Sam Walton Net Worth, Money and More
Net Worth $65 Billion .
Sam Walton, a pioneering businessman and founder of world’s largest Retail store Walmart has an estimated net worth of $65 Billion as of 2013. He had a total net worth of $ 23 billion at the time of his death.
Early life and Career
Sam Walton was born in 1918, in Kingfisher, Oklahoma. Walton founded Wal-Mart in 1962 after having years of experience in retail business management. The business at Wal-mart expanded over the 30 years and become the world’s largest company in 2010.
Sam was born to Thomas Walton a banker and Nancy Lee. Sam was raised in Missouri with his family. He was a quick learning student and a good athlete. After completing high school, Sam decided to be with his parents and enrolled at the near by University of Missouri. Walton has a degree in Economics. After completing his education in Economics, Walton got into retail industry. He took his first job in J.C.Penny Company. Soon Walton decided to leave the company and joined Army as Captain in intelligence unit during World war 2. He returned from Army in 1945 and took a loan of $25,000 from his wife’s father and used the money to open a franchise of Ben Franklin store in Arkansas. Walton’s sharp business scenes helped him in progressing. In less than two decades, Walton owned fifteen Ben Franklin store franchise. However Walton wished to open a store in rural communities. This want pushed Walton to open a store of his own. In 1962, he opened his first Wal-Mart store in Arkansas. Success for Walton came easy. In just ten years, Wal-Mart became publicly traded company with share value of $176 million. By the early 90s, Walmart jumped to becoming a $45 billion company and in 1991, it became the world’s largest retailing company. In 1985, Forbes magazine listed Walton as the wealthiest man in the US. Walton was the reason for the success of Wal-Mart, his vision for a discount retail store in rural area was exceptional. He often began working at 4:30 in the morning and expected results from his workers, he wasn’t afraid of changing his staff if he didn’t like their work. Even during the recession, Wal-Mart showed improvement and proved to be successful. During that time Walmart increased its sales by 40%. However Walton faced criticism that his retail giant is vanishing the small stores. In spite of this Walton faced the situation head-on and promised jobs and promised to make donations to local charities.Currently Wal-mart is worth $401 billion as of March 2013. Walton remained active in the business till his death in 1992.
Relationship
Sam Walton got married in 1943 to Helen Robson. Helen’s father gave loan of $25000 to Walton to open his first store. The couple remained married until Sam’s death. The couple together has four children.
Death
Sam Walton died in 1992 of multiple Myeloma. it is a type of blood cancer. The news of his death was telecast via satellite in all 1960 Walmart stores around the globe. He died in Arkansas and his remains are at the Bentonville Cemetery. After his death he left the ownership of Walmart to his wife and four children. and also gave small portion of his wealth to his brother’s two daughters.Over the last few years of his life, Sam Walton suffered from hairy- cell Leukemia and bone marrow cancer. A month before Walton died, he was honored by the President George W. Bush with the Presidential Medal of Freedom.
Wealth
Sam Walton had an estimated Net worth of over $23 billion in 1992. He earned his tremendously huge wealth by opening world’s biggest retail Chain Wal-Mart.
Walton family owns a major stake in Walmart and the family’s most share is held by Walton Enterprise, the family company managed by Jim Walton his son.
Walton was a shy person by nature and didn’t appreciate showing off his tremendously high wealth. He owed a 2,500 square feet home with four bed rooms and 2 baths in Marion which is worth over $2 million.
He owns another three bedroom home in Virginia with luxury interiors worth over $3 million
Apart from this Sam Walton built “Walton residence” in Bentonville Arkansas in 1958. The house is in spread of 5800 square feet with a reflecting pond and a waterfall, the house boasts 5 bedroom and 5 baths. Walton paid $100,000 for the renovation of the house back then. Currently the home is worth over $20 million.
In-spite of being a billionaire he lived in the same house in Missouri since 1959 and drove a 1985 ford pickup truck. and choose to wear cheap clothes from his store.
Apart from this Jim Walton owns other properties and cars worth over $200 million. And other business investments of over $2 billion. Currently Sam’s Wal-mart retail company has total assets of $204.751 billion and total net income of $16.022 billion. Out of the total revenue, Walton family owns over 50% of Walmart, hence over 50% of total revenue goes to the Walton’s family.
Apart from all spending his fortune, Sam made donations to local charitable trusts, and started a “Walton Family Foundation” with his wife Helen. The foundation works towards Environmental and educational reforms. After his death the foundation is controlled by his children and it is the 22nd largest foundation in the United States with $2.2 billion in donations.
Quote: ” Outstanding leaders go out of their way to boost the self-esteem of their personnel. If people believe in themselves, it’s amazing what they can accomplish.”
