Happy New Year 2014!!!

In Coming Year Enjoy every single moment. The good, bad, beautiful, ugly, inspiring, the not-so-glamorous moments. Happy New Year 2014!

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World’s most expensive holiday sold to a student

A luxury vacation package costing $1.5 million, dubbed “the world’s most expensive holiday,” has been sold to an unnamed Chinese man.

The luxury holiday takes in all of UNESCO’s spectacular 962 World Heritage Sites, spans over 157 countries and lasts one year. Costing $1.5 million, the package was put together by luxury travel company Hurlingham Travel and sold through exclusive e-commerce site veryfirstto.com.

After first being offered last month, the luxury package has been sold to an “unnamed man from China,” according to a report in the UK’s Guardian. Though neither VeryFirstTo or Hurlingham Travel have released press statements on this matter, the report indicates that the buyer is studying for a PhD, though little else is known about the man who will embark on his luxury travels next year.

The report also indicates that the site received a total of 15 enquires into the “the world’s most expensive holiday package.”

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Sao Paulo rich use choppers to beat traffic jams

Former model-turned-business mogul Cozete Gomes owns eight companies and does not really have time to be stuck in Sao Paulo‘s epic traffic jams. So she just flies over them.

In Brazil’s sprawling business capital, home to 20 million people, millionaires sick of nightmarish bottlenecks on the roads are taking to the skies, relying on a massive fleet of private helicopters to get around town.

“For me, the helicopter is a necessary tool,” Gomes told AFP as her chopper flew high above the city’s clogged streets into Campos de Jordao, northeast of Sao Paulo — a mountain resort for the rich dubbed the “Brazilian Switzerland”.

“I use it in my day-to-day activities, for my business, my meetings. It makes my life a whole lot easier,” she said during the 50-minute ride earlier this month in a private six-seat helicopter.

There are 420 helicopters registered in Sao Paulo — a total second only to New York, according to the Brazilian Association of Helicopter Pilots.

With a net worth estimated at $125 million, the multi-millionaire Gomes, 41, is part of a select group of Sao Paulo’s super-rich elite who either own helicopters or can afford to rent them for $1,300 an hour.

There are up to 500 helicopter flights daily in Sao Paulo and the city has a staggering 193 heliports. Helicicade, the city’s largest, boasts nearly 80 helicopters owned either by individuals or private companies.

“The helicopter business in Brazil has been growing about 20 percent in recent years,” said Carolina Denardi, a spokeswoman for the Brazilian Association of Helicopter Pilots, known by its acronym ABRAPHE.

The country has a nationwide fleet of more than 1,900 helicopters, including nearly 700 in Sao Paulo state alone, the association said. On average, more than 300 operator licenses have been issued annually over the past three years.

While most Sao Paulo residents struggle to get around the city, wealthy executives and socialites — oblivious to the maddening gridlock — cruise overhead, hopping to their luxury condos, beach resorts or business meetings.

According to Wealth Report 2013 published by Wealth-X, a Singapore-based wealth intelligence firm, Sao Paulo was last year home to 1,880 individuals with net assets of $30 million or more.

The number is projected to shoot up to 4,556 in 2022, a reflection of resource-rich Brazil’s soaring prosperity.

Gomes — a former model and beauty queen whose eight companies focus on promotional marketing, event management and modeling — says she is one of the few Brazilian women to have built her fortune on her own.

She shot to national fame in January with her television appearance on the “Rich Women” reality show, which spotlights the extravagant lifestyle of “travel, luxury cars, jewels, shopping and lots of champagne” enjoyed by Brazil’s expanding millionaire class.

“I agreed to appear on the show to share my success, my life story with the whole of Brazil, to show the positive experience of a women who started from nothing and built her own business,” she told AFP.

“There are many other Brazilians who are richer than I,” Gomes noted, as she nonchalantly sipped a glass of champagne at the luxurious La Villette guest house, which has its own helipad.

Indeed, the Wealth-X report identified 50 Brazilians with net assets of over $1 billion.

According to Forbes Magazine, the richest Brazilian is 73-year-old beer magnate Jorge Paulo Lemann with a net worth of $17.8 billion, followed by 74-year-old banker Joseph Safra with $15.9 billion.

The richest Brazilian woman is 83-year-old Maria Helena de Moraes, with a net worth of $6.2 billion tied to her 25 percent stake in the family-controlled Votorantim Group, Brazil’s largest cement maker and one of Latin America’s largest industrial conglomerates, Forbes says.

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Buffett donating $2.6 billion in stock to charities

Warren Buffett, the billionaire investment guru known as the Oracle of Omaha, is donating about $2.6 billion in stocks to five charities as part of a plan to give away the bulk of his wealth before he dies.

The bulk of the annual donation, about $2 billion, went to the Gates Foundation, the philanthropic organization set up by Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates. Buffett also donated millions to his own foundation and the charitable organizations set up by his three children.

Buffett, the second-richest American and the third-richest global billionaire on Forbes’ lists, has been a leading advocate for philanthropy among the wealthy.

Buffet and Gates launched The Giving Pledge in 2010, encouraging the world’s wealthy to commit to donating 50% or more of their fortunes to philanthropy during their lifetime or after they die.

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Where the rich like to vacation

The dynamic, sun-soaked Land Down Under has emerged as the top dream destination for the third year in a row among the world’s most affluent globetrotters.

According to luxury travel magazine Virtuoso Life, Australia, Italy, New Zealand, Ireland and France emerged as the top “dream destinations” overall among travelers for whom money is of little object.

The Travel Dreams Survey found that Australia was popular among a demographic of travelers Virtuoso categorizes as ‘The Go-Getter,’ defined as active, adventurous globetrotters, and ‘The Trendsetter,’ early adopters who have their finger on the pulse of the latest travel trends and destinations.

For culinary escapades, meanwhile, readers named the usual suspects, with Paris taking the top spot, followed by Rome, Florence, New York City, and New Orleans.

And when it comes to bucket list travel among the well-heeled, taking a cruise around the world topped renting a European villa and going on an African safari and photographing the ‘Big Five.’

Travel preferences among readers delineated clear groups of travelers, says Virtuoso, which identified five different types of travel personalities.

Along with Go-Getters and Trendsetters, there’s also ‘The Connoisseur,’ the sophisticated traveler who seeks out luxury, top-tier experiences, be it food, wine art, and hotels.

Classic Travelers are defined as being loyal to the places they love, returning multiple times to their favorite destinations, while the Relaxationist seeks out restorative, rejuvenating vacations that offer reprieve from everyday life.

Luxury travel network Virtuoso is made up of 340 agencies in 20 countries in North and South America, the Caribbean, Australia and New Zealand and publishes Virtuoso Life for top-tier clients. The Travel Dream survey was conducted between February 1 and March 31 and surveyed nearly 8,000 readers.

Consultancy group Resonance, meanwhile, found that wine country tours through Italy and France were the most coveted types of luxury travel, followed by cruising on a luxury liner.

Here are the top 10 Dream Destinations in the Travel Dream Survey:

1. Australia
2. Italy
3. New Zealand
4. Ireland
5. France
6. South Africa
7. The Caribbean
8. Greece
9. England
10. French Polynesia

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Sharapova tops Forbes rich list of female athletes

Tennis stars dominated the list of the world’s 10 best-paid female athletes, Forbes magazine said on Tuesday, but highlighted the yawning earnings gap with their male counterparts in most sports.

Russia’s Maria Sharapova headed the list, published on forbes.com, earning a total of $29 million (£18.9 million, 21.9 million euros) between June 2012 and June this year.

Tennis took the top four positions, with world number one Serena Williams of the U.S. second ($20.5 million), China’s Li Na third ($18.2 million) and Victoria Azarenka of Belarus fourth ($15.7 million).

Caroline Wozniacki of Denmark was in seventh ($13.6 million), followed by Agnieszka Radwanska of Poland ($7.4 million) and Serbia’s Ana Ivanovic ($7 million).

US Nascar driver Danica Patrick, South Korean figure skater Kim Yuna and American golfer Paula Creamer, were the only non-tennis stars in the top 10.

But the business magazine said disparities remained between men and women in terms of earnings in sport. World number one golfer Tiger Woods, for example, was the highest-paid athlete on the planetwith earnings of $78 million in the 12 months between June 1, 2012 and June 1 this year.

Los Angeles Laker basketball star Kobe Bryant will earn $30.5 million next season but the highest salary in the women’s equivalent of the NBA is $107,000.

Park Inbee of South Korea won $585,000 for winning the women’s US Open but men’s winner Justin Rose was awarded $1.4 million, the magazine noted.

Forbes said that there was increasing parity in terms of pay in tennis, after moves in recent years to put prize money on a more equal footing.

Endorsements that come on the back of Grand Slam wins such as Sharapova’s 2012 French Open title dwarf most players’ winnings.

The 26-year-old earned $23 million in endorsements with sportswear manufacturers Head and Nike after her victory at Roland Garros. She has also launched her own brand of sweets, Sugarpova.

Forbes list of the world’s highest-paid female athletes 2013

1. Maria Sharapova (RUS), tennis, $29 million
2. Serena Williams (USA), tennis, $20.5 million
3. Li Na (CHN), tennis, $18.2 million
4. Victoria Azarenka (BLR), tennis, $15.7 million
5. Danica Patrick (USA), Nascar, $15 million
6. Kim Yuna (KOR), figure skating, $14 million
7. Caroline Wozniacki (DEN), tennis, $13.6 million
8. Agnieszka Radwanska (POL), tennis, $7.4 million
9. Ana Ivanovic (SRB), tennis, $7 million
10. Paula Creamer (USA), golf, $5.5 million.

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