The Daily Skim in Fargo Moorhead

by Donovan Schumacher

Warren Buffett is the richest person on the planet.

Riding the surging price of Berkshire Hathaway (BRK.A, news, msgs) stock, the man called America's most beloved investor has seen his fortune swell to an estimated $62 billion, up $10 billion from a year ago. That massive pile of scratch puts him ahead of Microsoft (MSFT, news, msgs) co-founder Bill Gates, who had been the richest person in the world for the past 13 years.

No. 3:
Bill Gates

Gates is now worth $58 billion and is ranked third in the world. He is up $2 billion from a year ago and would have been perhaps as rich -- or richer -- than Buffett had Microsoft not made an unsolicited bid for Yahoo (YHOO, news, msgs) at the beginning of February. (Microsoft is the publisher of MSN Money.)

Microsoft shares fell 15% between Jan. 31, the day before the company announced its bid for the search-engine giant, and Feb. 11, the day we locked in stock prices for the 2008 World's Billionaires list. More than half of Gates' fortune is held outside Microsoft shares.

Mexican telecom tycoon Carlos Slim Helú is the world's second-richest person, with an estimated net worth of $60 billion. His fortune has risen $11 billion since last March.

No. 2: Carlos Slim Helú

No. 4: Lakshmi Mittal

No. 5: Mukesh Ambani

Buffett, whose fortune is estimated based on his stake in Berkshire Hathaway and assets he holds outside the company, declined to comment on his net worth.

The race for the title of world's richest person has been extremely competitive in recent months. Class A shares of Berkshire Hathaway soared 25% between mid-July and the day we priced our list. The stock hit an all-time high of more than $150,000 a share in December. At that time Buffett was worth roughly $65 billion.

• Talk back: Is Buffett your investing role model?

Berkshire Hathaway shares closed at $137,100 per share Tuesday, down 2% since an announcement Friday that the company's net earnings had fallen 18% in the fourth quarter of last year.

Gates' fortune also swelled massively last fall. Microsoft's stock jumped 30% between late October and early November to $37 a share, only to fall after the company announced Feb. 1 that it was seeking to buy Yahoo for about $45 billion.

Slim's fortune has doubled in the past two years. Stock in his most significant holding, telecom outfit América Móvil (AMOV, news, msgs), has risen 120% since the beginning of 2006. Slim also owns stakes in Carso Global Telecom, Grupo Carso (GPOVY, news, msgs) and Grupo Financiero Inbursa.

The world's richest:

Name	Age	Country	Net worth	Primary source of wealth
Warren Buffett	77	U.S	$62 billion	Berkshire Hathaway
Carlos Slim Helú and family	68	Mexico	$60 billion	Telecom industry
Bill Gates	52	U.S.	$58 billion	Microsoft
Lakshmi Mittal	57	India	$45 billion	Steel industry
Mukesh Ambani	50	India	$43 billion	Petrochemicals
Anil Ambani	48	India	$42 billion	Diversified investments
Ingvar Kamprad and family	81	Sweden	$31 billion	Ikea
K.P. Singh	76	India	$30 billion	Real estate
Oleg Deripaska	40	Russia	$28 billion	Aluminum industry
Karl Albrecht	88	Germany	$27 billion	Aldi supermarkets
See the full list

The son of a Nebraska politician, Buffett delivered newspapers as a boy. He filed his first tax return at age 13, claiming a $35 deduction for his bicycle. He moved on to study under value-investing guru Benjamin Graham at Columbia University.

Buffett started buying shares in textile firm Berkshire Hathaway in 1962 and purchased a controlling stake in 1965. He began buying insurance companies and astutely investing those companies' cash reserves.

The Fargo Moorhead Monthly Skim

by Donovan Schumacher

The Feds realized our economy was in tough shape, so they lowered the fed rate from 5.25% to 4.75% and the prime followed from 8.25% to 7.75%. That can mean a few things for us consumers. First off, let me clear the air that it does not directly reflect the housing mortgage interest rates the same way. The mortgage rates are based on other economic factors, like the 10 year mortgage bond, housing starts and unemployment factors. The recent lowering of the fed rate can and most likely will affect the value of the dollar. For example, on Friday, September 21st, the Canadian dollar and the US dollar came in at an even value for the first time since 1976. I am hoping that this does not continue to drop as it will have a huge impact on foreign investing and shrink the dollar even faster, which will trigger a raise in the Fed rate again soon.

Housing sales came in at 795,000 which was lower than the expected 830,000 and new home listings rose 8.2% from the previous month of 7.5% with the median price of new homes sold being $225,000.

For right now with interest rates still hanging in around 6.125% which are great rates, buyers have plenty to shop for and sellers are usually motivated. Sellers that are listing their homes usually want a certain price and that needs to correlate with what the market is bringing. If the market shows a slight decrease in values, the seller needs to have realistic expectations.

I have been saying this over and over, but it is a great time to buy!!!

Donovan Schumacher is president and owner of Valesco Mortgage. Schumacher Can be reached at dschumacher@valescomortgage.com or by calling 701.356.6400.