, has accelerated the construction of a large space launch site in the village of Boca Chica, Cameron County, southern Texas. The billionaire envisions transforming the village into a new city, providing homes and workplaces for all SpaceX launch workers. He also claims he wants to turn it into a tourist destination for those who want to witness the incredible power of space launches.

This means Starbase will be the departure point for those wanting to travel to Mars. When preparing for their flight, passengers will need living space and good infrastructure to maintain their fitness, something only a town or city can provide. Therefore, transforming the village of Boca Chica into the city of Starbase is likely a necessary step for Elon Musk to move closer to his space exploration goals. Even in NASA's Artemis program (aiming to return humans to the Moon by 2025), the spacecraft carrying astronauts back to the Moon is also expected to be launched from this city of Starbase.

Many people - includingPrince WilliamSome in the UK believe that what Elon Musk is doing is "far-fetched," and that he should "focus on problems on Earth rather than throwing his dreams into space." But for someone with money, especially a lot of money—among the most wealthy in the world—does pursuing "utopian" and "unrealistic" things seem like the most practical course of action?

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