For many, being a billionaire conjures images of lavish spending, freedom and an endless cash flow. But for most of the world’s richest people, their fortunes aren’t sitting neatly in a savings account.
They’re tied up in companies, stocks, real estate, private investments and other assets that can be worth billions. However, one billionaire is claiming that only a small portion of the super wealthy actually has a billion dollars in the bank.
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“I don’t consider anybody a billionaire that doesn’t have a real billion in the bank,” lawyer John Morgan said on an episode of The Iced Coffee Hour podcast. “Guess how many people have a real billion, liquid? Maybe 20.”
Morgan is an attorney and politician best known as the founder of the personal injury law firm Morgan & Morgan, the largest personal injury firm in the country. Forbes estimates Morgan is worth about $1.5 billion, and as he shared on the podcast, the majority of that money is liquid in his bank account, unlike most ultra-wealthy people.
“I’m a billionaire. A real one,” said Morgan.
“Look, Kanye West was a billionaire. That [expletive] wasn’t a billionaire,” Morgan continued. “He’s making $40 million a year and that means it’s a 25x, and 25 times 40 is one billion, you’re a billionaire.”
West is an interesting example, considering that his billionaire status was quickly lost after several brands cut ties with the controversial artist. Forbes had estimated the rapper was worth $1.5 billion thanks to an Adidas deal, but dropped his net worth to $400 million after the deal was cut.
Still, Morgan’s point is an interesting one considering there are now more billionaires than any other time in history — nearly 3,800 of them. According to Altra, the combined net worth of the billionaire population hit a record $15.1 trillion in 2025.
But the term billionaire usually means a net worth of $1 billion, not $1 billion sitting in cash or readily sellable securities. So, just how many of these people actually have a billion dollars liquid?
Liquid billionaires
While Morgan claims there are only about 20 other billionaires with that value in liquid cash, the exact number — and who they are — is difficult to pinpoint.
A U.S. Trust survey found that wealthy investors with more than $3 million usually hold about 15% or more of their assets in cash, but that percentage drops significantly for billionaires. The survey found billionaires usually hold between tens of millions to a few hundred million dollars in cash, an amount often making up less than five percent of their assets.
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For most billionaires, the majority of their fortune is spread across various assets, such as equity stakes in public companies, business ownership, real estate and various other investments, such as art, cars and luxury goods.
While these holdings are typically worth eye-watering amounts of money, they’re not liquid, meaning they can’t quickly be converted into cash. This is why many billionaires are considered “cash poor,” a term referring to someone with a lot of their wealth tied up in assets.
Cash poor billionaires
Even Elon Musk, the richest person in the world, had implied he’s cash poor.
“My ‘net worth’ is almost entirely due to my ownership stakes in Tesla and SpaceX. I have <0.1% that is cash,” Musk wrote in a post on X in February.
According to Forbes, Musk’s net worth is currently around $870 billion. If less than 0.1% is liquid, that means Musk only has $870 million at his disposal — an immense sum, but significantly less than his net worth.
So, where is his vast fortune if less than 0.1% of it is liquid? The majority is in the stocks of his two companies, SpaceX and Tesla. A new SEC filing revealed Musk owns 48.4% of SpaceX, which is worth about $860 billion at the time of writing. He also owns nearly 11% of Tesla, a stake worth about $150 billion. The two stock holdings alone have a combined worth of just over $1 trillion.
But since this money isn’t liquid, it’s subject to fluctuation. Musk became the world’s first trillionaire on June 12 after SpaceX went public, but since most of his wealth is tied to publicly traded companies, his fortune has dropped with the markets.
Musk isn’t alone in being cash poor. YouTuber Mr. Beast, whose real name is Jimmy Donaldson, made headlines for saying he has negative money despite having a net worth of $2.6 billion.
“Technically, everyone watching this video has more money than me in their bank account if you subtract the equity value of my company, which doesn’t buy me McDonald’s in the morning,” Donaldson told the Wall Street Journal.
Much of the YouTuber’s net worth is tied to equity in his $5 billion company.
His comments indicate a trend among the ultra wealthy: many, as Morgan claimed, are not liquid. For many of the ultra wealthy, their billions of dollars exist largely on paper, tied to company shares and other assets whose values can rise and fall dramatically.
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This article originally appeared on Moneywise.com under the title: ‘I’m a billionaire. A real one’: Lawyer claims only about 20 people actually have $1B in the bank and he’s one of them
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