John Paulson was born on 14 December 1955 in Queens, New York City USA, the third of four children to parents Jacqueline and Alfredo Guillermo Paulsen; he has French, Norwegian and Ecuadorian ancestry. Paulson comes from a wealthy family, although not nearly as wealthy as he has ultimately become. He has been named “one of the most outstanding names in high finance” and “a man who made one of the largest fortunes in Wall Street history”, which definitely has had the biggest impact on his total net worth.
So, just how rich is John Paulson? Well, his current net worth according to Forbes Magazine is $13.7 billion – in just last year he had an income of astonishing $4.9 billion. Paulson earned his wealth as a hedge fund manager specializing in the practice of short selling sub-prime mortgages. Being a billionaire, Paulson obtained a very lavish residence in 2012 for $49 million from the Saudi Prince Bandar bin Sultan. The vast ski ranch was built in Aspen, Colorado, in 1991 and was once valued at $135 million. It is considered as the third most luxurious residence in the United States. He also owns a property in Southampton that he obtained for $41 million in 2008.
John Paulson Net Worth $13.7 Billion
John spent his childhood in the Le Havre apartments in Queens. His family moved to a humble home in Beechhurst, Queens later where Paulson went to public schools, however, he was enrolled in programs for exceptional students there. Paulson attended New York University but quickly became fed up. After that, he went to Ecuador to stay with his rich uncle, and started working there by sending clothes to his father in New York to sell. John Paulson’s career in finance started at the Boston Consulting Group in 1980. After switching between several big companies, he finally started his own hedge fund named Paulson & Co., which he founded with $2 million and just one worker, but by 2003 he had $300 million in assets, thus moving his firm to more lavish offices at 57th and Madison in New York. The company concentrates on “event-driven” investments, spin-offs, mergers, acquisitions, and proxy contests, along with start-ups. Paulson predicted the sub-prime housing market crash in 2007, but in 2010 he set a hedge fund record by earning $5 billion dollars in one year. Currently, Paulson is a major investor in gold.
Concerning his personal life, John Paulson married Jenny Zaharia in 2000, in an Episcopalian ceremony in Southampton, New York. They have two daughters and live the largest part of the year in a 28,500-square-foot residence in East 86th Street, purchased in 2004 for $14.7 million. Paulson hardly ever gives television interviews and even told one interviewer, “I stay away from the media.” However, the productive billionaire has given his support to fund-raising events for charities. Further, in 2009 he donated $20 million to New York University Stern School of Business. In 2012, he donated $100 million to the Central Park Conservancy.
