The 10 richest people all lost money at the beginning of the year, except for Warren Buffett

 The 10 richest people all lost money at the beginning of the year, except for Warren Buffett

The world's richest people saw their net worth decline in the first weeks of 2022 but Warren Buffett did not.

The recent plunge in technology stocks has reduced the fortune of the world's richest man, Tesla CEO Elon Musk, by $54 billion year-to-date. Meanwhile, Amazon founder Jeff Bezos lost $27.8 billion. The fortune of two Google founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin also lost more than 12 billion USD while Facebook boss Mark Zuckerberg decreased by 15.2 billion USD.

Out of the 10 richest people in the world, only one person whose net worth increased is Warren Buffett, when he earned an additional $2.4 billion, bringing his total fortune to $111 billion. Last week, the chairman and CEO of Berkshire Hathaway overtook Zuckerberg to return to sixth place in the global rich list, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.

"Decade after decade, the legend of Omaha (Warren Buffett's nickname) continues to make his mark. That's why Buffett will go down in history books for centuries for his unwavering faith. invest in value investing," commented Wedbush Securities analyst Dan Ives.

Value investors choose stocks that appear to be undervalued and are trading at below-normal prices. And unlike other CEOs, whose net worth is largely tied to their tech companies, billionaire Buffett has a diversified portfolio that has allowed him to weather tech sell-offs. .

Warren Buffett has long recommended that investors put their money in index funds, which hold every stock in an index, making them automatically diversify. In 2017, Buffett said that for those looking to build savings in retirement, diversified index funds make the most practical sense all the time.

Despite the tech sell-off, Musk's $216 billion fortune helps him maintain his title as the world's richest person, with a fortune almost twice that of Buffett. In addition, Buffett may not be in the top 10 for long. Last year, the investor revealed that he had already done half of his donations to charities and had no intention of stopping.