The most ambitious philanthropic project, maybe ever, is the Giving Pledge that launched in 2010 by Bill and Melinda Gates and Warren Buffett. One of the reasons it's grown to such expansiveness and a high level of participation is because the other billionaires that sign on merely have to agree to donate "a majority" of their wealth to the cause or causes of their choice, and now the combined value of the pledge is reported to be on track to be worth as much as $600 million by the year 2022.

That's according to a recent report from Wealth-X, a financial research firm that crunched the numbers and determined that if all of the Giving Pledge's 175 signatories and counting follow through on their promise, the current pledged value comes to at least $350 billion in donated wealth. That includes pledges from high profile billionaires like Mark Zuckerberg and Priscilla Chan, who together pledged to give away 99 percent of their own shares in Facebook over the course of their lifetimes (the pledge stipulates that the giving should happen either during the signer's life or provided for in their will).

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Of course, not everyone is an enthusiastic participant in the Giving Pledge, and not necessarily due to stinginess. When the late hedge fund billionaire Robert Wilson was invited to sign on, he responded with his completely unvarnished opinion on the idea:

"Your 'Giving Pledge' has a loophole that renders it practically worthless, namely permitting pledges to simply name charities in their wills. I have found that most billionaires or near billionaires hate giving large sums of money away while alive and instead set up family-controlled foundations to do it for them after death. And these foundations become, more often than not, bureaucracy-ridden sluggards. These rich are delighted to toss off a few million a year in order to remain socially acceptable. But that's it."

That aside, the Giving Pledge is hopefully a source of net good for the world. The study also delved into the giving preferences of the billionaires in question, with 62 percent of billionaires in 2017 reportedly making major gifts towards scholarship funds and other causes related to higher education.

Read more: The Billionaire Giving Pledge Approaching $600 Billion In Value

Indian billionaire Mukesh Ambani has officially overtaken Jack Ma to become Asia's richest person. The Reliance Industries founder's net worth is $44.5 billion to the Alibaba founder's $44.3 billion. Stock rose 1.6% on Friday, July 13^th.  Ambani's fortune has grown by $4 billion so far in 2018. Ambani is positioning Reliance to disrupt India's e-commerce sector. Reliance's petrochemicals division doubled its capacity and investors are happy about the success of Ambani's telecom startup Reliance Jio Ltd. Earlier this month, Ambani revealed plans to leverage his 215 million telecom customers to expand his e-commerce offerings. Conversely, Ma has lost $1.8 billion so far this year.

At this month's annual shareholder's meeting Ambani predicted that the size of Reliance would more than double by 2025.

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Jio is planning to introduce fiber-based broadband service in 1,100 cities in India in August. Within a week of this announcement, Reliance re-entered the $100 billion valuation club after more than a decade.

Ambani inherited Reliance from his father. Under his guidance the company has continued to grow.  Ambani and his family live in a 27-story mansion right in the heart of Mumbai that is the most expensive private home in the world. The roof has landing space for three helicopters and six floors are reserved exclusively for 168 parking spaces. The house has a 50-seat movie theater, yoga studio, health club, spa, ballroom. Even though only six people live in the house, the building is staffed by more than 600 full-time employees. To build the property, an orphanage was demolished. The 48,000 square foot building is estimated to have cost between $1 and $2 billion.

Read more: Mukesh Ambani Overtakes Jack Ma To Become Asia's Richest Person 

Life in the NBA sure is different than it used to be. Just 10 to 15 years ago, it was unheard of for a player to express interest in joining a new team a year (or more) in advance. Sure, players swapped uniforms during free agency. But while they were on the roster of one team, that's where their priorities sat, at least in the public eye.

Nowadays, with social media, entourages, and just a whole lot more accessibility in general, players are far more open about their desires. For the past several months, Kawhi Leonard has said he's only going to play for either the Los Angeles Lakers or Clippers, even though he's still under contract for one more year. Similarly, a year ago, Paul George just about said he was going to join his hometown Lakers this summer.

Despite George's proclamation, the Oklahoma City Thunder still traded for him. The Thunder gave up two promising young players in Victor Oladipo and Damontas Sabonis in the process.

Teams all around the league questioned the Thunder's move. Why would the team take a one-year rental of a player, knowing he planned to leave at season's end?

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As it turns out, the Thunder may have just changed how the league operates.

Even though the Thunder lost in the first round, George re-signed for four years and $137 million. He didn't even meet with the Lakers.

The Thunder bet they could convince George to stick around. From the day they acquired him, they made him feel appreciated. They wanted him to buy into the team's culture and embrace those around him. It was a tremendous gamble, but it paid off in a big way.

Other teams are following the Thunder's lead. The Raptors just traded for Leonard, losing arguably their best player in DeMar DeRozan, and young big man Jakob Poeltl.

Leonard is reportedly unhappy about the idea of playing in Toronto. However, the Raptors believe their city and franchise culture can persuade him to stay for more than a few months. And in acquiring Leonard, the Raptors managed to dump DeRozan's hefty contract. Even if Leonard leaves in the summer of 2019, Toronto will be better off financially than they were this offseason.

Maybe Leonard does just stay one year in Toronto before leaving for Hollywood. But the Raptors had to take a chance – and it could change the course of their franchise.

If the Raptors do convince Leonard to stay past next offseason, we'll see even more teams gambling on one-year rentals.

Guys like Jimmy Butler and Kyrie Irving will be free agents next season. Though they haven't expressed a desire to play in a certain city, a team would still be taking a gamble in acquiring them.

As the Thunder have shown, having the right culture in place is important. Thanks to their gamble, the NBA has a whole new game plan for approaching soon-to-be free agents.

Read more: The Oklahoma City Thunder Have Changed How Teams Handle Upcoming Free Agents

Yeah, he's rich and (in)famous and all, but it still doesn't seem to be a great time to be Matt Lauer. The disgraced former Today Show anchor is on the cusp of finalizing his divorce from Annette Roque, and a recent Us Weekly story says Lauer is "furious" about having to fork over $50 million in the split – $25 million of which is in cash. But, seeing as his career is catered, thanks to sexual misconduct allegations and all, he isn't exactly in a prime bargaining position to secure a better deal for himself. As a source explains:

"Matt is furious he is essentially handing over half of his net worth to Annette … He could fight for a better deal in court but that would only result in dragging this out longer and negative headlines … He is ready to move on with his life and truly believes that a television comeback is possible."

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Whether or not such a comeback is even possible for Lauer remains to be seen over the coming months or years, but in the meantime, he will have to pony up the aforementioned $25 million cash payment, as well as their current house, their horse farm, and half the cost of supporting their three children, the latter not included in the terms of the actual divorce, as the source explains:

"There will be no child or spousal support and they will split the costs for the kids.

Lauer and Roque have been married since 1997, although Roque first filed for divorce back in 2006, when her filing on the grounds of  "cruel and inhumane" behavior was withdrawn after a few weeks' time. Her more recent, and seemingly decisive, divorce filing came in January of this year, a few months after Lauer was let go from his Today job with NBC in November of 2017.

Read more: Matt Lauer "Furious" About Terms Of His $50M Divorce Settlement

Typically, being a writer is not a road to an insane fortune. There are exceptions to this rule, of course. Harry Potter author J.K Rowling is an example. Of course, most authors don't have their books made into theme parks. Two American authors have ruled the best-seller lists for decades and in the process made enormous fortunes. Nora Roberts and Danielle Steel write mostly romance novels. Apparently romance novels are huge business, seeing that both authors have personal fortunes approaching $400 million. Let's take a look at how these two women built their romance novel empires.

Danielle Steel has built a personal net worth of $385 million. She is the best-selling author alive, and the fourth best-selling fiction writer of all time. She has sold more than 800 million copies of her 165 books. Danielle Steel was born on August 14, 1947 in New York City. Her dad, John Schulein-Steel, was a German Jewish immigrant and descendant of the Lowenbrau beer empire. Her mother, Norma da Camera Stone dos Reis, was the daughter of a Portuguese diplomat. She spent the bulk of her childhood in France, where she was included in her parents' dinner parties from a very early age. This gave her the opportunity to observe the wealthy and famous—something that would serve her well when she started writing novels. Her parents divorced when she was eight years old. She was raised primarily by her father.

Steel started writing stories as a child. She studied literature design and fashion design at Parsons School of Design and at New York University. She married at age 18 while she was a student at NYU. Her husband was the French-American banker Claude-Eric Lazard. It was during this time that Steel began writing. She finished her first manuscript when she was 19-years-old. After her daughter Beatrix was born Steel worked for a PR agency where a client encouraged her to write. She took that advice.

Steel and Lazard moved to San Francisco. They divorced after nine years of marriage. In 1972, her first novel, Going Home was published. Steel met Danny Zugelder while interviewing an inmate in the prison he was incarcerated in. They married in the prison canteen in 1975. She divorced him in 1978, but their relationship inspired the novels Passion's Promise and Now and Forever. Those books launched her career.

Nora Roberts (Photo by Mike Coppola/Getty Images

Steel married William George Toth, her third husband, the day after her divorce from Zugelder was finalized. She was 8 ½ months pregnant with his child, a son named Nick. Her fourth book, The Promise brought her inclusion in San Francisco high society. Toth was a former drug addict and not into that scene. They divorced in March 1981. That same year, Steel married wine maker John Traina. Steel and Traina had five kids together. It was during this time that Steel became a nearly permanent fixture on the New York Times hardcover and paperback bestseller lists. She made the Guinness Book of World Records in 1989 for having a book on the New York Times Bestseller List for the most consecutive weeks of any author—381 weeks at that time.

Steel had seven children that kept her very busy, so she often wrote a night, only got four hours of sleep. She releases several books each year. Each book takes two and a half years to complete, which means Steel is juggling up to five projects at once.

Steel married for a fifth time, to legendary Silicon Valley venture capitalist Thomas Perkins in 1998. The marriage lasted four years. Her novel The Klone and I was based on a private joke the former couple shared.

From the time Danielle Steel's first book was published, every single one of her novels has made the bestseller lists in paperback. Every book that was released in hardback has also made the hardback bestseller lists.

Nora Roberts is even more prolific than Danielle Steel. She has a $390 million fortune made from her more than 225 romance novels. She was the first author to be inducted into the Romance Writers of America Hall of Fame. Roberts was born in 1950 in Silver Spring, Maryland. She was the youngest of five children in a family with Irish heritage. Her family were avid readers, so books have always played an important part in her life.

Nora Roberts married for the first time nearly the moment she graduated from high school in 1968. She and her husband Ronald had two sons and Roberts threw herself into motherhood. She began to write in February 1979 while housebound with her two young sons during a blizzard. She famously has said that with three feet of snow, a shrinking supply of chocolate, and school called off due to the blizzard, she didn't really have anything to do. While writing down her ideas for the first time she fell in love with the writing process. She quickly wrote six manuscripts and submitted them to Harlequin, which was the leading publisher of romance novels. She was rejected again and again and again.

Then, in 1980, a new publisher hit the romance scene. Silhouette books formed to take advantage of all the aspiring writers that had been rejected by Harlequin. Roberts found a home at Silhouette and published her first novel Irish Thoroughbred in 1981. She used the pseudonym Nora Roberts, rather than her birth name Eleanor Robertson, because she thought all romance writers wrote under pen names.

Roberts wrote 23 novels for Silhouette between 1982 and 1984. In 1983, she and her husband Ronald divorced. She met her second husband, carpenter and bookstore owner Bruce Wilder when she hired him to build her some bookshelves in 1985. She moved to the publisher Putnam in 1987. She made her first appearance on the New York Times bestseller list in 1991. She made the hardcover bestseller list in 1996 with her fourth hardcover release (most romance novelists do not get hardcover releases) Montana Sky.

In 1996, Roberts passed the 100 novel mark. In 2012, she doubled that. In 1999 and 2000, four of the five novels that USA Today called the bestselling romance novels of the year were written by Nora Roberts. From 1991 to 2001 she was on the New York Times bestseller list with 68 different books. In the year 2001 alone, she had 10 bestselling paperbacks. Since 1999, every single one of Robert's novels has made the New York Times bestseller list—29 of her books debuted at number one.

And that's the way you do it, folks.

Read more: These Two Female Authors Are Worth Insane Fortunes

Poker champ Justin Bonomo has been having a pretty good year. On the felt he's raked in $25 million in winnings during the 2018 season, as well as two World Series of Poker bracelets, and his recent victory at the $1 Million Big One for One Drop (the 78th and final event at the World Series of Poker this year) placed him on the very top of the list of the game's top competitive earners. Gambling.com reports he had this to say about his record-breaking accomplishment:

"At the end of the day, I feel like for the past year I've played absolutely fantastic poker. I'm not going to say I'm the best player in the world but I'm very confident that I'm up there."

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Bonomo's career earnings up to this point are $42,666,672, which places his take above the previous record-holder's with more than $3 million worth of breathing room. That would be Daniel Negreanu, who before the fact took to Twitter to share his enthusiasm for the possibility his longstanding record being broken:

"Probably the best thing for my quality of life is for Justin to pass me today. I've been in that spot for the majority of my poker career and it feels like time to stop hanging on to it. Good luck everyone!"

Bonomo's Big One for One Drop victory netted him a $10 million grand prize, which also happens to be the fourth-biggest Big One for One Drop jackpot in the event's history. As for what's next now that Bonomo has reached such a significant career milestone, he says he plans to take a break, but that he won't stay away from poker for long:

"I don't feel that I have anything left to prove to anyone. I'm going to continue what I'm doing: playing tournaments to the best of my ability and studying and getting even better. I'll never be complacent with my poker game."

Bonomo also says he plans to give his Big One for One bracelet to his father.

Read more: Justin Bonomo Is Now The Winningest Poker Player Ever, With Over $42M In Earnings

As Tom Brady enters his 19th season in the NFL, he certainly isn't hurting for money. He's made about $197 million during his career, and has earned millions more from various endorsements and sponsorships. It's led to tons of success, too – Brady and the Patriots have won five championships together.

A shade under $200 million is nothing to scoff at, of course. But consider this: Brady could have made anywhere between $60 and $100 million more throughout his career.

Brady's first contract extension was worth four years, $28 million. By the time his next extension came around, he had already won three championships and two Super Bowl MVPs. From that point on, he could have made as much as the top quarterbacks in the league.

But that usually wasn't the case. Brady often took discounts in order to keep players with expiring contracts, or lure free agents like Randy Moss in 2007. That move helped the Patriots finish the season with an undefeated regular-season record.

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Had Brady made as much money as the highest-paid quarterback during his contract extension years (2005, 2009, 2013, and 2017), he could have potentially made in the neighborhood of $276 million over his career.

Granted, Brady's last contract extension came when he was 40 years old – it's unlikely he would have commanded a max salary. A more realistic estimate is that Brady has sacrificed about $60 million throughout his career.

Then again, Brady has been among the best quarterbacks in the league for nearly a decade and a half now. Who's to say he couldn't have made even more than what the top quarterbacks at the time were earning?

In that case, it's not unreasonable to imagine Brady has left around $100 million on the table. He plans to play until he's 45. By that point, how much more money will he have given up for the sake of keeping a winning team together?

Read more: Tom Brady Has Given Up Anywhere Between $60 And $100 Million To Keep The Patriots Successful

Tim Sweeney created the global phenomenon Fortnite and gave it away for free. That turned out to be a brilliant strategy that has made him a billionaire. Video games are big business and the popularity of Fortnite isn't too surprising, but its revenues are. Between the release of the current version of the game in September and the end of May, Fortnite made more than $1.2 billion. As of early June, the game has been played by 125 million people. All that game play has made Epic Games, the company Sweeney founded 27 years ago in his parents' basement, on track to generate $2 billion this year. That revenue makes the North Carolina based company worth $5 billion to $8 billion. Sweeney is the controlling shareholder in the company.

Fortnite is played obsessively by kids, athletes, rappers, and pretty much everyone at this point. It is a cartoonish fight to the death battle where players beat up on one another as they try to survive on a shrinking, storm ravaged island. Drake is a fan. The L.A. Lakers' Josh Hart is a fan. Instead of charging $40 or more for the game, players buy online V-bucks, a virtual currency. Players then use the V-bucks to buy skins, special missions, or celebratory dances that cost up to $20 each. Many of Fortnite's accessories are only available on a limited basis, which makes players buy them before they disappear. All of that action contributes to some of the highest rates of revenue per user in the gaming industry. The valuation for Epic Games has risen enormously as Fortnite has become successful.

Photo via Sergey Galyonkin/Wikimedia Commons

That valuation could create a windfall for 47-year-old Tim Sweeney and Tencent Holdings, which bought 40% of Epic Games in 2012 at a valuation of $825 million.

Prior to Fortnite, Epic Games' biggest hit was the Xbox 360 game Gears of War. Epic also owns Unreal Engine, a widely used operating system for building games. Sweeney lets developers use the product for free and collects royalties on the sales of games made using his software.

Most video games experience peak popularity in the time immediately after it is released. Fortnite is still drawing millions of new users a year after it launched. The game sets itself apart from other battle royale style games by being innocently mischievous rather than graphically violent. The game is social and easy to play. It is also hard to master, keeping players coming back to try again and again.

Read more: The Massive Success Of Fortnight Has Turned Epic Games CEO Tim Sweeney Into A Billionaire

Goldman Sachs Group's CEO Lloyd Blankfein could walk away with as much as $84.7 million when he leaves the investment bank in October, after 36 years. Blankfein has been CEO since 2006. The bulk of the compensation is for performance based shares and cash awards that were scheduled to be earned through 2024. Goldman Sachs does not have employment agreements that guarantee severance payments so it is unclear whether these awards will be accelerated, prorated, for forfeited when he leaves.

Blankfein, 63, will be replaced by 56-year-old David Solomon on October 1^st. Blankfein will also relinquish his role as chairman on December 31^st.

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The value of Blankfein's performance cash grants was $35 million, while the value of his share awards was $43.5 million. He also got $6.2 million in pension funds and deferred compensation as of the end of the fiscal year.

Blankfein is the single-largest individual stockholder in Goldman Sachs. His salary is roughly $55 million. Lloyd Blankfein has a net worth of $1 billion.

Read more: Goldman Sachs CEO Stands To Make Nearly $85 Million When He Steps Down

Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson is one of the biggest movie stars in Hollywood right now, and probably the most successful individual ever to come out of the world of professional wrestling. Last year alone, he raked in a reported $125 million, and a recent Forbes profile credits his mastery of multiple social media platforms for his success.

That equates to 111 million followers on Instagram, where Johnson regularly makes impromptu iPhone videos from his "traveling gym" that goes with him wherever his acting career might take him. Nearly 13 million people follow The Rock on Twitter, with another 58 million followers on Facebook, and all of this social media clout has been leveraged to promote not just his upcoming film and TV projects but the man himself. And starting this summer, with the film Skyscraper, he's being handsomely compensated for his social media mastery, not just through the benefits of having that kind of clout online but also through a guaranteed "seven-figure social media fee" included separately in his feature film contracts. Johnson himself explains the value of his social media activity like this:

"Social media has become the most critical element of marketing a movie for me. I have established a social media equity with an audience around the world that there's a value in what I'm delivering to them."

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A film studio spending at least a million dollars for their star to tweet and make Instagram posts about their movie is a new practice in Hollywood, particularly when they are completely separated from a film's usual promotional budget (Johnson's fees for traditional promotional work like talk show appearances and so on is over and above the aforementioned social media fee).

As Johnson's career has exploded recently, he's done the usual Hollywood thing of starting his own production company to better leverage his stardom. Five years ago, Seven Bucks Productions was born, and now it's involved in virtually every aspect of The Rock's films. The company gets its name from a time when he was on the exact opposite of the personal financial spectrum, however: In the fall of 1995, when Johnson was cut from the roster on the Canadian Football League and had a grand total of "a five, a one and change." "I rounded up to seven," he says.

Read more: The Rock Made $125 Million Last Year

The Cleveland Cavaliers have made the past four NBA Finals. That streak is in jeopardy after LeBron James left to head to the Los Angeles Lakers this summer. But it looks like Cleveland is avoiding a complete rebuild. They just offered Kevin Love a four-year, $120 million contract extension.

The deal keeps Love and the Cavs together through 2022-23. However, Love is giving up about $101 million with this contract.

Had he waited until next offseason, he could have signed a five-year deal worth $221 million when he hit free agency in the summer. Instead, both the Cavs and Love wanted some long-term security, so they got the deal done now.

In fact, Love's deal, besides being less than the max, actually pays him less in year four than in year three. That's almost unheard of for any contract, let alone one for an All-Star. There's also no player option in year four.

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Cavs GM Koby Altman called Love the day LeBron announced his departure, saying he wanted him to be a part of the team for the long haul.

That dedication caused Love to fully buy in, and he now becomes the focal point of a roster that looks like it'll be radically different next year.

George Hill and J.R. Smith are both likely to be bought out, which would free up about $35 million in cap space. Kyle Korver could also be a buyout candidate.

It'll also be Love's second chance to be the face of a franchise. In six seasons with the Minnesota Timberwolves, Love made three All-Star teams. However, the Timberwolves never made the playoffs.

Things are different now, of course. Love, now 29, has more experience playing with better players. The Cavs are in a weaker division, and the supporting cast, highlighted by big man Larry Nance, Jr. and rookie Collin Sexton, is a bit of a better fit than what Love was dealing with in Minnesota.

Perhaps it's only fitting, then, that the Cavs shared an image of Love posing with hundreds of construction workers after announcing the deal. Quicken Loans Arena, much like the Cavs roster, is being overhauled this summer.

But they're both full of people willing to work hard to reach their goals.

We love @KevinLove! pic.twitter.com/NbhhDM0BRS

— Cleveland Cavaliers (@cavs) July 24, 2018

Read more: Kevin Love Is Sacrificing A Potential $101 Million To Stay In Cleveland

Of course, jewelry is big business. Gems and precious metals are expensive. However, that isn't really what Carolyn Rafaelian and Kendra Scott deal in. These two women make costume jewelry and have created billion-dollar empires around their affordable goods. Think about it, how many $35 bangles and $65 earrings did they sell to build their billion dollar brands? The idea of that is pretty phenomenal. Carolyn Rafaelian founded Alex & Ani, which specializes in bangles with charms hanging off of it. Kendra Scott founded her eponymous company when she had a hard time finding high quality, affordable, fashionable costume jewelry. Today, both women preside over their empires knowing they are self-made and have healthy bank balances. Kendra Scott has a net worth of $500 million. Carolyn Rafaelian has a net worth of $1 billion.

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Carolyn Rafaelian makes noise as she walks into a room. After all, she is the founder of jewelry company Alex and Ani, which makes bangle bracelets. Her biggest seller is the charm bangle, of which there are thousands of different charms to attach to declare your zodiac sign, favorite hobby or sport, an achievement, and so on. These stackable bangles are made from recycled scrap metal and sell for $33 each. Rafaelian sells 10 million of these bangles annually.  Alex and Ani's revenues were $5 million in 2010. In 2016, they were $500 million.

Rafaelian believes that each piece of jewelry she sells has an energy that can deliver a positive effect to its wearer. Why? Because she has a priest and a shaman bless her inventory before she sells it. Alex and Ani sells positive energy as much as it sells jewelry. Every bangle comes with a "meaning card." A Buddhist Om symbol stands for "God, higher power, and the oneness of all beings in life's cycle." A sailboat charm "bestows peace to its wearer in times of change." The Alex and Ani faithful try to collect all of the charms and meaning cards.

That is exactly how Rafaelian went from a one-woman show run out of her dad's factory basement in Rhode Island into the only jewelry billionaire in the U.S. She owns 80% of her company worth at least $1.2 billion. She's remarkably successful and she's been known to consult astrological charts when making a decision. She keeps dried sage in her desk drawer to burn when she needs to get rid of negative energy. She keeps a healing quartz crystal on a cabinet behind her desk.

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Rafaelian grew up in Cranston, Rhode Island. Her father made costume jewelry in a factory he owned. She attended the University of Rhode Island and the now closed American College for the Applied Arts before moving to New York City when she was 22. She worked on her first jewelry line from an apartment in Tribeca. She created what she wanted to wear, cocktail rings, sterling silver. She made small deals with Bloomingdale's to sell her line.

She got married at 23. She had her first daughter, Alex, at 25. Less than two years later, her second daughter, Ani was born. By then she was living back in Rhode Island and designing private label earrings and necklaces for Bebe, Express, and Victoria's Secret. She had $150,000 orders for these stores, while at the same time, her father's business was failing. He could not compete with cheaper Asian manufacturing. At the same time, she was already working on the ideas for her own label, named after her two eldest daughters.

For more than 10 years, she kept the family business afloat with six piece earring sets that cost $3 to make then sold for $16. Over those same years, Alex and Ani was slowly growing. One of her bestsellers was a pair of seamless hoop earrings made from one piece of wire that could hold the weight of beads. One day in the early 2000s, she had a realization, that same design could make a bracelet. She went straight to the factory to try it. It was after midnight.

In 2004, Rafaelian patented the Alex and Ani 14-gauge expandable wire bangle. It is one of roughly 30 patents the company has and the one she has to defend in court the most often. Department stores like Nordstrom and Bloomingdale's were carrying her line. She opened the first Alex and Ani store in Newport, Rhode Island in 2009. The next year, she met Giovanni Feroce at a University of Rhode Island reunion. He had a background in eyewear. She hired him as Alex and Ani's CEO. Feroce brought in the kind of professional systems that would allow the company to grow. They raised money through venture capital deals. In 2015, Alex and Ani was valued at $1 billion.

The company started putting licensing deals in place starting in 2012 with Disney, sororities, the NFL, and the U.S. military. More Alex and Ani stores were opened. Sales surged from $5 million in 2010 to $230 million in 2013. Feroce was fired in 2014. Rafaelian wanted to be the CEO. After all, the company is named after her babies.

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Kendra Scott, on the other hand, was broke, very pregnant, and knew she had to figure out a way to make more money. She was on bed rest at her home in Austin, Texas, biding her time until the birth of her first baby. She started designing jewelry in the spare bedroom of the home she shared with her husband. This was 2002. Scott was 28 years old. She had just $500 in her savings account to pour into her new business.

When her son was born, she strapped him to her body in a baby carrier and went out to try and sell the earrings and other items she had made. They went door to door to boutiques in Austin. She sold out the first day. Today, Scott's jewelry empire is valued at more than $1 billion.

Kendra Scott was born and raised in Wisconsin. She enrolled in a university in Texas but dropped out a year later. She ended up in Austin. She started a business making hats for women going through chemotherapy. That business lasted for two years. She got the idea for her jewelry company when she realized that there was a gap in the industry. You could buy very expensive jewelry, or you could buy very cheap jewelry. There was no middle ground. Her plan was to try and create quality pieces with gemstones at a more affordable price. Her company grew steadily but slowly. Luckily, she had hired good people who could step in and run the business when she needed a moment. She had a second child. Her marriage fell apart. At this time, she was selling her wares wholesale only. It wasn't until 2010 that she made the switch to retail, opening her first boutique in Austin. Today there are 75 retail stores in addition to being sold in Nordstrom, Bloomingdale's, Neiman Marcus, Selfridges, Van Maur, and more than 600 specialty boutiques in the U.S.

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She also donates heavily to philanthropies, mostly for women and children. She also offers generous parental leave for full and part time employees, adoption and infertility financial assistance, and has set up a fund to support families in times of crisis. Staff is also able to bring their babies and small children to work with them.

 In 2015, she launched the Kendra Cares Program, which brings her jewelry program's customizable Color Bar to pediatric hospitals across the country, allowing patients and their family members to make customized jewelry at no cost. The Kendra Cares Program has donated more than 6,500 pieces of jewelry to date.

Read more: These Two Women Have Made Insane Fortune Thanks To Jewelry Empires

Last year, the husband and wife team behind Clif Bar celebrated the company's 25^th anniversary. Gary Erickson and Kit Crawford looked back and realized had they known in the beginning some of the things they know now, they could have saved about $70 million. Clif Bar controls a third of the health bar market and is estimated to hit $6.2 billion in revenue this year. Over the past 10 years, the company has had an 18% compounded growth rate. Clif Bar has been profitable since its third year in business. Kit Crawford and Gary Erickson each have a net worth of $850 million.

In 1990, at the time, Erickson was running a struggling bakery in Emeryville, California. He liked to bake, but had a hard time keeping his bakery afloat. He didn't have a strategic plan beyond working just enough to fund his passions of cycling and climbing. One morning, he and a friend went out on what was planned to be a 125-mile bike ride through the mountains east of San Francisco. That ride ended up being 175 miles long. All Erickson had for fuel was six energy bars. He ate five of them and just could not stomach the thought of the sixth. He was starving, but the bar tasted so bad he couldn't bring himself to eat another. He thought he could solve this problem. He thought he could make a bar that tasted better.

Photo Via Cal Poly San Luis Obispo/Wikimedia Commons

In 1991, Erickson went to work in his mom's kitchen. His mom had taught him how to bake, so working with her well-honed palette made sense to him. He wanted to make an all-natural energy bar with no butter, sugar, or oil. For six months he had his friends taste test his creations. Each new iteration seemed to get farther and farther away from his goal. So, he started over. He took is mom's oatmeal/chocolate chip cookie recipe and used that as the base. His friends loved it. That recipe became the original Clif Bar. A few months later, after a year and a half of trying to create an all-natural energy bar that tasted good, he made his first sale to a bike shop.

Erickson had the energy bar and a company full of potential, but he needed one more thing, a partner who shared his vision and was also business savvy. The person he wanted to team up with professionally and personally was dancer and performance artist Kit Crawford. Her parents had raised her on organic foods and she had a deep understanding of the tie between the earth and the food we eat. Erickson enrolled in dance lessons to get her attention. He became friends with her, but he wanted to be more than that. Unfortunately, at that time Kit Crawford married to someone else.

So, Erickson teamed up with Lisa Thomas to build Clif Bar. He split the company 50-50 so that neither of them would have a majority stake. When the company became profitable just three years in, investors and companies came running, looking to acquire them. Erickson was asked what his exit strategy was. He realized he didn't have one. He started Clif Bar thinking he'd run it and not as a small subsidiary of a giant company like Quaker Oats – which offered him $120 million for the company in 2000. At that time, Clif Bar was bringing in $40 million in sales at a profit.

Erickson felt uneasy about that deal. Thomas was excited by it. Erickson agreed to go through with the deal mostly out of a desire not to rock the boat– he thought that's what was expected that of him. Except, he couldn't do it. He backed out of the deal before it closed. That made Thomas want out. She sold her shares in the company for $60 million, half the market value of Clif Bar at the time. It took Erickson a decade to pay that debt off. With interest, he ended up paying Thomas $72 million. That experience taught him that the most important lesson in business is: Don't compromise your vision.

Fourteen years after Erickson founded Clif Bar, Crawford's first marriage was over and she and Erickson fell in love. Together, the couple has turned Clif Bar into the company it is today.

After Thomas left, Crawford joined Clif Bar as co-CEO for six years. Then she became co-chief visionary officer. Prior to this, she had been involved in the company in an informal way.

Erickson was in the right place with the right idea at the right time. Clif Bar has ridden the boom in the energy bar market to become one of the biggest independent players in the industry.

Read more: Meet The Billionaire Husband And Wife Team Behind Clif Bar

If you follow financial news, you may have heard about the ongoing battle between a billionaire hedge fund manager named Bill Ackman and the multi-level marketing company Herbalife. Back in December 2012, Ackman shorted $1 billion dollars worth of Herbalife's stock. That means he was betting $1 billion that the share price would go DOWN. His reasoning? Ackman believes that Herbalife is nothing more than a gigantic pyramid scheme that preys predominantly on unwitting lower-income people, especially those in the Latino community. Herbalife obviously disagrees, and has gone to great lengths to defend its honor in public statements and media interviews. In 2013, two rival billionaires ended up taking the opposite side of Ackman's billion dollar bet. This vote of confidence helped increase Herbalife's stock price significantly. Subsequently, Bill Ackman has lost $400-$500 million on his bet. Ouch.

The whole Ackman saga is fascinating enough to deserve its own dedicated article on Celebrity Net Worth (which I might write up tomorrow), but for now we're gonna take a look at a different, equally insane story from the Herbalife chronology. Specifically, we're gonna take a look at the life story of Herbalife founder Mark Hughes. Mark Hughes was an extraordinarily unique person who lived an extraordinarily unique life. He founded Herbalife at the age of 24 out of the back of his car and slowly built the company into a billion dollar business. Along the way he earned a humongous personal fortune and acquired a real estate portfolio that would have impressed Donald Trump. And speaking of impressing Donald Trump, during his lifetime Mark married four different beauty queens. Mark died suddenly in 2000, leaving behind a giant financial mess that took over a decade for his heirs to resolve. But we're getting ahead of ourselves. Let's start from the beginning…

Early Life And Herbalife Origins:

Mark Reynolds Hughes was born on January 1st, 1956 in La Mirada, California. Not much is known about Mark's early life other than his family grew up in humble circumstances and that his mother, Jo Ann Hughes, died when he was 18. Her death was the result of an accidental overdose of prescription diet pills and alcohol which (spoiler alert) would be eerily similar to how Mark himself would die many years later. His mother's death had a huge impact on Mark future life. His mother had always been concerned about her weight which is why she had been suckered into taking the dangerous diet pills that helped caused her death.

Using his mother's legacy as a genesis, Mark founded Herbalife in 1980 when he was just 24 years old. The company's stated goal was to market healthy weight loss products and generally change the nutritional habits of the world. Mark set out to sell his very first product, a protein shake, from the trunk of his car. He soon developed a direct-marketing plan that incentivized local sales people to sell the products to their friends, family and neighbors. In addition to selling the product, sales-people were encouraged to sign up their friends, family and neighbors to become sales-people themselves. This sales model is known professionally as "multi-level-marketing", but it is also often referred to as a "pyramid scheme".

Herbalife's multi-level-marketing plan was outrageously successful. Pretty soon, thousands of sales people were selling Herbalife products door-to-door around the country. The company's slogan "Lose Weight Now, Ask Me How", became a pop-culture catch phrase that was be plastered onto buttons, posters, billboards, flyers etc… Herbalife conducted recruitment seminars that featured feel good weight-loss testimonials and a keynote address from Mr. Hughes.

Hitting The Jackpot:
By 1982, just two years after launching the business from his trunk, Herbalife was generating over $2 million in annual revenues. And revenues pretty much exploded from that point on. By the early 90s, Herbalife's annual revenues topped $1 billion. When the company went public on the NASDAQ in 1996, Mark's 26% stake was worth $250 million.

But Mark's Herbalife stock wasn't his only source of wealth. Over the years, Mark developed a passion for investing in real estate. By 2000, his real estate portfolio alone was worth north of $100 million. He owned a $25 million beach front mansion in Malibu. He also owned a $30 million, 22,000 square foot castle in Beverly Hills called Grayhall that sat on 2.5 acres of the most expensive real estate in the world. The guest house alone at Grayhall is 4000 square feet. Oh, and the guest house has its own guest house. You know, in case your guest has a guest.

The crown jewel of Mark's real estate portfolio was an undeveloped plot of land in Malibu called Tower Grove. Mark bought Tower Grove from television mogul Merv Griffin in 1997 for $8.5 million. He planned on building a 45,000 square foot palace at Tower Grove, complete with 25 bedrooms and stunningly beautiful 360-degree views of the world. Over the years, various people have described Tower Grove as one of, if not THE, most beautiful and desirable pieces of real estate in Los Angeles.

Suzan and Alex Hughes

The Beauty Queens:
As we mentioned previously, Mark Hughes had somewhat of a penchant for beauty queens. During his life, he was married to four different beauty queens including a former Hawaiian Tropic model and a former Miss Petite USA. Mark had one child, with wife #3 Suzan Schroder (the former Miss Petite USA). Mark's son Alex Hughes was born in 1992 and he will become very important to this story in a minute. Wife #4, Darcy LaPiere (the Hawaiian Tropic model), had previously been married to action star Jean-Claude Van Damme.

After Mark and Darcy were married, she refused to live at Tower Grove because it reminded her too much of Suzan, so Mark bought a new $25 million house in Malibu for them to live in. This house sat on 7.5 acres and featured 300 feet of beachfront property.

Tragically, it was at this house where Darcy found Mark dead in their bed on the morning of May 21, 2000. He was just 44 years old and had been suffering for several months from insomnia and a recurring case of pneumonia. The cause of death was a bad mixture of alcohol and anti-depressants.

Darcy LaPier

Legal Battles:
Darcy was reportedly given an estimated $50 million worth of real estate and money from the estate, despite the fact that she had been married to Mark for less than a year. As part of his divorce agreement from a year earlier, Mark's estate would also continue to pay ex-wife Suzan $10,000 a month in child support. He had already covered the purchase of a mansion for Suzan and Alex in Beverly Hills ,and would continue to pay for Alex's private schools and vacations.

After the wives were paid off, Mark's estate was still worth an estimated $300 million at the time of his death. Mark's sole heir was his son Alexander Hughes, who was eight years old at the time.

In 2002, Herbalife was taken private by a group of investors for $685 million dollars. The company then became publicly traded again in 2004 on the New York Stock Exchange, where it trades today under the ticker symbol HLF.

According to a court-ordered audit, in 2005, the value of 13 year old Alex Hughes' trust fund had grown to $400 million. Unfortunately for Alex, he wouldn't be able to touch the money until he turned 35, in the year 2027. In the meantime, he would receive an estimated $250,000 stipend every year which would some day grow to $2 million per year. It must have been painful for Alex to know he couldn't touch the bulk of his fortune for a few decades, but to make matters worse, Alex and his mother Suzan became worried that the trustees were totally mismanaging the estate.

The prime example of their mismanagement was related to Tower Grove. One of the trustees allegedly sold Tower Grove for $23 million to a man who had no money and no experience in developing real estate. As if that wasn't bad enough, the trustees also reportedly turned down a higher offer from a much more qualified buyer. The unqualified purchaser eventually defaulted on his payments.

Meanwhile, Suzan (the former Miss Petite USA) also claimed that one of the trustees sexually harassed her on a number of occasions. Suzan once asked the trustees for $160,000 to rent a beach house in Malibu. According to court documents filed to get the trustees removed from the estate, the trustees responded to Suzan's request by saying:

"You are one of the most beautiful, unattainable women in the world. Here's my phone number. Call me when you're ready to give me what I want".

It gets worse. By total random coincidence, Suzan and Alex ran into that very same trustee later that night at an art exhibit. According to the same court documents, when the topic of the beach house was brought up again that night, the trustee made the following remark to Suzan (with Alex standing just a few feet away):

"I'll get you on your knees eventually, Suzan. I'm going to fuck you one way or the other."

The Result:

In 2012, the 20 year old Alex Hughes finally had his day in court. The goal of the case was to get the trustees removed for mismanaging the estate. This would allow Alex to manage the money himself and potentially inherit a much larger portion much sooner than the age of 35. After all opinions and arguments were heard, on March 18, 2013, the judge finally came to a decision. The judge ruled in favor of Alex and removed the trustees from the estate forever.

It took 13 years since Mark's untimely death to resolve these legal battles. In that time a lot had changed with both Herbalife and his real estate portfolio. As of this writing, Herbalife's annual revenues top $4 billion and the company has a market cap of $8.6 billion (despite Bill Ackman's best efforts). Mark's heirs sold their interest long ago. Tower Grove, the impressive property Mark bought from Merv Griffin in 1997 for $8.5 million, was listed for sale in July 2018. The asking price? $1 BILLION. If at some point the land actually sells, Alex Hughes stands to make a massive profit.

So now you know the history of Mark Hughes and Herbalife. It was certainly a wild ride while it lasted. Not sure what the main lesson is with the story. Perhaps we'll just end with a reminder to never mix alcohol and prescription drugs. Not a good combination.

Read more: The Absolutely Insane Life And Death Story Of Herbalife Founder Mark Hughes

Colin Huang was an engineer at Google who worked on early algorithms for e-commerce. He quit his well-paying job to move to China. That decision is working out just fine for him. Once he returned to China, he founded Pinduoduo Inc., an e-commerce site. The Shanghai based startup is accessible on WeChat, China's popular messaging app. Pinduoduo brings the shopping mall experience to your smartphone. A group of people shop together to get discounts. While shopping, users can share ideas and ask opinions.

Huang grew up in Hangzhou. He went to Zhejiang University and got his master's in computer science from the University of Wisconsin. He started at Google in 2004 as a software engineer. In 2006, he returned to China to help start Google China. He started his first company in 2007, an e-commerce site called Ouku.com. He sold it three years later.

Spencer Platt/Getty Images

Huang founded Pinduoduo three years ago. The startup is backed by Tencent Holdings Ltd. Pinduoduo plans to go public in the United States offering 85.6 shares at $16 to $19 each. Huang will own 46.8 percent of his company after the IPO. He could find himself with an $8.3 billion fortune, making him one of the 25 richest people in China. It could be more–$8.3 billion is based on the $16 end of the pricing range. If the  IPO shares sell for $19, he'd see a windfall of $9.9 billion—making him the 16th richest person in China.

Over half of the 10 richest people in China made their billions in technology.

Read more: Former Google Exec Quits, Moves To China, Poised To Become Billionaire With IPO

How would you like to own some undeveloped property in Beverly Hills? A nice little hilltop plot of land featuring 360-degree views from downtown LA, to the beach, to the valley. The property is waiting for you to build a very very large dream home. Located just 10 minutes up the street from world-famous Rodeo drive, it's actually not a little hilltop. It's 157-acres of prime undeveloped 90210 dirt. We're talking about a truly magnificent piece of land that has been the object of royalty and movie stars for decades. Tom Cruise wanted to buy the land. So did Brad Pitt. Both failed. Perhaps it was the asking price, which over the decades has ballooned from $8.5 million to $24 million to $300 million… all the way up to today's most recent price tag: $1 billion. That's not a typo. If you want to own this land, it will cost you $1 billion. And it doesn't even have a house.

If someone does buy this property for $1 billion, it will be BY FAR the most expensive private real estate purchase of all time. The most expensive personal property ever sold in the United States is an 18-acre oceanfront Hamptons compound that sold in 2014 for $137 million. The most expensive personal real estate transaction in the world is believed to be the $300 million spent by the King of Saudi Arabia (who at the time was the Crown Prince) to buy a 57-acre French chateau. Prior to that sale, the record was $221 million that someone spent for a London penthouse. So in other words, if someone had $1 billion to spend on real estate, in theory he or she could buy all of the last 5-6 most expensive properties in the world, instead of this ONE plot of land.

Another thing to think about is the fact that if you spent $1 billion to buy this land, before even building a single structure, your annual California property tax bill will be $10 million. And that's $10 million bucks after taxes, so really you'd have to be someone who has $20 million pre-tax income every year to set aside for the state of California. After you build some structures, the land will be re-assessed and your bill will go up.

For some perspective on the sheer size of this property, keep in mind that Disneyland is 85 acres. If you added neighboring Disney-owned roller coaster park California Adventure, which is 72 acres, you'd be at exactly 157 acres. So in other words, this one undeveloped plot of land in Beverly Hills is exactly the same size as Disneyland + California Adventure.

The history of this property, which today is known as "The Mountain of Beverly Hills", is fascinating. It's formerly known as "The Vineyard" and we've written about it previously in this article about the life and death of Herbalife founder Mark Hughes. Check out this video of the property before we get to the history:

Now that you've visually experienced what we're talking about with this property, let's dive into the history:

Back in the 1977, an Iranian princess named Shams Pahlavi bought the property from movie producer Jack Bean and his wife, actress Mitzi Gaynor. Shams was the older sister of the last shah of Iran. In 1979, the shah was overthrown and basically every wealthy person in Iran fled the country. Iranian students in Los Angeles actually stormed one of Shams' other properties in Beverly Hills and nearly burned it to the ground with Molotov cocktails.

After that incident, Shams had lost interest in owning real estate in Southern California. She retired to a friend's else's estate in Santa Barbara (where she lived til her death in 1996). She sold her 157-acres of Beverly Hills paradise to Jeopardy creator Merv Griffin in 1987. Merv wanted to build the largest house in LA on the property. He asked around and discovered that the largest house at the time was Aaron Spelling's (mid-construction) nearby Holmby Hills manor. Upon completion, Spelling's house was set to be 56,000 square feet. So Merv made plans to build a 58,000 square foot mansion on his new property. Griffin dubbed his property "The Vineyard".

Here's a nighttime view from when Rihanna held a fundraiser on the property back in 2014:

Jason Kempin/Getty Images

Over the years, Merv struggled to get his plans approved. He also bought the Beverly Hilton hotel and became a little stretched for cash. So, in 1997, Merv sold the property to Herbalife founder Mark Hughes for $8.5 million. Hughes intended to spend $100 million developing his dream home on the land which would include a wildlife sanctuary and a one-million-gallon pond.

This property was one of many owned by Mark Hughes. He was flying high with a net worth of around $300 million that included his 26% stake in Herbalife, a $25 million house in Malibu, a $30 million house in Beverly Hills and an large undeveloped plot of oceanfront land in Malibu.

Tragically, Mark Hughes died in 2000 at the age of 44 from a bad mix of anti-depressants and alcohol. He left his entire estate, valued at some $400 million, to his 8-year-old son, Alex. Alex Hughes wouldn't be able to access or oversee his trust until he turned 35 in the year 2027.

In the meantime, Alex's estate was managed by a group of trustees. In 2004, for reasons that seem batshit crazy in retrospect, the trustees agreed to sell The Vineyard to a man named Charles Dickens who had zero money and zero real estate experience. The agreed upon price was $23.75 million and the buyer was supposed to put $2 million down for the purchase. But since he had no money, he couldn't come up with the $2 million. Somehow, Dickens convinced the trust to LEND him the $2 million to finance the purchase. So a man with no real estate experience or licenses bought the land for no money down. Oh, and according to a court record, the trust accepted this deal while rejecting a higher-dollar more qualified offers that topped $40 million. Total insanity.

When Alex's mother Suzan got wind of the shenanigans happening with her son's trust, she went ballistic. A decade of courtroom battles ensued. Ultimately, Alex successfully removed the trustees and proceeded to vie to reclaim ownership. Significantly, ownership never changed hands. Alex's trust LENT money to a series of developers who promised to find a buyer. Charles Dickens eventually sold his interest in the property to a mysterious Middle Eastern royal family member who pumped $60 million into the land and development plans.

As it stands today, The Mark Hughes Family Trust (and its sole beneficiary, 25-year-old Alex Hughes) remain an equity holder and lender on the recently renamed "Mountain of Beverly Hills". It's unclear how much the trust owns and what kind of rights this Middle Eastern investor has at this point. For example, if the property sells for $1 billion, could the Mark Hughes Trust simply pay the investor $60 million to cover his investments to date and tell him to go screw?

Lawsuits are ongoing. It a buyer comes forward with $1 billion that will go a long way to revealing the identity of the mystery investor and the current ownership structure. A Chinese billionaire has reportedly toured the property several times. The listing agency is planning to spend $1 million marketing the sale. We'll definitely be keeping an eye on this saga!

Read more: A $1 Billion Plot Of Beverly Hills Dirt Just Hit The Market

Helen Shaver net worth: Helen Shaver is a Canadian actress and director who has a net worth of $10 million. Helen Shaver was born in St. Thomas, Ontario, Canada in February 1951. As an actress she starred as Libby Chapin on the television series United States in 1980. In 1981 she starred as the title character on the TV series Jessica Novak. Shaver starred as Teresa Hyler on the series Hill Street Blues in 1982. From 1990 to 1991 she starred as Kelby Robinson on the television series WIOU. One of her best known roles came starring as Rachel Corrigan on the TV series Poltergeist: The Legacy from 1996 to 1999. Shaver starred as Erica Bettis on the series The Education of Max Bickford from 2001 to 2002. She has starred in several films including The Amityville Horror, The Color of Money, The Land Before Time, Morning Glory, The Keeper, Numb, and more. She has more than 50 directing credits and was nominated for a Daytime Emmy Award in 2002 for Summer's End.

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Chris Broderick net worth: Chris Broderick is an American musician who has a net worth of $8 million. Chris Broderick was born in Lakewood, Colorado in March 1970. He is best known for being the former guitarist for the heavy metal band Megadeth. Broderick was also a guitarist for the band Jag Panzer and toured with the band Nevermore. Since leaving Megadeth he formed the band Act of Defiance. He was with Jag Panzer from 1997 to 2008 and was featured on the albums The Age of Mastery, Thane to the Throne, Mechanized Warfare, The Era of Kings and Conflict, Decade of the Nail Spiked Bat, and Casting the Stones. Broderick was featured on the Nevermore album The Year of the Voyager. He was a member of Megadeth from 2008 to 2014 and was featured on the albums Endgame, Rust in Peace Live, The Big 4 from Sofia, Bulgaria, Super Collider, and Countdown to Extinction: Live. He formed Act of Defiance in 2014 and has played on the albums Birth and the Burial and Old Scars, New Wounds.

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Derek Carr net worth and salary: Derek Carr is an American professional football player who has a net worth of $20 million. Derek Carr was born in Fresno, California in March 1991. He is a quarterback who played at Clements and Bakersfield Christian high schools. Carr played his college football at Fresno State where he was a two time First-team All-MWC selection and two time MWC Offensive Player of the Year. He was drafted #36 overall by the Oakland Raiders in the 2014 NFL Draft. Carr was selected to the Pro Bowl in 2015, 2016, and 2017. During his rookie season he signed a four year deal for $5.37 million. Derek Carr signed a five year contract with the Raiders in 2017 for $125 million. His older brother David Carr was also an NFL quarterback who played at Fresno State. During his first four seasons Derek Carr racked up 103 touchdowns and threw for 14,690 yards. Between June 2017 and June 2018 Derek Carr earned $42 million between salary and bonuses which made him one of the highest paid athletes in the world.

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Trumaine Johnson net worth: Trumaine Johnson is an American professional football player who has a net worth of $18 million. Trumaine Johnson was born in Stockton, California in January 1990. He is a cornerback who played wide receiver at Stockton Edison High School. Johnson played his college football at Montana where he was first-team All-Big Sky in 2010 and an FCS All-American in 2010 and 2011. Trumaine Johnson was drafted #65 overall by the St. Louis Rams in the 2012 NFL Draft. He played for the St. Louis / Los Angeles Rams from 2012 to 2017 and joined the New York Jets in 2018. Johnson signed a four year deal for $3.04 million with the Rams in 2012 and he received a franchise tag in 2016 for $13.95 million. In 2017 he signed a one year deal with the Rams for $16.74 million. Johnson signed a five year deal with the Jets in 2018 for $72.5 million. Between June 2017 and June 2018, Trumaine Johnson earned $37 million between salary, endorsements and bonuses which made him one of the highest paid athletes in he world.

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