<p>Respecting the honest declaration of total ignorance, the vast part of the wealth of rich people is in non-liquid form: land, company shares, etc. Sometimes, also in trust funds, or as assets pledged to charity organizations </p>

<p>So for a portion of their wealth, there may exist binding constraints related to "spending" them: for example, they may have the obligation not to sell at least part of their share-holdings in a company (usually their "own" company). Also, assets pledged to charities are managed by boards which are not (or at least not always) mere puppets to the founders' will. </p>

<p>So no, they cannot "access all their wealth any time they want" - this could happen only if all their wealth was held in bank accounts, and this is definitely not the case.</p>

CC BY-SA 3.0
2018-01-04T22:28:46.680Z
2018-01-05T16:20:42.390Z
2018-01-05T16:20:42.390Z
Alecos Papadopoulos
<p>I want to know if these people can spend or have access to all this anytime they want, without harming their businesses, or if there are bounds related to how much money they can spend/have access to. </p>

<p>I don't understand anything about economics, so... take it easy :)
i don't even know in which tag to place this question too... :V</p>

CC BY-SA 3.0
2018-01-04T23:34:47.540Z
I figure that, very roughly, I'm worth about \$1M, not counting pension, Social Security, etc.  But only maybe \$200,000 of that is in bank accounts that I can withdraw from by simply walking up to a teller's window and filling out some papers.  Another roughly \$200K is in stocks that would take several days to access, \$200K is in stock-based IRAs which would take a couple of weeks (and possibly a withdrawal penalty), and about \$300K is in our house, which would take at best a couple of months to sell.  If I owned a business, I suspect it would take on the order of 6-12 months to sell it.
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<microeconomics>
Do billionaires like Bill Gates have access to their entire net worth or it is symbolic?
Seu Madruga
# Do billionaires like Bill Gates have access to their entire net worth or it is symbolic?

(Asked by: username_0 on 2018-01-04)

I want to know if these people can spend or have access to all this anytime they want, without harming their businesses, or if there are bounds related to how much money they can spend/have access to.

I don't understand anything about economics, so... take it easy :)
i don't even know in which tag to place this question too... :V

**Tags:** microeconomics

> **Comments:**
> **username_1**: I figure that, very roughly, I'm worth about \$1M, not counting pension, Social Security, etc.  But only maybe \$200,000 of that is in bank accounts that I can withdraw from by simply walking up to a teller's window and filling out some papers.  Another roughly \$200K is in stocks that would take several days to access, \$200K is in stock-based IRAs which would take a couple of weeks (and possibly a withdrawal penalty), and about \$300K is in our house, which would take at best a couple of months to sell.  If I owned a business, I suspect it would take on the order of 6-12 months to sell it.  

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## 1 answers

### Answer by username_2 on 2018-01-04. Score: 4 | Accepted answer

Respecting the honest declaration of total ignorance, the vast part of the wealth of rich people is in non-liquid form: land, company shares, etc. Sometimes, also in trust funds, or as assets pledged to charity organizations

So for a portion of their wealth, there may exist binding constraints related to "spending" them: for example, they may have the obligation not to sell at least part of their share-holdings in a company (usually their "own" company). Also, assets pledged to charities are managed by boards which are not (or at least not always) mere puppets to the founders' will.

So no, they cannot "access all their wealth any time they want" - this could happen only if all their wealth was held in bank accounts, and this is definitely not the case.


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