Jeff Bezos just made more in 5 days than most Americans would in 5 lifetimes

Amazon.com founder Jeff Bezos has made $6.1 billion in just five trading days in 2018 and is now worth $105 billion, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.

To put that in perspective, the average American household income (which includes married couples) is about $73,000 a year. The average lifetime income even for college graduates is less than $2 million, according to an Indiana University report.)

To put it another way, the rise in Bezos' fortune makes him worth more than Microsoft founder Bill Gates was ever worth, Bloomberg reports.

The net worth of Bezos continues to grow as shares of the online retail giant jumped 56 percent in 2017 and are up another 6.6 percent so far in 2018. Amazon continues to dominate online spending and has said that Cyber Monday 2017 was the biggest shopping day in its history.

But one thing to remember is that Gates has given away a lot of his fortune to charity. Gates' current net worth is $93.3 billion, and over the past 20 years he has given away stock and cash that would be worth about $60 billion today. That would put his net worth at more than $150 billion if he had kept it.

Other U.S. billionaires who have made impressive gains for the year so far include:

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg: $4.7 billion (total net worth: $77.5 billion)

Google co-founder Larry Page: $2.6 billion (total net worth: $54.9 billion)

Google co-founder Sergey Brin: $2.4 billion (total net worth: $53.5 billion)

Berkshire Hathaway CEO Warren Buffett: $1.8 billion (total net worth: $87.2 billion)

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About the Author

David Carrig