Would you be frugal if you were rich?

Do you want to know how the other half lives? Well, apparently they live exactly the same way we do. MSN recently published a list of 15 frugal billionaires and what I want to know is are they billionaires because they are frugal or are they frugal because they are afraid to lose their fortune?

Warren Buffet is worth $46 billion and he has lived in the same home for 50 years.  Warren Buffet doesn’t live in sunny LA or fast paced NYC he still lives in Omaha, Nebraska.  Many personal finance bloggers refer to Warren Buffet’s investing style, so he must be doing something right.  But if you had $46 billion wouldn’t you want to spend some of the money, after all what are you saving for?

Mark Zuckerberg is worth $9.4 billion and he drives an Acura.  Zuckerberg recently got married in his backyard and still eats at McDonalds.  No Prada and Gucci for this billionaire, Zuckerberg prefers to dress in t-shirts and hoodies and he still goes to work every single day.

Ingvar Kamprad is worth $3 billion and his home is furnished with IKEA furniture which seems fitting because he is the founder of the Swiss furniture store.  Kamprad drives an old Volvo and always flies economy class when he travels.

Christy Walton is worth $27.9 billion since inherited the Walmart fortune when her husband passed away.  She chose not to sell her family home; instead she donated it to a community foundation.

Chuck Feeney is currently worth only $2 million (did I really just write that) because he donated over $4 billion of his fortune to disadvantaged children. Feeney founded the Duty Free Shop and he prides himself on his personal motto to “work hard, not get rich”.

Azim Premji is worth $12.2 billion but the technology giant counts toilet paper rolls.  He demands that employees shut off all lights when they leave a room in their headquarters.  There is no Lincoln Town Car or Cadillac Escalade for this billionaire; he rides a rickshaw when he wants to get around Bangalore.

David Cheriton is worth $1.3 billion but he didn’t earn it by working hard, Cheriton is a Stanford professor who made his fortune from investing in Google shares.  He does not believe in living like a billionaire and his most recent splurge was on a 2012 Honda Odyssey.

Carlos Slim Helu is worth $69 billion thanks to his job as CEO of Telmex.  Slim Helu has lived in the same home for 30 years and he still drives himself to work every day.

Amancio Ortega is worth $57.5 thanks to his sense of personal style.  The founder of the Zara clothing chain eats lunch every day in the office cafeteria with his employees.  He drives an Audi and lives in an apartment with his wife.

Tony Hsieh is worth almost $1 billion.  He is the CEO of Zappos shoes and admittedly cares more about being around people who care about him than he does making money.  Hsieh recently donated $350 million of his own money to help transform downtown Las Vegas into a tech hub.

If you were a billionaire would you still be frugal with your money?

Photo by Tony Crider

Kristina Tahnyak

Tahnya is a Certified Financial Planner and former Investment Advisor turned marketing and communications professional She holds a degree from Concordia University, is debt free and currently works in the field of digital marketing.