What You Could Buy with a Billion Bucks of Play Money

You probably heard that the Forbes 400 Richest Americans list was published for the year 2007. Amazingly, the death of Wal-Mart billionaire Helen Walton landed five of her children in the Top 10 Richest Americans. Bill Gates topped the list for the eleventh year in a row. This is the 25^th anniversary of the Forbes 400, so William Henry Gates, III has ruled for almost half of the Forbes 400 life. Just in case you missed the list, the Top 10 Forbes 400 Richest Americans are:

Bill Gates - $48 billion
Warren Buffett - $41 billion
Paul Gardner Allen, $20 billion
Alice Walton, $18 billion
Helen Walton, $18 billion
Jim Walton, $18 billion
John Walton, $18 billion
S Robson Walton, $18 billion
Michael Dell, $14.2 billion
Lawrence Ellison, $13.7 billion

What You Could Buy for $1 Billion of Play Money

You could buy 17 royal yachts just like the retired RMS Queen Elizabeth 2.

You could buy 5,000,000 of the XO laptop green machine, aka the "$100 Laptop". 2,500,000 would go to children of your choice and 2,500,000 would go to children in developing countries.

You could buy 5,000 friends, relatives, and strangers on the street, a ticket on the next Virgin Galactic space flight. The $200,000 individual ticket price is almost one hundred times less expensive than that paid by the only space tourist as of this date. What a deal!

You could buy 26 castles for your best of friends, including the 10,000+ square foot Villa Castiglione in Capri, Italy. This fairy-tale castle rests on nearly seven acres perched on a cliff above the sea. The seven-bedroom Camelot is currently on the market for $38 million.

You could buy 78 islands similar to the 2000-acre Gallo Island in New York.

You could buy 154 small private jets from NetJet.

You could make an offer on the San Diego Chargers, currently valued at $731 million. That leaves you enough to buy a modest mansion near the stadium for all your VIP guests when they come to visit. If you prefer the mountains and skiing, the Denver Broncos are worth about $790 million.