Last year, big daddy Warren's investments paid off to the tune of $10 billion, raising his net worth to $62 billion and vaulting him atop Forbes' list of the World's Richest People, a spot formerly occupied by supernerd Bill Gates. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the average American earned $36,764 in 2002, which, with inflation, comes out to about $43,175 today. That means that in order to make $10 billion, the average Joe would have to work more than 231,615 YEARS. Below are a few more examples to help drive home just how much friggin' money this lovable old coot has.
What we can buy: McChicken sandwich from the McDonald's value menu ($1)
Percentage of salary: 0.00232%
Equivalent cost to Warren Buffett: A loaded 2008 Bentley Continental GT coupe ($232,000)
Percentage of salary: .009%
Equivalent cost to Warren Buffett: "A five-bedroom, five-bath home with over 5,000 square feet on the seventh and eighth fairways of the National Golf Club course, a gated community," according to The New York Times ($900,000)
What we can buy: Maxim subscription ($10)
Percentage of salary: 0.023162%
Equivalent cost to Warren Buffett: A 30-second commercial during the Super Bowl ($2,316,200)
What we can buy: Lap dance ($20)
Percentage of salary: 0.04632%
Equivalent cost to Warren Buffett: An island in the Bahamas ($4,632,000)
What we can buy: Halo 3 for the Xbox 360 ($60)
Percentage of salary: 0.13897%
Equivalent cost to Warren Buffett: Hydra the Revenge roller coaster at Dorney amusement park in Pennsylvania ( $13,897,000)
What we can buy: 4 GB iPod Nano ($150)
Percentage of salary: 0.34742%
Equivalent cost to Warren Buffett: Saddam Hussein's old yacht ($34,742,000)
What we can buy: PlayStation 3 ($399)
Percentage of salary: 0.92415%
Equivalent cost to Warren Buffett: A-Rod for three years ($92,415,000)
What we can buy: MacBook ($1099)
Percentage of salary: 2.54545%
Equivalent cost to Warren Buffett: A 40-story tower in downtown Lexington, Kentucky, with "a major four-star, 243-room hotel, 77 residential condominium units, and 26,000 square feet of retail space." ($254,545,000)
What we can buy: 2008 Ford Focus ($14,695)
Percentage of salary: 34.0359%
Equivalent cost to Warren Buffett: The National Hockey League. Yeah, the whole league ($3,403,590,000)
What we can buy: An average home, according to the National Association of Realtors ($201,100)
Percentage of salary: 470%
What he can buy: He could take a shot at snatching up Yahoo from under Microsoft's nose ($46,577,880,700)