2. Andrew Beal
Net Worth: $8.9 billion
Forbes 400 position: 49
Andrew Beal started early in the real estate business. At the age of 19, he bought his first house which he rented out. He then started buying old buildings, renovated and sold them, making a tidy profit in the process. In 1981, Beal and partners bought Brick Towers, a run-down project building in Newark for $25,000. They sold them a few years later for more than $3 million. In 1988, Beal got into banking. The Beal Bank usually outperforms the competition, with high ROI. Beal also dabbles in mathematics and is an author of Beal’s conjecture.
