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World’s richest man aims for a simple life

16 July 2010 12:54 (UTC +04:00)

Baku - APA-Economics. Mexican tycoon Carlos Slim may be the world’s richest man but he limits his monthly salary to 24,000 dollars and travels in a Suburban, according to his latest biography, AFP reported.

Slim, 70, knocked Bill Gates form the top of the Forbes list of the world’s billionaires this year with an estimated fortune of 53.5 billion dollars.

He began his business career aged 10, selling sweets and drinks to his family and later made his name with aggressive investments during crises.

According to his biographer, Slim’s fortune far exceeds the amount calculated by Forbes.

The fifth of six children -- three boys and three girls -- Slim was born into a well-off family, including a Lebanese immigrant father, in Mexico City in January 1940.

Slim studied civil engineering and later built up the telephone monopoly Telmex after acquiring it from the government in 1990.

He hit the top spot of billionaires after his fortune rose 18.5 billion in 12 months, and shares of America Movil, of which he owns a 23-billion-dollar stake, were up 35 percent in a year, according to Forbes.

Last year he injected 250 million dollars into the ailing New York Times, becoming its second biggest partner and surprising some in the media.

He has no say nor vote. He did it to support the paper in a crisis and he intends to sell it, but the group hasn’t yet recovered," Martinez said.

The soft-spoken billionaire’s empire is ever-present in Mexico, including department stores, construction companies and the Inbursa financial group.

He has invested more than 60 billion dollars in Latin America in the past 10 years.

"All this was done by a man who fixes his salary at 24,000 dollars a month and at the same time controls between 30 and 40 percent of the Mexican stock exchange," his biographer said, adding that until recently Slim wore a plastic watch.

Slim repeats the maxim "never do business with politicians." He "lives a frugal life which borders more on modesty than sobriety," Martinez wrote in the biography.