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Grizzly Bulls’ Billionaires Index

⬅ # 403 Stephen Bisciotti|# 405 Robert Rich Jr ➡

# 404 Neil Bluhm 

$7.02B

Real Time Net Worth
as of 7/25/2024
$21.6M (0.31%)

# 404 Neil Bluhm 

$7.02B

Real Time Net Worth
as of 7/25/2024
$21.6M (0.31%)
OccupationPartner, Midwest Gaming & Entertainment
Source of WealthReal Estate
Age86
ResidenceChicago, Illinois
Marital StatusDivorced
Children3
EducationJD, Northwestern University; BS, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign
Age-Adjusted Net Worth$1.21B
Neil Bluhm
Neil Bluhm
United States
Net worth: $7.02B

Self-Made Score 

Wealth History

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Biography

Early Life

Neil Gary Bluhm was born in 1938 in Chicago to a Jewish family.
His father left the family when he was 13, and his mother worked as a bookkeeper.
Bluhm grew up in a cramped apartment near his immigrant grandparents and attended a high school on Chicago's northwest side.
He graduated from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in 1959, studying accounting.
In 1962, he received a juris doctor degree from Northwestern University.
Bluhm received Northwestern's Alumni Medal, the university's highest honor, in 2009.

Career

After law school, Bluhm began his career as a lawyer and later became a partner in the Chicago law firm of Mayer, Brown & Platt.
In 1969, he co-founded JMB Realty with his high school friend and college roommate, Judd Malkin.
In 1994, he co-founded Walton Street Capital, a private equity firm, and soon after co-founded Rush Street Gaming with Greg Carlin.
Bluhm owns real estate in Chicago, including properties like 900 North Michigan and Four Seasons and Ritz Carlton Hotels.
He is also a minority owner of the Chicago Bulls and Chicago White Sox.

Personal Life

Bluhm was married to art collector and philanthropist Barbara Bluhm-Kaul, with whom he has three children: Andy, Leslie, and Meredith.
He is currently married to Kimberly Paige Bluhm.
Bluhm resides in Chicago and owns an apartment near Miami, which he purchased for $20 million in December 2018.
As an art patron, he serves on the board of trustees of the Art Institute of Chicago and the Whitney Museum of American Art.
Bluhm's art collection is valued at $300 million, and he also sits on the board of trustees of Northwestern University.

Political Contributions

Bluhm is a Democrat and has supported various Democratic candidates and causes.
He hosted President Barack Obama's 49th birthday party, requiring a $30,000 donation to the Democratic National Committee for admission.
Bluhm has contributed to the campaigns of politicians such as Hillary Clinton, Dick Durbin, Rahm Emanuel, and others.
In 2017, he faced criticism after making a $300,000 contribution and calling in a request to Rahm Emanuel.
His political involvement includes support for candidates like Rod Blagojevich, Melissa Bean, Lisa Madigan, and Michael Madigan.

Philanthropy

In 2005, Bluhm funded the Bluhm Cardiovascular Institute with a $10 million gift.
He made a $25 million donation to Northwestern University in 2013, including $15 million for the Pritzker School of Law.
A $1 million donation was made to the School of the Art Institute of Chicago in 2015.
In 2022, he donated $45 million to Northwestern Medicine to establish the Bluhm Heart Hospital.

How long would it take you to become as rich as Neil Bluhm?

If you started with $10,000 and invested an additional $500 each month at a 44.11% CAGR, it would take you 5 years to reach Neil Bluhm's net worth of $7.02B.

Is this realistic? It depends how closely the VIX-TA-Macro Advanced model performs to its history in the future. Since Grizzly Bulls launched on January 1, 2022, it's returned 52.22% compared to 16.62% for the S&P 500 benchmark.

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Neil Bluhm is very wealthy, but what's stopping you from reaching that same level of success? As summarized in our five fundamental rules to wealth building, becoming wealthy in a modern capitalist economy is not complicated. There's actually only three variables:

  1. Your starting capital
  2. Your earnings after expenses
  3. The compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of your savings

Most people start with zero or very little, so if you weren't born into wealth, don't fret! The majority of the fortunate folks listed in our Grizzly Bulls’ Billionaires Index came from middle class or lower backgrounds. The most distinguishing characteristic of the group is their ability to consistently earn a high CAGR on their savings.

Every billionaire has a unique strategy to achieve high CAGR. For Neil Bluhm, Real Estate is the primary source. Whether you choose to invest your savings in your own businesses or the businesses of others is not as important. The salient piece of the puzzle is ensuring that your hard-earned savings are generating sufficient CAGR to reach your long term goals.

Most people simply invest their money in index funds and call it a day. There's nothing wrong with this approach, but it guarantees relative mediocrity. To achieve greatness, you need to invest your money to earn higher than average returns. In the long run, better investors will always finish ahead of better earners.

Source: Grizzly Bulls reporting

Methodology: Grizzly Bulls' Billionaires Index is a daily ranking of the world's billionaires and richest people. Grizzly Bulls strives to provide the most accurate net worth calculations available. We pull data from public equity markets, SEC filings, public real estate records, and other reputable sources.

The index is dynamic and updates daily at the close of U.S. stock market trading based on changes in the markets, economy, and updates to Grizzly Bulls' proprietary algorithm of personal wealth calculation. Stakes in public companies are tracked daily based on the relevant closing prices of the underlying securities. Additionally, stakes in private companies, cash, real estate, and other less easily valued assets are updated periodically through careful analysis of insider transactions, comparable public company sales / EBITDA multiples, etc.

Edited by: Lee Bailey