Billionaires

Bloomberg's Billionaires Index has been unearthing a lot of secretive wealthy people lately, including In-N-Out's 30-year-old president and owner, Lynsi Torres. The burger chain, which has about 280 stores, is worth an estimated $1.1 billion. Here are some facts about Torres:

• Torres currently has half ownership of the company, but will take full control when she turns 35.
• Her grandparents, Harry and Esther Snyder, started the original In-N-Out hamburger stand in 1948.
• She became the sole heir of the company after a series of family deaths. After her grandfather passed away, her Uncle Rich took over, but Rich died in a plane crash when he was 41. Torres's father then took over, but died from a prescription overdose in 1999 at age 49. Her grandmother then took over the chain and left Lynsi Torres as the sole heir to the burger chain.
• Torres has very little management training and she doesn't have a college degree.
• The burger chain heir has a love for drag racing and is currently married to a race-car driver, her third marriage so far.
• She bought a house last year worth $17.4 million that comes with seven bedrooms, 16 bathrooms, a pool, a tennis court, and more.

Source: Flickr User Jake Spurlock

With a $250 million net worth, the Republican Party's nominee for president surely isn't wanting for cash. However that hasn't stopped people from donating millions of dollars to help with Mitt Romney's campaign. The Associated Press examined $3.9 million of campaign contributions and came up with this list of top donors:

1. Sheldon Adelson, 79, chairman and CEO of Las Vegas Sands Corporation: $44.2 million
2. Harold Simmons, 81, owner of $9 billion company Contran Corporation: $22 million
3. Bob J. Perry, 80, owner of a real estate firm worth about $650 million: $18.3 million
4. Robert Rowling, 58, owner of TRT Holdings, which is the parent company of Gold's Gym and Omni Hotels: $5.1 million
5. William Koch, 72, invests in oil and other industries and has a $4 billion net worth: $4 million

Did you donate to any of the presidential campaigns this year?

Forbes released its list of the 400 richest people in America last week, and with the financial successes of Republican presidential candidates Mitt Romney and Jon Huntsman bubbling up as hot-button topics during this election season, we were curious as to which politicians — current, former, or aspiring — made the cut this year. So just who are the nine richest politicians? Hint: the aforementioned campaigners didn't even come close!

9. Meg Whitman. Worth a reported $1.7 billion, the former CEO of eBay spent $144 million of her own money on her bid for the California gubernatorial seat in 2010. Though she lost the election to Jerry Brown, she won the top spot at Hewlett-Packard just a year later.
8. Glen Taylor. After a nine-year stint as a Minnesota state senator in the '80s, Republican Glen Taylor plunked down a chunk of his fortune made from his days in the printing industry to buy the majority ownership of the Minnesota Timberwolves professional basketball team. He is reportedly worth $1.7 billion today.
7. Jeff Greene. Real estate helped this mogul earn his billionaire status, and in 2010 he put his money where his mouth is by running as a Democrat for US Senate. Ultimately, he lost the primary election to Kendrick Meek, but his present-day $2.2 billion valuation isn't too shabby.

For the six richest politicians, just keep reading.

Who said being wealthy means you can't look for a good deal? Kiplinger shares how the superrich try to watch the wallet just like you.

Becoming wealthy and staying that way takes a certain level of discipline. Sure, an occasional splurge won't put you in the poor house, but frequent frivolous spending on things that aren't necessities can quickly put a serious dent in your wallet. The frugal habits necessary to achieve financial success and maintain it are often lessons learned early on.

Related: How to Be a Millionaire by Age 25

In this slide show, meet seven entrepreneurs, business leaders and famous faces, including Google's David Cheriton, Berkshire Hathaway's Warren Buffett, and Hollywood's Hilary Swank, whose modest living — from clipping coupons to clipping their own hair — has helped them amass and/or maintain vast fortunes.

As Knight Kiplinger wrote in his classic column The Invisible Rich, "the biggest barrier to becoming rich is living like you're rich before you are."

David Cheriton

Age: 61
Estimated net worth: $1.3 billion
How he struck it rich: An early private investor in Google
Frugal habit: When having dinner at a nice restaurant, he saves half of his meal for the next day.

In addition to knowing how to make a good meal last, the Stanford University professor — who played an integral role in the founding of Google — has also been cutting his own hair for the past 15 years and drives a 1986 Volkswagen Vanagon.

Cheriton's been pinching pennies his whole life. "Many of my frugal habits come from my parents, who grew up during the Depression and passed along the same careful habits," he told Kiplinger. "My rule is never spend in a way that I can't explain to my parents without apology or embarrassment. It's kind of a personal version of 'never do anything you don't want to see presented on 60 Minutes."

Read on for more.

Spanx is a word that most women are familiar with. It's a type of shapewear that helps to smooth away lumps and bumps and also leaves no trace of a panty line. The creator of this product, Sara Blakely, has been inducted to this year's Forbes billionaires list, which was released yesterday. Spanx, an international undergarment company, is worth an estimated $1 billion. Here are a couple of interesting facts about her from a Forbes feature:

• She learned how to write her own patent from reading a Barnes and Noble book and she saved $3,000 in legal costs.
• She worked at Disney World for three months and spent eight-hour days buckling customers into a ride.
• She's the youngest self-made female billionaire in the world.
• She has never spent money on advertising.
• She owns 100 percent of the company.
• She went from just having $5,000 in savings when she was 29 to owning a billion-dollar company at the age of 41 today.
• She has her eccentric moments, and her husband describes her as "50 percent Lucille Ball, 50 percent Einstein." Some of her goofiest moments include wearing a boot on one foot and a Christian Louboutin heel on the other in Bloomingdale's, and wearing stretchable candy necklaces and bracelets (bought from a nearby candy store) to the Screen Actors Guild Awards because she left her jewelry at the hotel.
• She witnessed a car run over her best friend when she was only 16, and facing mortality at such a young age has driven her. "I think that when you witness death at age 16, there's a sense of urgency about life," Blakely says. "The thought of my mortality — I think about it a lot. I find it motivating. It can be any time that your number's up."

Of all the people to take advice from, perhaps we might be able to learn a thing or two about money from billionaire Mark Cuban. In a Business Insider interview, Cuban says he encourages people to angel invest rather than buying stocks. Angel investing is when individuals (generally those with high net worth) provide capital to someone trying to start a company in exchange for part ownership of the start-up. Cuban says the angel investing will work if " . . . you stick to what you know and can add value to. If you can't add value, don't do it. What's insane is thinking the stock market will always go up and the needs of your life, house, car and medical won't crush your investment approach."

Besides the bit of investing wisdom, the Dallas Mavericks owner shared some personal finance advice that he gives to his athletes.

I tell everyone the same thing. Pay off 100 percent of your debt. Use the transactional value of cash to get an absolute return on your savings (buying something in bulk to save 40 percent on something you know you need is a guaranteed return of 40 percent. You can't get that anywhere in market). And don't invest in things you don't know.