Who Is the Richest Person in the World?

See the world's richest person list for 2012.

Every year Forbes comes out with its list of the world's billionaires, ranking them as the richest, second richest, and so on, based on their net worth on Feb. 12th, which includes everything the person owns (real estate, art, jewelry, yachts and planes), plus loads of cash.

This year it wasn't Bill Gates, who has taken the number-one slot for 13 years until 2008; it was Carlos Slim Helu, the Mexican telecom tycoon, who Forbes estimates is worth $53.5 billion. (Gates, who is now worth $53 billion, took the number-two spot, while Warren Buffett and his $47 billion came in third place this year.)

That's $53,500,000,000!

With that amount of money, you could buy 1,000 of each of the following for 22 people:  apartment in Greenwich Village, Rolls Royce, Porsche Carrerra, Range Rover, and Rolex watch.

Wondering how your worth measures up? A U.S. adult earning the average annual salary, which according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics is $42,270, over 45 years of time (working between age 25 and 70) would earn $1,902,150. To make what Slim is worth, this person would have to live more than 28,000 lifetimes.